Chapter one

1. Company Background
1.1 History of the Company
Cement manufacturing industry is a well-established manufacturing industry, the modern
cement industry dates back to the 1800s.Using cement started about 2000 years ago in
Greek and Roman Empires where cement was used to construct different structures. In
Ethiopia cement technology has introduced in 1938 by Italian government. Now a day
there are around 20 cement companies engaged in cement production. The installed
production capacity had reached 11.2 million tons. This is expected to further increase to
17.5 million tons. The factories are actually producing 5.47 million tons per annum.

National Cement Share Company is one of the biggest cement manufacturing companies
in Ethiopia, found near Dire Dawa city. It was previously called Dire Dawa Cement
Factory, which was first established in 1938 by the Italians, during the 5 years Italian
occupation of the country (1936-1941), making it the first modern cement factory in
Ethiopia.

The new National Cement Share Company was established in November 2005 through a
joint venture of East African Mining Corporation, the Federal Government of Ethiopia’s
Privatization & Public Enterprises Supervising Agency and others. Over the next few
years, government shares were bought out by East African Mining Corporation. Now the
company is privately owned share company.

After building the new cement factory, the company has boosted the production from 150
tons per day to 400 tons per day, then after successive expansions made by the company
is currently producing 3000 tons clinker, or 80,000 bags of cement, per day.

Mission

To assure its existence and become a profitable company on a sustainable; and support the
continuously growing construction industry with the supply of construction materials of
acceptable quality and reasonable price.

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We are committed to delivering value for our customers, safe and empowering environment
for our employees, and superior returns to our shareholders.

Vision

To become the leading cement manufacture in the country and become exemplary in boosting
derived privately owned businesses in the region and in the country at large.

To be the preferred supplier of building materials in the region.

Values

LEADERSHIP - encourage innovation and empowerment.

 FOCUS - pursue focused strategies that create competitive advantages.
 COMMITMENT - provide customers with better value and services
 PERFORMANCE – deliver the highest quality products to our customers.
 SUSTAINABILITY – build enduring partnerships with customers and suppliers.
 INTEGRITY – ensure all business dealings are ethical and transparent.

1.2 Main Products of the Company

Cement

Cement is an inorganic, non-metallic, finely ground substance which, after mixing with
water, sets and hardens independently as a result of chemical reactions with the mixing water
and, after hardening, it remains its strength and stability even under water. The most
important area of application is therefore the production of mortar and concrete, i.e., the
bonding of natural or artificial aggregates to form a strong building material which is durable
in the face of normal environmental effects.

National Cement SC is a cement manufacturing industry. Its main products, types of cement,
are listed and explained below:

i. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)

This is by far the most common cement used in general concrete construction when there
is no exposure to sulphates in the soil or in ground water. In consequence, modern

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cements have higher 28 days strength than the past, but the later gain in strength is
smaller. A practical consequence of this is that we can no longer expect ‘improvement
with age’. Ordinary Portland cement is the cement most widely used. Moreover, using
highly early strength cement for a given specified 28 day’s strength of concrete, it is
possible to use a leaner mix, with higher water/ cement ratio. Some of these mixes have
an inadequate durability. This type of cement is produced from 95% clinker (produced by
limestone & clay materials) and 5% Gypsum additive ingredient.

ii. Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC)

Contains up to 35% fly ash. The fly ash is pozzolanic, so that ultimate strength is
maintained. Because fly ash addition allows lower concrete water content, early strength
can also be maintained. Where good quality cheap fly ash is available, this can be an
economic alternative to ordinary Portland cement. As a rule, Portland Pozzolana Cements
gain strength slowly and therefore require curing over a comparatively long period, but
the long term strength is high shows that similar behavior occurs where the Pozzolana
replaces part of cement, but the long term strength depends on the level of replacement.
This type of cement is produced by mixing 65% clinker and additive of Gypsum and
Pumice.

In addition to the above types of cements the company also sells clinker for other cement
industries, like Ture Cement Factory.

1.3 Main Customers of the Company

The major customers of the company are, those customers who are in need of mainly
cement and clinker, those include:

 Building and road construction contractors

 Concrete products manufacturers
 Retail shops
 Growing domestic construction industry

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 BORD OF DIRECTOR

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

PROJECT MANAGER

OFFICE MANAGER CONSULTANTS

1. SENIOR SECRETARY -MECH. ENGINEERING
2. CLERKS - ELEC. ENGINEERING
3. OFFICE BODY - IND. ENGINEERING
- PROCESSES
ENGINEERING

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION, ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL

PROJECT COORDINATION MANAGEMENT SERVICES

PLANING & PROGRAMMING

DEPUTY PROJECT DEPUTY PROJECT SENIOR MANAGER

MANAGER (TECHNICAL) MANAGER (CIVIL (SUPPORT SERVICRS)
ENGINEERING)

PROJECT HUMAN MATERIALS

FINANCE RESOURCE & MANAGEMENT
DOCUMENTATION
DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT
SERVICES
DEPARTMENT

MECHANICAL ELECTRICAL & PROCESS

ENGINEERING INSTRUMENT ENGINEERING 4|Page
DEPARTMENT ENGINEERINGD DEPARTMENT
EPARTMENT
THE MAIN PROCESS IN CEMENT PRODUCTION AND THEIR PURPOSE

1. Quarrying:- is one of surface mining methods, which means the process of open
excavation from which any useful stone is extracted for building or engineering
purposes. The mining activity (quarrying) starts with preparing an access road to the
target site, removing the over burden, preparing bench to have good and stepwise
blasting.

