Cement processing

Introduction
• Cement: is a material with adhesive and cohesive
properties which make it capable of bonding
minerals fragments into a compact whole.
• For constructional purposes, the meaning of the
term "cement" is restricted to the bonding
materials used with stones, sand, bricks, building
stones, etc.
• The cements of interest in the making of concrete
have the property of setting and hardening under
water by virtue of a chemical reaction with it and
are, therefore, called hydraulic cement.
 Types of Cement
• The properties of cement during hydration
vary according to:
Chemical composition
Degree of fineness
• It is possible to manufacture different types of
cement by changing the percentages of their
raw materials.
 Cont’d
• Portland cement
• Natural cement
• Expansive cement
• High-alumina cement.
• Portland cement is a hydraulic cement that
hardens in water to form a water-resistant
compound. The hydration products act as
binder to hold the aggregates together to
form concrete.
 Types of Portland cement
• Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) – Type I
• Modified cement - Type ΙΙ
• Rapid-hardening Portland cement – Type ΙΙΙ
• Low heat Portland cement – Type ΙV
• Sulfate-resisting Portland cement – Type V
 Cont’d
1. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) – Type Ι-This
type of cement use in constructions when
there is no exposure to sulfates in the soil or
groundwater.
2. Modified cement - Type ΙΙ
• moderate sulphate resistance, moderate heat
of hydration, C3A < 7%.
 Cont’d
3. Rapid-hardening Portland cement – Type ΙΙΙ
• This type develops strength more rapidly than
ordinary Portland cement. The initial strength
is higher. Setting time for this type is similar
for that of ordinary Portland cement.
• The rate of strength gain occur due to increase
of C3S compound, and due to finer grinding of
the cement clinker.
• The uses of this cement is indicated where a
rapid strength development is desired.
 Cont’d
4. Low heat Portland cement – Type ΙV
• It is used in mass concrete constructions: the
rise of temperature in mass concrete due to
progression in heat of hydration -- cause
serious cracks. So it is important to limit the
rate of heat evolution in this type of
construction, by using the low heat cement.
 Cont’d
5. Sulfate-resisting Portland cement – Type V
• Low early strength.
• Its resulted heat of hydration is little higher
than that resulted from low heat cement.
• Its cost is higher than ordinary Portland
cement – because of the special requirements
of material composition, including addition of
iron powder to the raw materials.
Mineral constituent of portland
cement
Cont’d
 Production process methods
• The two basic methods to produce cement are
the wet and dry manufacturing processes.
• The main difference between wet and dry
process is the mix preparation method prior to
burning clinker in the kiln.
• In the wet process water is added to the raw
materials to form a raw thick slurry whereas the
dry process is based on the preparation of a fine
powdered raw meal by raw materials grinding
and drying
 Cont’d
• The choice of the process is mainly based on
the nature of the available raw materials.
When the moisture content in raw materials is
more than 20% (and up to 45%), the wet
method is preferred to the dry method.
• However, the wet process is more energy
intensive and cement industry is moving
towards more energy-efficient dry process
technologies.
 Portland cement manufacturing
1. Quarrying
2. Grinding and mixing
3. Burning
4. Grinding and blending
5. Storage,
6. Packing,
7. Dispatch
 Cont’d
1. Quarrying
Raw materials
• Calcareous material – such as limestone or chalk,
as a source of lime (CaO).
• Clay material – such as clay or shale as a source of
silica, alumina and iron oxide.
• Typically, these raw materials are obtained from
open-face quarries, but underground mines or
dredging operations are also used.
• Other raw materials, such as bauxite, iron ore,
blast furnace slag, sand or recycled material, are
brought in from elsewhere.
 Cont’d
Raw materials preparations
• BLASTING : The raw materials that are used to
manufacture cement (mainly limestone and clay)
are blasted from the quarry.
• TRANSPORT : The raw materials are loaded into a
dumper.
• CRUSHING AND TRANSPORTATION : The raw
materials, after crushing, are transported to the
plant by conveyor. The plant stores the materials
before they are homogenized.
 Cont’d
2. Grinding
• The quarried clay and limestone are crushed
separately.
• Raw materials are ground to powder and blended
in order to produce the raw mix. (dry processing)
• Raw materials are ground, mixed with water to
form slurry, and blended. (wet processing)
• The raw materials are very finely ground. As the
composition of the raw materials may have an
impact on the production processes and clinker
quality, chemical characteristics of raw materials
are carefully analyzed and controlled.
 Cont’d
3. Burning (clinkering)
• The finely ground material is dried, heated and
then cooled down again.
• All of the pyro-processing activity occurs in the
rotary kiln which are long, cylindrical, slightly
inclined furnaces that are lined with refractory to
protect the steel shell and retain heat within the
kiln.
• The most commonly used kiln fuels are coal,
natural gas, and occasionally oil. The use of
supplemental fuels such as waste solvents, scrap
rubber, and petroleum coke has expanded in
recent years.
Kiln
 Cont’d
• Clinker Kiln Systems –The main types of rotary
kilns for clinker are:
• a) kiln without pre-heater; b) kiln with pre-
heater (PH) ; c) kiln with both PH and pre
calciner (PC).
• Kilns with PH are preferred to kilns without PH
as they have a lower energy consumption. For
this reason, long rotary kilns without PH (long
dry kilns) are being replaced over time.
