CEMENT MANUFATURING PROCESS by JIJEESH.

P MINING, CRUSHING & TRANSPORTING LIMESTONE is the principal raw material required to manufacturing cement. Limestone is min ed from the mines by blasting explosives. After mining the limestone from the minin g area are transported and fed into a Primary Hopper.From the primary hopper the limestone bolder is fed to the PRIMARY CRUSHER (Doubled Toggled Jaw Crusher) with the help of a reciprocating feeder. The crush ed limestone pieces are discharged to the vibrating screen. The vibration action of the screen removes t he mud particles of the limestone and the same is conveyed and rejected with the help of belt conveyor. The mud free limestone is fed to Eleptex feeder and then to the belt conveyor. The belt conveyor conveyed the limestone to the Intermediate hopper. The limestone from the Intermediate hopper is fed to the belt conveyor with the help of a vibrating feeder and is fed to the Secondary Crusher (Impactor) for further size productio n. The crushed limestone is discharged to the belt conveyor and the same is conveyed to the loading bunker. With the help of a pneumatic extraction system and the crushed limestone is filled in the ropeway buckets and the same is transported to the plant. The ropeway system used is a Mono Cable Arial Ropeway with a variable spe ed DC drive. While crushing and discharging limestone, a lot of dust particles also be produced. Th is dust particles produce pollution in the surrounding atmosphere. To prevent the dust pollution bag dust collections are also employed in the discharge points of the Primary and Secondary crushers. The bags inside t he dust collector, collects the dust and the dust free air is vented out. The collected dust particles are retie ved with the help of a compressed air purging. The air purging is done in a sequential manner with the help of Ele ctronic sequential timer panel and solenoid valves. STACKER & RECLAIMER Limestone from the unloading hopper is extracted and conveyed to the stacker wit h the help of a vibrating feeder and belt conveyors. This material is dropped on the table feede r at the top of stacker. The table feeder feeds the limestone to the Boom conveyor. The stacker and the Boom conveyor can be able to move 360 degree. The property of the mined limestone may be varied day by day. S o the limestone is stocked in the stocker in a circular manner, layer by layer every day. The retrieving of the limestone is done by cutting

stockpile crosssection wise. Thus a homogeneous mixture in the different days deposit can be obtained. So, a preblending limestone can be obtained on the stacker. The limestone is stored in a circular format in the stacker with the help of a stacker and a Boom conveyor. The boom conveyor can be able to move up or down according to the material level.

The reclaimer system consists of mainly a chain conveyor, which can be moved on the rails thro ugh 360 degree. A harrow drive is used to regulate the quantity of the material to be extracted by the adjusting the cutting angle. The extracted limestone is c onveyed to limestone hopper by using a belt conveyor.The additives like sweetener limestone and literate are al so fed to the respective hoppers after crushing. RAW MATERIAL GRINDING AND STORAGE Material from the limestone and additive hoppers are fed to respective weigh fee ders. The weigh feeders weigh and feed the material according to the set Ratio and quantity. The weighed material then fed to the Raw mill inlet with the help of belt conveyors. The Raw mill consists of thr ee chambers, one drying chambers and two grinding chambers. Hot gas vent out from Kiln is used in raw mi ll to drive out the moisture present in the raw material. The dried material is gradually transferred to the grinding chamber. In the grinding chamber the material is grinded with the help of grinding media balls. The powdered material is centrally discharged and the same is conveyed to the Turbo Air Separator with th e help of Air slides and bucket elevators. The TAS separates the powdered material into fine and coarse p articles. The fine particles are conveyed to blending soils with the help of Air slides and belt bucket eleva tors. The coarse particles from the TAS are again fed to the other end of the mill for further grinding. An exha ust fan (vent fan) is used to control the material and hot gas flow inside the mill. A grit separator and a cy clone are employed in the suction line vent fan to collect the dust particles . the collected dust is fed back to the process .the outlet gas of the vent fan is fed to electro static precipitator (ESP).the outlet gas from the fan contains large amount of fine particles of raw material, which causes heavy air pollution and vastage of valua ble raw material the ESPs are used. In the ESP electrodes of positrve and negative potentials are arranged by applying high voltage direct current .The strong electrical field in the ESP ionized the gas passing through the ESP. The positive ionized particles are attractedv and collected in the negative ionized electrodes and th e negative air is vented out to the atmosphere .The collected fine powder is retrieved with the help of rapping mech anism and the same is fed to the process. BLENDING AND STORAGE After filling the powdered materials from raw mill to a certain level in the bl ending silos , this materials is blended for 2 to 3 hours with compressed air After blending, the material sample is collected and analyses in the laboratory . If the composition of the filled material is not correct , the

required quantity of corrected material is again filled to the blending silo after changing the ratio to the ra w mill .Again the material is blended for 2 to 3 hours and the sample is analyses in the laboratory .After cor recting the composition the material is dropped to the bottom part of the silo . The bottom part of the silo is called storage silo .

