S

outhern Province Cement Company

(SPCC), a Saudi shareholder com-
pany with 60 per cent private sec-
tor and 40 per cent government
sector, was established in 1978 with a
starting capital of SR700m which has
increased to SR1050m. The companys main
activities centre around cement and its by-
products.
SPCC operates two cement plants, one
in Jazan and another in the Bisha area,
both in the southwest of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. The Jazan plant has two kilns
with 2500tpd each. Production began in
October 1981 and capacity was gradually
increased to 3500tpd each in 1994.
The Bisha plant (pictured below) oper-
ates one kiln line, designed with a clinker
production of 3800tpd and started in April
1997. Increased cement demand in the
region and good export prospects made a
capacity increase feasible. In 2002, the
kiln line was upgraded to 5500tpd. At this
plant, cement is ground with two closed
circuit ball mills with a capacity of 110tph
each at a fineness of approximately
3000cm
2
/g (Blaine).
To meet increasing cement demand,
SPCC decided to upgrade finish mill #2
with a new Roller Press circuit. An upgrade
to 160tph of Portland Cement was required
with a fineness of 3200cm
2
/g (Blaine).
Studies of the mill circuit showed that
the existing circuit can handle an extra
capacity of at least 50tph.
The process design pro-
posed by KHD Humboldt
Wedag AG for the mill upgrade,
considering all cost factors
and requirements of product
quality, received the attention
of SPCC. A grinding circuit,
consisting of a roller press and
a VSK-SEPARATOR the new
separator generation of KHD
was set up to operate ahead of
existing circuit of the mill.
The proposed concept fea-
tures a required downtime of
eight days only for the conversion includ-
ing the adjustment of the ball charge.
Thus, SPCC was able to meet the demand
for cement at any time.
The contract for
upgrading of the existing
finish mill #2 was signed
on 20 August 2001. This
contract included engineering, equipment
supply, supervision of local manufacturing,
erection and commissioning.
41 INTERNATIONAL CEMENT REVIEW / JULY 2003
CEMENT TECHNOLOGY
Pressing
ahead
When Saudi Arabian cement producer, Southern Province Cement embarked
on a capacity upgrade for its Bisha plant, it awarded KHD Humboldt Wedag
the contract for upgrading the cement mill with a Roller Press and VSK-
SEPARATOR. A successful performance test, achieving all guaranteed perfor-
mance parameters was carried out in March 2003, proving the collaboration
to be a resounding success.
Roller press building
1- VSK Separator
2 - Roller Press with feed bin
by Amer Saeed Bargan, Director of Southern Province Cement Company
& Joerg Binner, KHD Humboldt Wedag AG
Table 1: design parameters of the main equipment
POS Design data
1 Roller Press Type RP 7 - 140/ 80
Motor 2 x 550kW
2 VSK-SEPARATOR Type VSK 65/ 12-2250
Motor 90kW
3 VSK-Fan Air volume 160,000m
3
/ h
Motor 360kW
4 Ball mill Size dia 4.4 x 13.0m
Motor 1 x 3500kW
5 Ball mill separator Type OSEPA N-2500
Motor 225kW
6 Ball mill fan Air volume 150,000m
3
/ h
Motor 400kW
Figure 1:
roller press
1
2
Bisha Cement
Main equipment
Table 1 shows the design parameters of the
main equipment.
The roller press takes care of the addi-
tional grinding work, consuming only 50
per cent of the energy of a ball mill
with equivalent grinding work.
A valuable feature of the roller
press for high bearing life and low
operating cost is the mounting of
the rollers in oil-lubricated cylindri-
cal roller bearings. Bearings and
bearing housing do not move rela-
tively to each other. The bearing
seals remain fixed in place during
roller skewing. The external oil cir-
cuit takes care of the lubrication
and cooling of the bearings. Figure
1 shows a view of the Roller Press
from the drive end.
The roller surface is designed for
an autogenous wear protection type
ILP (Interrupted Line Profile). The
material to be ground is filling the space
between the welded profiles. Large access
doors in the roller housing allow rapid and
wide access to the rollers for inspection
(see Figure 2).
The VSK-SEPARATOR combines the sta-
tic V-SEPARATOR and the high efficiency
rotor separator to one compact unit. A
short and direct link between the two units
results in low wear and an extremely low
pressure loss. With this machine features
and a number of process options the VSK-
SEPARATOR can be applied for, it is just
made for the use in the roller press grind-
ing circuits:
roller press material is deglomerated
fines in the roller press material as well
as in the fresh feed is separated
fresh material and rejects are well mixed
before entering the roller press
hot clinker is efficiently cooled during
grinding by introducing fresh air
fresh feed can be dried efficiently by hot
gases
finish product with a wide range of fine-
ness is received after passing the rotor of
the VSK
a mid size fraction can be separately
discharged.
The VSK-rotor receives pre-sep-
arated product leaving the V-SEP-
ARATOR, with particle sizes below
0.8mm, ensuring low wear of the
rotor.