 Cont’d
• This system transforms the raw mix into clinkers,
which are gray, glass-hard, spherically shaped
nodules that range from 0.32 to 5.1 centimeters
(cm) in diameter.
• This part of the production process is the most
important in terms of energy input, emission
potential, product quality and cost.
• The chemical reactions and physical processes
that constitute the transformation are quite
complex.
 REACTIONS IN THE KILN
• ~100°C→ free water evaporates.
• ~150-350C°→ loosely bound water is lost from clay.
• ~350-650°C→decomposition of clay→SiO2&Al2O3
• ~600°C→decomposition of MgCO3→MgO&CO2
(evaporates)
• ~900°C→decomposition of CaCO3→CaO&CO2 (evaporates)
• ~1250-1280°C→liquid formation & start of compound
formation.
• ~1280°C→clinkering begins.
• ~1400-1500°C→clinkering
• ~100°C→clinker leaves the kiln & falls into a cooler.
 Sometimes the burning process of raw materials is
performed in two stages: preheating up to 900°C & rotary
kiln
 Cont’d
• Regardless of the type of pyroprocess used,
the last component of the pyroprocessing
system is the clinker cooler. This process step
recoups up to 30 percent of the heat input to
the kiln system.
• The more common types of clinker coolers are
• (1) reciprocating grate, (2) planetary, and (3)
rotary. In these coolers, the clinker is cooled
from about 1500°C to 100°C.
 Cont’d
4. Grinding and blending
• It transforms clinker to finished portland cement.
• Up to 5 percent gypsum or natural anhydrite is
added to the clinker during grinding to control
the cement setting time, and other specialty
chemicals are added as needed to impart specific
product properties.
• This finish milling is accomplished almost
exclusively in ball or tube mills. Typically, finishing
is conducted in a closed circuit system, with
product sizing by air separation.
5. STORAGE, PACKING, DISPATCH :
• The cement is stored in silos before being
dispatched either in bulk or in labelled bags to
its final destination.
 Basic tests of Portland cement
• Fineness (= surface area / weight): This test determines
the average size of cement grains. The typical value of
fineness is 350 m2 / kg.
• Normal consistency test: This test is to determine the
water required to achieve a desired plasticity state
(called normal consistency) of cement paste.
• Time of setting: This test is to determine the time
required for cement paste to harden. Setting refers to
a change from a fluid to a rigid stage
 Cement + water → cement paste → lose its plasticity
gradually→ when it lose its plasticity completely →
setting occurs.
• Soundness: Unsoundness in cement paste refers to
excessive volume change after setting.
 Cont’d
• Heat of hydration test: Cement hydration is a
heat releasing process. The heat of hydration is
usually defined as the amount of heat evolved
during the setting and hardening at a given
temperature measured in J/g.
• Strength: The strength of cement is measured on
mortar specimens made of cement and standard
sand (silica)
• Other experiments. Including sulphate expansion
and air content of mortar.
 Energy Use
• A wide range of solid, liquid and gaseous fossil
fuels is used to provide energy for raw
materials drying and preheating, and for
chemical reactions that sinter the raw
materials into clinker in the kiln.
• The most used solid fossil fuels were petcoke
(48.6%) and coal (23.9%). Oil and natural gas
are used to a lesser extent as they are in
general more expensive.
 Emission
a) Particulate matter (PM): Sources of PM at
cement plants include
• (1) quarrying and crushing, (2) raw material
storage, (3) grinding and blending (in the dry
process only), (4) clinker production,
(5) finish grinding, (6) packaging and loading.
• The largest emission source of PM within cement
plants is the pyroprocessing system that includes
the kiln and clinker cooler exhaust stacks.
• PM emissions are controlled by fabric filters and
electrostatic precipitators (ESP).
 Cont’d
b) Nitrogen oxides (NOx): are generated during
fuel combustion by oxidation of chemically-
bound nitrogen in the fuel and by thermal
fixation of nitrogen in the combustion air.
• As flame temperature increases, the amount
of thermally generated NOx increases.
• The amount of NOx generated from fuel
increases with the quantity of nitrogen in the
fuel.
 Cont’d
c) sulfur dioxide (SO2)
• Sulfur dioxide may be generated both from the
sulfur compounds in the raw materials and from
sulfur in the fuel.
• The sulfur content of both raw materials and
fuels varies from plant to plant and with
geographic location. However, the alkaline nature
of the cement provides for direct absorption of
SO2 into the product, thereby mitigating the
quantity of SO2 emissions in the exhaust stream.
 Cont’d
d) Carbon monoxide (CO), and CO2
• The CO2 emissions from portland cement
manufacturing are generated by two
mechanisms.
• From combusting fuel and calcination process.
• As with most high-temperature, energy-intensive
industrial processes, combusting fuels to
generate process energy releases substantial
quantities of CO2. Substantial quantities of CO2
also are generated through calcining of limestone
or other calcareous material. This calcining
process thermally decomposes CaCO3 to CaO and
CO2.
 Cont’d
• Small quantities of volatile organic compounds
(VOC), ammonia (NH3), chlorine, and hydrogen
chloride (HCl), also may be emitted. Emissions
may also include residual materials from the fuel
and raw materials or products of incomplete
combustion that are considered to be hazardous.
• Also, raw material feeds and fuels typically
contain trace amounts of heavy metals that may
be emitted as a particulate or vapor.