Kristine Georgia Y.

Po Coal Mining
BSEM – V Engr. Nathaniel D. Tiu

ACTIVITY 4

1. Discuss the Dry Process of Cement Production.

Raw materials from the quarry are transported into the plant and is fed onto the primary
crusher. Rocks and materials of bigger sizes are reduced to softball size. There is a constant spray of
water to reduce dust when loading out the materials. From there, the conveyor will transport the
materials into the secondary crusher. It reduces them further, to about the size of a golf ball. Rocks
high in calcium carbonate and rocks low in calcium carbonate are crushed separately. Then, these
two are being mixed. The ratio varies according to the type of cement being made. An overhead
machine called tripper makes piles of the required proportions. This is what we called the raw mix.
Then a reclaimer loads the raw mix onto the grinding machine called the roller mill. Depending on
what is already available in the raw mix, some factories add minerals like silica and iron. Certain
types of cement require aluminum oxide. The roller evenly mixes and grinds the ingredients, resulting
in raw meal, a dry rock powder. Now, the powder goes into the preheater. The temperature of the
powder is 80 degrees Celsius upon entering. It heats up by more than ten times in 40 seconds. This
begins the process of bonding the minerals together, so later they’re hardened when hydrated with
water. The preheater is equipped with a flash calciner. In about 5 seconds, it removes 95% of the
carbon dioxide in the powder through a chemical reaction. This extracts the lime, the most significant
ingredient of cement. From there, the powder moves to a rotary kiln, a huge cylindrical furnace. It is
set in an angle so that the powder will move top to bottom. The kiln rotates 2 turns per minute to
ensure the material travels through at the right speed. The burners’ gas flame at the bottom reaches to
1600 to 1700 degrees Celsius. As the powder approaching it reaches the 1500-degree mark, it fuses
into pieces about the size of marbles. These pieces are called clinker. As the clinker leaves the kiln,
large pans cool it to the temperature between 60 to 80 degrees Celsius. It is important to have the
clinker cooled down quickly in order to have quality cement. From here, the clinker goes into the
storage area. The last stage is finish grinding. They add gypsum to the clinker and the amount of
gypsum added depends on the type of cement being made. The gypsum delays the cement’s setting
 time so it can be worked with for up to 4 hours before hardening. The cement mills are called ball
mills, metal balls that weighs up to 150 tons in the largest mill. As the mill rotates, the ball mills
crushed and grind the clinker and the gypsum into a fine powder.
In the wet process, water is applied to finely crushed raw material such as limestone, clay, or
iron ore in a proportion of 30 to 50 percent water to 50 to 65 percent raw material to produce a slurry
that is fed into a cement kiln, while in the dry process, no water is added. Rather, the raw material is
fed into the kiln while it is still dry.

2. Discuss the SASOL HTFT Process.

Coal can also be converted to liquid or synthetic gas by advanced chemical processes making it a
possible replacement for natural gas or liquid fuels for transportation.
SASOL HTFT Process is an approach to beneficiate lower grades of coal by incorporating
liquefaction indirectly with gasifiers via Fischer-Tropsch process. The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process
is a series of chemical reactions that convert hydrogen and carbon monoxide into liquid hydrocarbons
with the help of a catalyst. It was established by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch in the early 1920s.
This is a vital step in the gas-to-liquid conversion process. It allows synthetic lubricants and industrial
fuels from natural gas, wood, and coal. These products are usually of better quality than those
produced by standard processes, since they have no sulphur or aromatics.
In Coal to Liquid process, dried coal is first sent to a gasifier. Gasification occurs wherein the carbon
in the coal will react with the water vapor and oxygen in order to form mostly CO and H2. From then,
the raw gas is formed and settles at the top. The raw gas will be further sent to a heat exchanger to be
cooled by counterflowing water. Next process would be Dedusting. The raw gas is sent to a deduster
so that the ash particles will be removed from the raw gas. The dedusted raw gas will move to a water-
gas shift reactor. This is where the hydrogen and carbon monoxide ratios are adjusted. Carbon
monoxide reacts with water vapor in order to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The raw gas will
be sent to a scrubber where it will be desulfurized, and a purified mixture of carbon monoxide and
hydrogen remains - what is traditionally called the syngas. After the syngas is formed, it will be
moved to a Fischer-Tropsch reactor. The syngas of carbon monoxide and hydrogen will be converted
to long chain paraffins. This is the main stage of the Coal-to-Liquid Process. Right after this, the
produced hydrocarbons and water will move to a separator. This is where the mixture gas is being
refined, separating the light gases, liquid hydrocarbons and water. Finally, the last stage is
Hydrocracking. This is where the long-chain paraffins are being heated to be converted to short-chain
paraffins such as diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. Then, the produced syncrude is formed.