KILNFEED SECTION The material from the storage silo is extracted, and the same is fed to the weig hing hopper by using air slides and bucket elevators . The material flow to the weighing hopper is contro lled with a variable speed rotary feeder .if the set quantity of material is filled in the hopper ,the rota ry feeder stops feeding . The balance material is fed to the overflow hopper and back to the process . The mat erial from the weighing hopper is fed to the electronic weigh feeder and the same is conveyed to the pre heater top with the help of air slides and belt bucket elevators or pneumatic pumps. CLINKERISATION The clinkerisation section consists of a 4 stage Suspension Preheater and a Rota ry Kiln. The 4 stage suspension Preheater consists of 7 cyclones. There are two cyclones each in the 4th ,3rd and 1st stages. The 2nd stage is having only one cyclones. The discharge points of the first cyclones ar e connected to the Rotary Kiln. The Kiln has a hollow cylinder 65 meter long and 4.4 meter diameter with refract ory lining inside. The discharge end of the Kiln is connected to the Grate cooler. The pulverized coal is weighed in an electronic weigh feeder and pumped to the Kiln through a burner pipe, positioned concentric to Kiln at the outlet. This forms an intensive flame at the outlet end of the Kilnimparting the thermal energy of Kilnerisation. This area of the Kiln is called the Burning zone. The temperature at the burning zone is a bout 14001500C. The hot gas generated in the burning zone of Kiln is sucked through a preheater cyclone by a fan called Preheater Fan. This preheater fan sucker also creates a cyclonic effecton the preheater cyclone s. Due to cyclonic effect and gravitational force, the material is gradually discharged into the Kiln inlet af ter sometimes. The material temperature at the 4th stage is about350C to 400C. In the 3rd stage the heat is about 500600C. In the 2nd and 1st stage the material temperature is about 700800 and 800900C respectively. The preheater material from the preheater is discharge to the Kiln inlet. The feed that entered the Kiln at the inlet gradually travels towards the outlet due to the rotation of the Kiln and slope at which it is mounted. The feed entered at the temperature of 850 Deg. C. moves towards the burning zone at the outlet mentioned at around1 450 Deg. C. During this travel from a region of low temp to that of a high temp, the partially calcined material that has entered the Kiln undergoes complete calcinations liberating Carbon dioxide (CO2) to form (Ca O). This oxide reacts with Silica, alumina and Iron oxide present in the Raw Meal . At high temperatures formi ng the clinker

compounds, namely DICALCIUM SILICATE, TRICALCIUM SILICATE, TRICALCIUM ALUMINATE & TETRA CALCIUM ALUMINO FERRITE. The undergone process in the preheater and the ki ln is called Calcinations. The product is called Clinker. The clinkers thus formed is dark gr een in colour with 30% of it in the form of nodules. The clinker is then discharge to the Great Cooler for cooli ng. Some part of the exit hot gas from the preheater is diverted to the raw mill for drying the raw material . The balance part of the hot gas is venting out to the atmosphere .This gas contains lot of fine material and is having a temperature of about 400 C. This dust particles in the exit gas creates pollution in the environment . To prevent the dust pollution ,an Electro Static precipitator is employed .After cooling the hot and dusty gas in gas conditioning tower (GCT) is allowed to pass through the ESP for collecting the dust particles . Ins ide the ESP a large number of Positive and negative charged plates are arranged to ionize the air and dust .Du e to high potential in the electrodes inside the ESP , the dust particles got ionized .The positive particl es are collected in positive