The upper part of the VSK-
SEPARATOR with feed chute, the
rotor housing and the fines dis-
charge is shown in Figure 3.
The material for the production of
Portland cement (92 per cent
clinker, four per cent gypsum, four
per cent additives) is withdrawn
from the feed bins by belt weigh
feeders and is conveyed to the
VSK-SEPARATOR (Pos 2) via belt
conveyor and bucket elevator. If
required, additives and gypsum
INTERNATIONAL CEMENT REVIEW / JULY 2003 2
CEMENT TECHNOLOGY
Figure 4: process description
Figure 5:
VSK-SEPARATOR
function principle
Figure 2 (left): roller with welded ILP profile
Figure 3 (top): upper part of VSK separator
Fines
Feed
4
43 INTERNATIONAL CEMENT REVIEW / JULY 2003
CEMENT TECHNOLOGY
may be introduced to the ball mill (Pos 4)
directly.
The fresh feed and the Roller Press
discharge material enters the VSK-SEPARA-
TOR from top. The
feed material is sepa-
rated into three frac-
tions: the very coarse
fraction is discharged
at the bottom end of
the VSK-SEPARATOR,
entering the feed bin
of the Roller Press for
further grinding. The
finish product is sep-
arated by the rotor
and collected in
cyclones. The medium
size fraction (98 per
cent minus 1mm), is
discharged below the rotor and introduced
as new feed to the ball mill. The air and
material flow through the VSK-SEPARATOR
and cyclone is shown in Figure 5.
The mill discharge material is fed to
the mill separator (Pos 5). The fines of the
VSK-SEPARATOR as well as from the mill
separator are mixed in the air slide and
conveyed to the cement silo. The arrange-
ment of the new grinding circuit and a
view of the Roller Press building are shown
in Figure 7 and pictured on the first page
of the article.
Performance
The first start-up with material took place
on 12 February 2003. A successful perfor-
mance test was conducted on 28 March
2003 where all guaranteed parameters were
achieved (Table 2).
Actual process data &
cement quality
Table 3 shows the actual process data
before and after conversion with Roller
Press. The cement produced with the Roller
Press and VSK-SEPARATOR has less particles
above 45 m and more below 15m it is
generally more fine. This fine particles dis-
tribution help increase strength of cement
(Table 4). Compared with the ball mill cir-
cuit before conversion, 6kWh/t of electrical
energy are saved by the Roller Press.
Table 4 shows the main data of cement
quality before and after the conversion.
The product ground with Roller Press gives
generally higher cement strength especially
for the early strength, after three days and
seven days. This is confirmed by the aver-
age of carefully selected 20 cement sam-
ples and long term records. The water
demand of cement is slightly increased by
0.3 per cent to one per cent.
Conclusion
The conversion of finish mill #2 designed
and supplied by KHD Humboldt Wedag AG
has met all expectations of Southern
Province Cement Company. Besides fulfill-
ing the target for the production rate and
energy saving, the unexpected increase of
the cement strength, especially early
strength, is most welcome.
With the extremely short downtime of
the grinding operation and the short com-
missioning period, the cement production
and despatch was not affected during the
execution of the conversion project.
The concept of a parallel operating
grinding circuit with Roller Press and VSK-
SEPARATOR, arranged for the first time in
this mode, is a good alternative compared
with standard mill upgrades carried out to
date. _____________________________
Figure 7: general arrangement
Table 2: performance test results
Performance test Guarantee Achieved
Cement production 160tph 159.4tph
Cement fineness (Blaine) 3200cm
2
/ g 3217cm
2
/ g
Electrical energy consumption:
Roller Press, VSK-rotor, VSK-fan, ball mill 30.9kWh/ t 29.6kWh/ t
Cement Temperature 100Cmax. 75 - 80C
Table 4: cement quality before and after conversion
Cement quality Before conversion After conversion
Initial setting time 176 - 196min 205min
Final setting time 231 264min 275min
Water demand 24.15 - 24.76% 25.08 - 25.92%
Expansion 0.17 0.22% 0.21 0.23%
Compressive Strength 3 days
ASTMC150 201 - 215kg/ cm
2
248 250kg/ cm
2
Compressive Strength 7 days 271 - 287kg/ cm
2
308 - 312kg/ cm
2
Compressive Strength 28 days 367 - 380kg/ cm
2
405 410kg/ cm
2
Table 3: actual process data before and after conversion
Actual process data Before conversion After conversion
Production of cement 110tph 165 170tph
Cement fineness (Blaine) 3000cm
2
/ g 3000cm
2
/ g
Residue 90 micron 1.0% 0.6%
Residue 45 micron 12.9% 6.6%
Residue 32 micron 29.7% 22.4%
Residue 20 micron 52.7% 45.0%
Residue 15 micron 77.7% 66.6%
Power consumed:
Roller Press, VSK-rotor plus fan --- 1265kW
Ball mill 3500kW 3350kW
Mill separator 350kW 350kW
Auxiliaries 600kW 700kW
Total power consumed 4450kW 5665kW
Specific energy consumed 40.45kWh/ t 34.33kWh/ t