MANUFACTURE OF PORTLAND CEMENT

Sunil V.M.

PORTLAND CEMENT
The cement is used as an ingredient in materials used for sidewalks, buildings and as a binder between other substances, such as stone or brick. Composition:TricalciumSilicate(50%), Dicalcium Silicate(25%),Tricalcium Aluminate(10%),TetraCalcium AluminoFerrite(10%),Gypsum(5%)
Courtesy:Semen Gresik

There are three fundamental stages in the production of Portland cement

Preparation of the raw mixture Production of the clinker Preparation of the cement

1.Preparation of Raw Mixture

Raw materials Raw mix(using Raw mill) The raw materials for Portland cement production are a mixture of minerals containing calcium oxide, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, ferric oxide, and magnesium oxide. These include mainly Gray and White Limestone, Marl, Clay, Sand , Millscale, Kaolin ,Bauxite ,Fly Ash.

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Crushing
The Raw materials are crushed to small sizes typically to sizes below 5 cm. The crushed materials are then blended into a prehomogenization pile in most modern plants. These piles are then stored in large silos sometimes different materials are stored in different silos-from which they are discharged in required proportions for grinding.

Top of Silo
Courtesy:Caribbean Cement Company

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Dry and Wet Process

Dry Process - Raw mix is in the form of a powder. Wet Process -Raw mix is in the form of a slurry

Wet Process
Wet grinding is performed by two distinct means: washmills and ballmills. Washmills:used to grind soft materials such as chalk and clay. Ballmills:allows grinding of the harder limestones that are more common than chalk

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Dry Process
Dry Grinding is mainly performed by Roller mills.

A medium sized dry process roller mill

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Wet Process-Advantages and Disadvantages

A:Wet grinding is more efficient than dry grinding because water coats the newlyformed surfaces of broken particles and prevents re-agglomeration . A:The process of blending and homogenizing the rawmix is also much easier when it is in slurry form. D:water in the resultant slurry has to be removed subsequently, and this usually requires a lot of energy Courtesy: Mongolia Cement

Shift from Wet to Dry Process

% of North American Capacity using Wet Process

Mean Fuel Energy used in North American Kilns

The raw materials are usually quarried from local rock, which in some places is already practically the desired composition and in other places requires the addition of clay and limestone, as well as iron ore, bauxite or recycled materials. The individual raw materials are first crushed, typically to below 50 mm. In many plants, some or all of the raw materials are then roughly blended in a "prehomogenization pile." The raw materials are next ground together in a rawmill. Silos of individual raw materials are arranged over the feed conveyor belt. Accurately controlled proportions of each material are delivered onto the belt by weigh-feeders. Passing into the rawmill, the mixture is ground to rawmix. The fineness of rawmix is specified in terms of the size of the largest particles, and is usually controlled so that there are less than 5%-15% by mass of particles exceeding 90 m in diameter. It is important that the rawmix contain no large particles in order to complete the chemical reactions in the kiln, and to ensure the mix is chemically homogeneous. In the case of a dry process, the rawmill also dries the raw materials, usually by passing hot exhaust gases from the kiln through the mill, so that the rawmix emerges as a fine powder. This is conveyed to the blending system by conveyor belt or by a . In the case of wet process, water is added to the rawmill feed, and the mill product is a slurry with moisture content usually in the range 2545% by mass. This slurry is conveyed to the blending system by conventional liquid pumps. Courtesy: Mongolia cement.com

Raw mix blending

The rawmix is formulated to a very tight chemical specification. Typically, the content of individual components in the rawmix must be controlled within 0.1% or better.

2.Production of the Clinker

Preheaters Kilns Coolers

Preheaters
Grate Preheaters Gas suspension Preheaters Pre Calciners

Preheaters

The Kiln

Components of a kiln
Kiln Shell Refractory lining Tyres and Rollers Drive Gear Internal Heat Exchangers

Courtesy:Understanding Cement

Installing a new brick lining in the outlet zone of a precalciner kiln.

