MALLABHUM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
(Approved by:AICTE & Affiliated to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology)
Campus: Bishnupur, Dist.: Bankura, WB
CA2 Technical Report Writing
on
Manufacturing of Cement
Academic Year: 2022-2023
Student’s Full Name: MILAN GHOSH
University Roll Number: 15801322067
University Registration Number: 221580120083
Department: CIVIL ENGINEERING
Paper Name: CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY
Paper Code: CE (PC) 404
Semester: 4TH
Year: 2ND
INTRODUCTION: -
Cement is the basic ingredient of construction and the most widely used
construction material. It is a very critical ingredient, because only cement has the
ability of enhancing viscosity of concrete which in returns provides the better
locking of sand and gravels together in a concrete mix.
A cement is a binder, a substance used for construction that sets, hardens,
and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on
its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed
with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel,
produces concrete. Cement is the most widely used material in existence and is
only behind water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
The word "cement" can be traced back to the Roman term opus
caementicium, used to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was
made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder. The volcanic ash and
pulverized brick supplements that were added to the burnt lime, to obtain a
hydraulic binder, were later referred to as cementum, cimentum, cäment, and
cement. In modern times, organic polymers are sometimes used as cements in
concrete.
MANUFACTURING OF CEMENT: -
PROCESS: -
Production of cement completes after passing of raw materials from the
following six phases. These are:
1. Raw material extraction/ Quarry
2. Grinding, Proportioning and Blending
3. Pre-heater Phase
4. Kiln Phase
5. Cooling and Final Grinding
6. Packing & Shipping
1. Raw Material Extraction: -
Cement uses raw materials that cover calcium, silicon, iron, and aluminium.
Such raw materials are limestone, clay, and sand. Limestone is for calcium. It
is combined with much smaller proportions of sand and clay. Sand & clay
fulfil the need of silicon, iron, and aluminium.
Extraction of raw material and crushing of material
Generally, cement plants are fixed where the quarry of limestone is nearby.
This saves the extra fuel cost and makes cement somehow economical. Raw
materials are extracted from the quarry and by means of conveyor belt
material is transported to the cement plant.
There are also various other raw materials used for cement manufacturing.
For example, shale, fly ash, mill scale and bauxite. These raw materials are
directly brought from other sources because of small requirements.
Before transportation of raw materials to the cement plant, large size rocks
are crushed into smaller size rocks with the help of crusher at quarry. Crusher
reduces the size of large rocks to the size of gravels.
2. Proportioning, Blending and Grinding: -
The raw materials from quarry are now routed in plant laboratory where, they
are analysed and proper proportioning of limestone and clay are making
possible before the beginning of grinding. Generally, limestone is 80% and
remaining 20% is the clay.
Proportioning of raw materials
Now cement plant grind the raw mix with the help of heavy wheel type
rollers and rotating table. Rotating table rotates continuously under the roller
and brought the raw mix in contact with the roller. Roller crushes the
material to a fine powder and finishes the job. Raw mix is stored in a pre-
homogenization pile after grinding raw mix to fine powder.
3. Pre-heating Raw Materials: -
After final grinding, the material is ready to face the pre-heating chamber.
Pre-heater chamber consists of series of vertical cyclone from where the raw
material passes before facing the kiln. Pre-heating chamber utilizes the
emitting hot gases from kiln. Pre-heating of the material saves the energy and
make plant environmental friendly.
Pre-heating of raw material | Vertical Cyclone
4. Kiln Phase: -
Kiln is a huge rotating furnace also called as the heart of cement making
process. Here, raw material is heated up to 1450 ⁰C. This temperature begins
a chemical reaction so called decarbonation. In this reaction material (like
limestone) releases the carbon dioxide. High temperature of kiln makes slurry
of the material.
Rotary Kiln
The series of chemical reactions between calcium and silicon dioxide
compounds form the primary constituents of cement i.e., calcium silicate.
Kiln is heating up from the exit side using natural gas and coal. When
material reaches the lower part of the kiln, it forms the shape of clinker.
5. Cooling and Final Grinding: -
After passing out from the kiln, clinkers are cooled by mean of forced air.
Clinker released the absorb heat and cool down to lower temperature.
Released heat by clinker is reused by recirculating it back to the kiln. This
too saves energy.
Clinker Cooling | cement making process Rotating Ball Mill
Final process of 5th phase is the final grinding. There is a horizontal filled
with steel balls. Clinker reach in this rotating drum after cooling. Here, steel
balls tumble and crush the clinker into a very fine powder. This fine powder
is considered as cement. During grinding gypsum is also added to the mix in
small percentage that controls the setting of cement.
6. Packing and Shipping: -
Transportation of cement from silos
Material is directly conveyed to the silos (silos are the large storage tanks of
cement) from the grinding mills. Further, it is packed to about 20-40 kg bags.
Only a small percent of cement is packed in the bags only for those
customers whom need is very small. The remaining cement is shipped in bulk
quantities by mean of trucks, rails, or ships.
TYPES OF PROCESS: -
Two types of process are used for manufacturing of cement i.e., Wet Process and
Dry Process. Generally, dry process is preferred rather than wet process in the
cement industries.
Wet Process: -
During the wet process, the raw mix is fed into the kiln in the form of slurry that
may contain water up to 30 to 40%. In the wet process, the kiln is a very long
tube in comparison to dry process, and the slurry that is easy to blend and
homogenize due to the water, is directly being fed into the kiln. Wet process
could be selected as manufacturing technology is when raw materials have
natural high moisture content. The amount of moisture in mineral sometimes can
be even more than 12%, as in case of chalk and in marlstone. The use of wet
process is also essential when relatively poor grade limestone needs to be
enriched through the beneficiation process. In this process, water is required as a
process media. Until 1950, most of the cement processing kilns were wet kilns
due to the ease of blending and homogenizing the components of the raw mix. In
the wet process, the fuel consumption is in the range of 1300 to 1600 Kcal/Kg of
clinker. Power consumption in manufacture process is about 110-115 kWh/ton of
cement (Cement Industry, India, 2004).
Dry Process: -
To reduce the moisture content of minerals below 1%, which is required for dry
process, the raw materials are dried in a combined drying and grinding plant.
This drying of materials is reached by using exhaust gases coming from the kiln.
The raw ground mix is homogenized in large silos. Development of appropriate
blending and homogenizing systems, in general, is crucial for making the dry
process practicable. The blended and homogenized raw mix is then fed into dry
kiln with air suspension preheater where partial calcination of the raw mix starts
to take place. Dry process is mostly limited to the use of air suspension preheater.
This provides maximum benefits since the heat consumption is an important
issue. Development of the dry process, using air suspension preheaters, is being
integrated with pre-calcinators. Pre-calcinators ensure complete calcination of the
raw mix before its entry to the kiln. The advantage of this process is that the fuel
consumption is lowest in the existing technologies. In the dry process, the fuel
use in this process is in the range of 750-950 Kcal/Kg of clinker and the power
consumption is in the range of 120-125 kWh/ton of cement (Cement Industry,
India, 2004).
