Cement Production and Manufacturing Process | Portland

Cement Industry
Raw Materials Cement Production
Raw materials are taken from natural environmental as other
chemical industries.
•Calcareos materials which can supply CaO. this can be
limestone, chalk or marble.
•Argillaceous material providing silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3)
and iron oxide (Fe2O3). Although clay is generally used for this
purpose. It can be replaced with materials such as slate, shale,
slag from steel manufacture or even burned paddy husk.
•Gypsum which controls the settling of cement.
The calcareous and argillaceous raw materials are dried, mixed
and heated to a high temperature (around 10000C) in a furnace.
The produced granular form is called clinker. Then it is ground
with 4% gypsum to obtain Portland cement. There are two main
processes in manufacturing Portland cement.
1.Wet method
2.Dry method

Wet method
Raw materials are mixed in water to obtain a slurry of uniform
composition which is then dried and ignited.

Dry method
Dried raw materials are employed.
Cement Production Process and Reactions
Each step of cement manufacturing, physical conditions and
reactions occurred are explained here.

Raw material transportation

Limestone is carried to the plant from mining place usually by a
train. Some cement plants import clinker from other country or
plant and add gypsum to produce cement.

Mixing and Drying of limestone and clay

Limestone is well mixed with iron containing clay in a ball mill
and dried using rotary driers. The ratio between limestone and
clay is 5:1.
Heating in a rotary furnace
Then, mixture is heated in an inclined rotary furnace ( inclined
angle is 15). This rotary furnace is rotated slowly at about 0.5
turn per minute. Furnace is made of large cylindrical steel
tube.It is lined with refractory bricks of either high alumina or
high magnesia.

Fuel of heating
Furnace oil is used as the main fuel. But natural gas, diesel or
coal can be used as to supply the heat. Some cement
manufactures use old car tyres to get the heat.

Raw materials are supplied from top of the the furnace and they
slowly moves through the furnace. Solid state reactions take
place giving granular form called clinkers.
Sold state reactions in the furnace
In the furnace following reactions take place.

Moisture removal
All moisture removed when temperature reaches to 500 0C.

Thermal decomposition of limestone

Limestone (CaCO3) decomposes to CaO and CO2 at around
9000C.
CaCO3 = CaO + CO2
Reaction of calcium oxide and clay
When temperature reaches 900-12000C, the mixture gets fused
into larger lumps. At that time, calcium oxide reacts with clay
forming calcium silicate and aluminium silicate.
At the end of the furnace
Material become tough and hard ad even vitrify and the reaction
gets completed. Now temperature of the furnace is 1200 0C.
Clinker comes out of the furnace at the bottom of the furnace.