Depending on the characteristics, the raw material need for the cement production process
is queried by blasting. Limestone deposits vary from soft, water dispersible chalks and marls
to the hardness of minerals. Much of lime stone used is hard and it must be mined or quarried
using explosive to break up the deposits

Fig-1- Quarrying

2. Crushing: - is a process in which breaking down of materials into very small pieces
that are coming from quarry. The raw materials crushed in this department are
limestone, sand stone and gypsum. The type of crusher used in this cement plant is an
impact hammer crusher.

3. Raw material storage and pre-blending:- pre- blending means that two or more
material streams or layers are combined whereas mixing signifies the homogenization
of several materials by agitation.

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In NCSC cement factory there is closed longitudinal material storage hall with large
capacity of ton to store all the raw materials mentioned above. In this hall there are two
major operations storing or stacking and reclaiming of materials.

4. Proportionating / Prehomogenisation: - The raw materials that are coming from the
materials storage are entered to the proportioning or Three raw meals feed bins
through different belt conveyors and the extraction velocity of each raw materials is
dependent on the required composition of raw meal be supplied the raw mill and this
affect the general property of the cement produced. The final mixed raw meal is
supplied to the raw mill by the main belt conveyor.

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5. Raw mill Grinding and coal mill:- The raw grinding is the size reduction stage for
raw material between crushing and burning process and has to fulfill the
requirements:

 Produce raw meal fineness

(particle size and particle size
distribution) adequate for the
production of the required
clinker quality.

 Provide the proper raw mix by

proportioning the components in
the correct percentages

 Mixing the components.

 Drying of the raw material to

enable a good handling of the raw meal.

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The raw grinding stage cannot homogenize the raw meal due to the short retention time in
this process.

6. Homogenization/raw meal Silo: - To ensure high quality of cement, the chemistry of

the raw materials and raw meal is very carefully controlled. The raw meal are also
homogenized to ensure consistency of product quality.

The sucked fine raw material from the VRM will be trapped inside the Bag house, which
then be transported to Homogenization Silo by air slide and bucket elevator conveying
system. Then raw homogenization process takes place in silos equipped for obtaining a
homogenous mix of the material.

7. Cyclone preheating

After the material is homogenized it then transported to pre heater for calcinations
process. Calcination is a process of calcining - heating a substance to a high temperature,
but below its melting point, to bring about thermal decomposition. In the preheated

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section the material is heated at high temperatures and it’s temperature then reaches about
1000 0C.

8. Kiln operation:- Kiln is a long horizontal rotating cylinder used for the production of
clinker. In NCSC the kiln is used to burn the raw meal by a coal to produce clinker.
The kiln feed enters the system at the top of the pre-heater and fall until the lower end
of kiln. The heat exchange occurs during this process when the hot gases from the kiln
end rises up to the top of the pre-heater. Kiln is the place where calcination process is
takes place And Calciners allow for shorter rotary kilns and for the use of lower grade
alternative fuels. Calcination is the decomposition of CaCO3 to CaO and CO2.

CaCO3 CaO + CO2.

The rotary kiln is normally provided with bricks in the burning zone.

Burning zone : The burning zone is where combination takes place between the lime
( CaO), and the silica (SiO2 ), Alumina ( Al2O3 ) and ferric oxide (Fe2O3) to form the four
basic clinker components (i.e. C3S,C2S,C4AF and C3A). The basic chemical reactions
taking place in the burning zone are the following:

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  Alite formation: -

3CaO + SiO2 3 CaO. SiO2 (C3S)

 Belite formation:-

2CaO+ SiO2 2 CaO. SiO2 (C2S)

 Aluminates formation:-

CaO+ Al2O3 3 CaO. Al2O3 (C3A)

 Ferrite formation:-

CaO+ Al2O3+ Fe2O3 4CaO. Al2O3. Fe2O3 (C4AF)

9. Clinker cooling/storage: - it cools the material

that comes from kiln which is highly heated. The
cooler receives hot clinker from the rotary kiln at
about 14500c and cooled to a temperature of
approximately 1500c. The clinker getting out of
the cooler is comminuted by the built hammer
crusher it is coarser than 25mm before being
discharged on to the clinker conveyor. The exits
gas from the cooler partly goes to kiln as
secondary air and partly to calciner as tertiary air.

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10. Cement mill: - is used for grinding clinker, gypsum, & moist additives which require
large volumes of cooling air in the former case & drying air in the latter case. From
the cement grinding section the cement will be transported to the storage silo by
means of bucket elevators & air slides.

11. Cement silo or storage: - There are four storage silos in our company which are used
to store OPC and PPC in different silos. They are used to store the produced cement
until it is packed. Additionally the cement silo is preventing the moisture to react with
cement.

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12. Packaging and delivery: - is the final stage of manufacturing cement. The produced
cement will be packed into a bag container. The main elements of the packing plant
are vibrating screen, feed hopper, rotary feeder, packing machine and discharged belt.

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