Inside the Kiln

The rawmix is fed into the kiln and gradually heated by contact with the hot gases from combustion of the kiln fuel. Successive chemical reactions take place as the temperature of the rawmix rises: 70 to 110 C - Free water is evaporated. 400 to 600 C - clay-like minerals are decomposed into their constituent oxides; principally SiO2 and Al2O3. Dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) decomposes to calcium carbonate, MgO and CO2.

900 to 1050 C - the remaining calcium carbonate decomposes to calcium oxide and CO2. 650 to 900 C - calcium carbonate reacts with SiO2 to form belite (Ca2SiO4). 1300 to 1450 C - partial (2030%) melting takes place, and belite reacts with calcium oxide to form alite (Ca3OSiO4).

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Courtesy:Dr.Kimberly Kurtis,GIT,Atlanta,Georgia

Wet vs Dry
As pointed out earlier, the energy required for wet process is higher than that of dry process.

Wet vs Dry
Courtesy:Knowledge is Power

Courtesy: Zeigler,E. (1971) . Zem.-Kalk-Gips

Clinker

Hot Clinker

Clinker
Portland cement clinker contains four main minerals: Alite: approximately tricalcium silicate (typically about 65% of the total) Belite: approximately dicalcium silicate (typically about 15% of the total) Aluminate: very approximately tricalcium aluminate (typically about 7% of the total) Ferrite: very approximately tetracalcium aluminoferrite (typically about 8% of the total) The balance is made up of alkali sulfates and minor impurities. The typical mineral contents shown are subject to wide variation.

Courtesy: Understanding Cement

Courtesy:Patent Number 5,895,213

Clinker Cooler

Courtesy:Patent Number 5,895,213

Perforated grate through which cold air is blown, enclosed in a rectangular chamber. A bed of clinker up to 0.5 m deep moves along the grate. A:they cool the clinker rapidly . A:Since they do not rotate, hot air can be ducted out of them for use in fuel drying, or for use as precalciner combustion air .

Courtesy:Cemex UK Cement Cooler - red-hot clinker falls onto the grate, cooled by air blown from beneath. The clinker is moving towards the front of the picture

Courtesy:Caribbean Cement Company and Henan Yuhui Mining Machinery Co.

Courtesy:S.G.Tech. Holdings

3.Preparation of Cement
Cement clinker is usually ground using a ball mill. This is essentially a large rotating drum containing grinding media - normally steel balls. As the drum rotates, the motion of the balls crushes the clinker. The drum rotates approximately once every couple of seconds.Ball mills are most commonly used.

Courtesy:Understanding cement

The drum is generally divided into two or three chambers, with different size grinding media. As the clinker particles are ground down, smaller media are more efficient at reducing the particle size still further. Grinding systems are either 'open circuit' or 'closed circuit.' In an open circuit system, the feed rate of incoming clinker is adjusted to achieve the desired fineness of the product. In a closed circuit system, coarse particles are separated from the finer product and returned for further grinding

Gypsum is interground with the clinker in order to control the setting properties of the cement. Clinker grinding uses a lot of energy and the cement becomes hot - this can result in the gypsum becoming dehydrated, with potentially undesirable results . Since the clinker gets hot in the mill due to the heat generated by grinding, gypsum can be partly dehydrated. It then forms hemihydrate, or plaster of Paris - 2CaSO4.H2O. On further heating, hemihydrate dehydrates further to a form of calcium sulfate known as soluble anhydrite (~CaSO4). This has a similar solubility in water to hemihydrate, which in turn has a higher solubility than either gypsum or natural anhydrite.

Cement mills need to be cooled to limit the temperature rise of the cement. This is done by a mixture of both aircooling and water-cooling, including spraying water inside the mill. The relative proportions and different solubilities of these various types of calcium sulfate are of importance in controlling the rate the rate of C3A hydration and consequently of cement set retardation. Problems associated with setting and strength characteristics of concrete can often be traced to changes in the quantity of gypsum and hemihydrate, or with variations in cooling rate of the clinker in the kiln and subsequent changes in the proportions or size of the C3A crystals. Courtesy:Understanding Cement

Courtesy:Castle Cement

Ball Mill

Power Consumption vs Cement fineness

Courtesy:Technical Mineralogy Department of Geosciences

THE END

Courtesy: Cement Chemistry by H.F.W.Taylor 2nd edition published by Thomas Telford Publishing