potential plates . The collected material is retrieved by a rapping mechanism , and the same is again fed to the process .The dust free gas is venting out to the atmosphere . COOLER The hot clinker from the Kiln is cooled with the help of atmospheric air in the Grate cooler .Inside the cooler, fixed and movable rows of plate with holes are arranged .The to and fro movements of the cooler plates are carried out by two variable speed DC drives . The atmospheric air is blows through the holes of the cooler plates , and cools the hot clinker accumulated over the plates . This blo wing of the air is carried out with the help of five cooler fans The to and fro movements of the cooler plates pushes material to the discharge end .The cooled clinker is discharged to the Deep bucket Conveyor afte r breaking (if big size is present) with the help of clinker breaker .The DBC conveyed the cooled clinker t o the clinker stockpile Part of the air ,used to cool the clinker is suck by the PreHeater fan ,and it is used as secondary air for burning the coal inside the Kiln . Another part of the air is used to dry coal in the coal m ill . the balance part is sucked by induced draught fan through the ESP/Multi cyclone .After define dusts are again fed back to the process. COAL GRINDING AND STORAGE Coal from the collieries is transported through wagon and is unloaded at the coa l stockyard. From the stockyard the coal is transported to Raw Coal Hopper. From the Raw Coal Hopper t he coal is conveyed to the mill hopper after crushing it into the required size. The conveying the coal fro m the Raw Coal Hopper is done with the help of vibrating feeder and belt conveyors. From the hopper the coal i s fed to the mill inlet by using a table feeder. The coal is then dried with the hot gas from either Hot Air Gene rator or hot gas from the cooler. After drying, the coal is grinded using grinding media balls. The fine p owder is sucked with the help of Circulating Air Fan. The suction of the CA fan is connected through a Grid Se parator. The Grid separator separates the coal powder sucked by the CA fan into fine and coarse. The fine co al powder is stored in a Fine Coal Hopper. The coarse coal powder is again fed back to the mill inlet for furt her grinding. The one part of the delivery side of the CA fan is connected to the Primary Air fan suction side . The air containing coal powder is pumped to kiln along with fine coal. The other part of the delivery si de is connected to Multi Cyclone/Bag filter to collect the fine dust of coal. The collected material is a gain fed back to the system. The dust free air is vented out to the atmosphere.

CEMENT GRINDING AND STRORAGE For manufacturing OPC, the ingredients are Clinker and gypsum. For manufacturin g PPC, Clinker, gypsum and pozzalona material like Fly ash. Clinker from the stockpile is extrac ted and stored in the Clinker hopper near the Cement mill. Gypsum and the wet fly ash from the stockyards are extracted and stored in the respective hoppers. From the hoppers the respective materials of required ratio and quantity is fed into the mill using electronic weigh feeders and belt conveyors. This material is grinded inside the cement mill using the grinding media balls. The grinded powder is discharged through the mill outl et and is feed to the Belt bucket elevator. A sophisticated Dry Fly ash feeding system with latest PCL AND SCADA In corporate with

the cement mill process. The Dry Fly ash from the power plant is transported to the plant through roads. The Dry Fly ash is then conveyed to the silo with the help of compressed air. From t he silo the Dry Fly ash is extracted and feed to the weighing bin with the help of Pneumatic Control Gate a nd the air slide. The required quantity of the Dry Fly ash is then fed to mill discharge belt bucket elevator b y using Air slides. The weighing and controlling the Dry Fly ash done by a Solid Flow Meter and a Pneumatic Contr ol gate. Then the cement is conveyed to separator In the separator, powered cement is separated to fine and coarse. A variable speed separator and ReCirculartion fan is used to separate the coarse and fine material. The fine powder is conveyed to cement silos by using Air Slides and Belt Bucket Elevators/Pneumatic pumps. The coarse material is again fed to the cement mill inlet for further gri nding. The gas inside the mill is suck by fans of ESP and Bag Filter. After dedusting the dust free gas is vented to the atmosphere. The collected powder is fed back to the process. At the time of grinding heat is gen erated inside the mill friction of grinding media balls and clinker. The temperature of the cement should not be ex ceeded beyond 140C. If the temperature exceeds the limit, the quality of the cement may be affected. To reg ulate this cement temperature, a water spray system is employed. PACKING AND DESPATCH Cement from silo is extracted and fed to the rotary screen with the help of Air slides and bucket elevators. The rotary screen removes the foreign particles present in the cement , and is fed to the packer hoppers. From hopper the cement is then fed to the respective packers for weighi ng and packing.Two types of packers are in use. One is Mechanical type Rotary packer and other is Electronic type Rotary packer. The cement is packed in 50 kg bags and is conveyed to lorries or wagons for dispatch