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Manufacturing process
From the limestone quarry to the delivery of the end product, follow every step in the cement
manufacturing process.

Step 1: Mining

The cement manufacturing process starts from the mining of raw

materials that are used in cement manufacturing, mainly limestone
and clays. A limestone quarry is inside the plant area and a clays
quarry is as far from the plant area as 25 km. The limestone is
excavated from open cast mines after drilling and blasting and loaded
onto dumpers which transport the materials and unload into hoppers
of limestone crushers. The clays are excavated from open cast mines
and loaded onto dumpers which transport the materials and unload
into open yard storage. Then it is transported by trucks and unloaded
into the hopper of a clay crusher. They are three types of clay used in
cement manufacturing, namely silty clay, Zafarana clay, and Kaolin.
Other raw materials are used to control the kiln feed mix
design, namely sand, and iron ore. The sand and iron ore are
transport from outside the plant (from different suppliers) by trucks and
unloaded into open yard piles, called sand and iron ore piles.

Step 2: Crushing, stacking, and reclaiming of raw materials

CO2 and cement
The limestone is crushed in the first crusher called a jaw crusher and
Why does the manufacture of
then fed into the second crusher called an impact crusher with mixing
cement produce CO2?
of clays to reduce particle size below 50mm. The discharged raw mix
Cement manufacturing is the
(limestone 70%, clays 30%) is fed onto a belt conveyor and passed
source of 5% of global CO2
across a bulk material analyzer. The raw mix is fed into a circular
emissions. The cement industry
storage unit called a raw mix storage. Then, the mix is extracted
is a natural producer of CO2:
transversely from the stockpile by reclaimers and conveyed to a raw
60% of emissions are due
mill bin called the raw mix bin for grinding.
to the transformation of raw
The other raw materials that are used in cement manufacturing,
materials at high
called additives, are high purity limestone, sand and iron ore. The
temperatures (the
high purity limestone is crushed in a lone in jaw crusher and then
"decarbonation" of
crushed more in a secondary crusher to reduce the size to completely
limestone)
pass through a 50mm sieve. Then, it is stacked by a limestone stacker
40% result from the
into a longitudinal storage unit called the limestone storage stockpile.
combustion required to heat
Finally, the limestone is extracted transversely from the stockpile by
the cement kilns to 1500°C
reclaimer and conveyed to a raw mill bin, called the limestone bin, for Sustainable construction
grinding. Climate change
Industrial ecology

Kiln reliability
Ensuring a good yield
The reliability coefficient of a kiln
is calculated by comparing the
number of lost time hours to the
number of operating hours.
Improving this indicator will be
key to achieving higher yield and
productivity targets set in the
Excellence 2008 program.
Lafarge Cement France saw its
efforts pay off when the reliability
coefficient of its kilns passed from

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3/1/2015 Manufacturing process < All about Cement < Cement : Lafarge: Print
92.8% in 2002 to 96.5% in 2006.

Step 3: Raw meal drying, grinding, and homogenization

The raw mix, high grade limestone, sand, and iron ore are fed from Recycling
their bins to raw mills, called air swept mills, for drying and fine
Recycled materials in cement
grinding. The raw mill contains two chambers, separated by
In 2006, the cements
diaphragm, namely a drying chamber and a grinding chamber. The
manufactured by Lafarge had an
hot gases coming from a preheater (preheater / kiln system) enter the
average additive content of 23%.
mill and are used in raw mills for drying. Then the drying materials
These additives were of natural
enter the grinding chamber of raw mills for fine grinding. The grinding
origin, such as limestone and
chamber contains a certain quantity of ball charge in a different sizes
volcanic rock, or industrial origin,
ranging from 30mm to 90mm. The hot gas and grinding materials mill
for example blast furnace slag (a
outlet feeds to a separator which separates fine and course product.
steel industry by­product) or fly
The latter, called reject, is sent to the mill inlet via an air slide for
ash (from coal­fired power
regrinding. The hot gas and fine materials enter a multistage
plants).
"cyclone" to separate a fine materials and gases. The fine material,
The use of additives:
called raw meal, is collected from the multi­cyclone and then fed into
enhances certain cement
an air slide for lifting called an Aeropol. The hot gases with very fine
properties
materials enter an electrostatic precipitator to separate the fine
recycles materials that
materials from gases. The very fine materials called preheater dust or
would otherwise have been
electrostatic separator dust is collected from filters and fed into screw
sent to landfill
conveyors and are then mixed with the fine material in an air slide
reduces the consumption of
and transported to an air lift vessel via air slide. In the air lift, the raw
natural raw materials
meal is lifted to the silo by compressed air to the air slide and then
reduces CO2 emissions
stored and homogenized in a concrete silo. Raw meal extracted from Glossary
the silo, now called kiln feed, is fed to the top of the preheater via an Industrial ecology
air lift called the Poldos for pyro­processing.

Glossary
Industrial ecology
Innovative products
Science in our materials

Step 4: Clinkerization
Cement clinker is made by pyroprocessing of kiln feed into the preheater­kiln system. The preheater­kiln
system consists of a multi­stage cyclone preheater with five stages, combustion chamber, riser duct, rotary
kiln, and grate cooler. In the preheater, the kiln feed is preheated by hot gas coming from the combustion
chamber and rotary kiln. Then the preheated kiln feed is partially calcined (made powdery) in a
combustion chamber and riser duct and then completely calcined in a rotary kiln as well as heated to
approximately 1400 C to form clinker components C3A, C4AF, C2S, and C3S. The main source of heat is
natural gas. Natural gas is fired as a main fuel (100 %) in the main burner rotary kiln and a 95% natural
gas and 5.0% heavy oil combination in the combustion chamber. The fuel is used to provide the heat
required to convert the kiln feed into clinker. Hot clinker discharge from the kiln drops onto the grate cooler
for cooling from approximately 1350­1450 C to approximately 120 C. In the cooler, the quantity of cooling
air required for clinker cooling is extracted from the atmosphere by different cooling fans and fed into the
cooler chambers and pressurized through the cooler plate and clinker bed. The cooled clinker discharges
from the cooler into the pan conveyor and it is transported to the clinker storage. The clinker is taken from
the clinker storage to cement ball mill hoppers for cement grinding. Part of the hot air extracted from the
cooler is utilized as a secondary and tertiary air for combustion in rotary kiln and combustion chamber,
respectively.

Step 5: Cement grinding and storage

Clinker and gypsum for OPC, limestone for limestone cement, and slag for slag cement are all extracted
from their respective hoppers and fed to the cement mills. The ball mill grinds the feed to a fine powder in
two chambers, namely the first and second chambers. The two chambers have a certain quantity of ball

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3/1/2015 Manufacturing process < All about Cement < Cement : Lafarge: Print
charge of different sizes from 17mm to 90 mm. The mill discharge is fed to a bucket elevator which takes
the material to a separator which separates fine and coarse product. The latter is sent to the mill inlet for
regrinding and the final product is stored in concrete silos.

Step 6: Packing
Cement extracted from silos is conveyed to the automatic electronic packers where it is packed in 50 kg
bags and dispatched in trucks.

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