Chemical Industries

ChE 422/521

Module #7
Cement Industries
By
Dr. Ghadeer Al-Malkawi

Spring 2017
 Cement
A special ceramic is hydraulic (or water-cured) cement.
World production of hydraulic cement is about 1.5 billion tons
per year.
The top three producers are China, Japan, and the United States.
When mixed with sand and gravel, we obtain concrete, the most
widely utilized construction material in industrialized nations.

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 Cements History
Ancient Romans and Greeks, 2,000 years ago, pioneered
the use of cement.

Its unique chemical and physical properties produced a

material so lasting that it stands today in magnificent
structures such as the Pantheon in Rome.\
Roman cement consisted of a mixture of powdered lime
(CaO) and volcanic ash (a mixture of mainly SiO2, Al2O3,
and iron oxide)called pozzolana.

This mixture hardens in the presence of water.

Contemporary hydraulic cementfor example Portland

cement (invented by Joseph Aspdin and named after a
natural stone from the island of Portland in England,
which it resembles)has a composition similar to that of
pozzolanic cement.
 Basic composition
The chief ingredients of Portland cement are
di- and tricalcium silicates and tricalcium
aluminate.

In the reduced nomenclature given in the

table to the right

These ingredients would be expressed as

C2S, C3S, and C3A, respectively.

Portland cement is produced to have a

specific surface area of ~ 300 m2/kg and
grains between 20 and 30 m.

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 Portland cement composition.

The average overall composition of Portland cement is given in the

following Table

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 Setting and hardening reactions
The setting reactions for Portland cement are similar to those for the ancient pozzolanic
cement. The first reaction is the hydration of C3A. This reaction is rapid, occurring within
the first 4 hours. It causes the cement to set.

C3A + 6H = C3AH6 + heat

The C3AH6 phase, or ettringite, is in the form of rods and fibers that interlock.

The second reaction, which causes the cement to harden, is slower. It starts after about 10
hours and takes more than 100 days to complete. The product is tobermorite gel, a
hydrated calcium silicate (Ca3Si2O7.3H2O), which bonds everything together.

2C2S + 4H = C3S2H3 + CH + heat

2C3S + 6H = C3S2H3 + 3CH + heat

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 Cement Hardening
Scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) has been one tool that
has been used to examine
cement at various stages in the
setting and hardening process.
Figure 2.8 shows an SEM
image recorded 8 days into the
hardening process.
The plate-like features are
calcium hydroxide (CH); the
cement (Ct) grains are already
completely surrounded by the
tobermorite gel (called CSH in
the figure).

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 Reactions rates

The development of
strength with time for
Portland cement is
shown in Figure 2.9.

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Heat as a byproduct
In very large concrete structures,
such as the Hoover Dam at the
NevadaArizona border in the
United States, heat is a potential
problem.
Cooling pipes must be embedded in
the concrete to pump the heat out.
These pipes are left in place as a sort
of reinforcement.

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 Heat as a byproduct
In the case of the Hoover Dam,
the construction consisted of a
series of individual concrete
columns rather than a single
block of concrete.
It is estimated that if the dam
were built in a single continuous
pour, it would have taken 125
years to cool to ambient
temperatures.
The resulting stresses would have
caused the dam to crack and
possibly fail.
 Cement manufacturing
It involves the following steps
1) Crushing, and Grinding/Mixing of
raw material
2) Burning
3) Grinding
4) Storage and packaging
 1) Crushing, and Grinding/Mixing of raw material
This stage can be done by any one of the following two
processes

(a) Dry process

(account for more than 85% of the global production of cement)

(a) Wet process

 Dry Process
1. Lime stone or chalk and clay are crushed into crusher to get 2-5 cm size
pieces.

2. Crushed material is ground to get fine particle into ball mill or tube mill.

3. Each material after screening stored in a separate hopper.

4. The powder is mixed in require proportions to get dry raw mix which is
stored in silos (storage tank) and kept ready to be fed into the rotary kiln.

Raw materials are mixed in required proportions so that average composition

of the final product is maintained properly.
 Wet Process
1. Raw materials are crushed, powdered and stored in silos.

2. The clay is washed with water in wash mills to remove adhering organic matter.
The washed clay is stored separately.

3. Powdered lime stone and wet clay are allowed to flow in channel and transfer to
grinding mills where they are intimately mixed and paste is formed known as
slurry. Grinding may be done either in ball mill or tube mill or both.

4. Then slurry is led to correcting basin where chemical composition may be

adjusted. The slurry contains 38-40% water stored in storage tank and kept ready
for feeding to a rotary kiln.
Comparison of dry process and wet process

The remaining two operations burning and grinding are same for both processes.
 2) Burning
Burning is carried out in rotary kiln which rotating at 1-2 rpm at its longitudinal axis.
Rotary kiln is steel tubes having diameter in between 2.5 to 3 meter and length varies from 90
to 120 meter.
The inner side of kiln is lined with refractory bricks.
The kiln is rested on roller bearing and supported columns of masonry or concrete in slightly
inclined position at gradient of 1 in 25 to 1 in 30.
The raw mix or corrected slurry is injected into the kiln from its upper end. Burning fuel like
powdered coal or oil or hot gases are forced through the lower end of the kiln so long hot
flame is produced.
Cement Kiln
Due to inclined position and slow rotation of the kiln, the material charged from
upper end is moving towards lower end (hottest zone) at a speed of 15meter/hour.
 Burning . Drying and Calcining
As gradually descends the
temperature is rises.

In the upper part, water or

moisture in the material is
evaporated at 400oC
temperature, so it is known as
drying zone.

In the central part (calcination

zone), temperature is around
1000oC, where decomposition
of lime stone takes place.
CaCO3 CaO + CO2
 Burning . Clinkering
The lower part (clinkering zone) have temperature in between 1500-1700oC where
lime and clay are reacts to yielding calcium aluminates and calcium silicates.
This aluminates and silicates of calcium fuse to gather to form small and hard
stones are known as Clinkers.

The size of the clinker is varies from 5-10mm.

2CaO + SiO2 Ca2SiO4 (dicalcium silicate (C2S))

3CaO + SiO2 Ca3SiO5 (tricalcium silicate (C3S))
3CaO + Al2O3 Ca3Al2O6 (dicalcium aluminate (C2A))
4CaO + Al2O3 + Fe2O3 Ca4Al2Fe2O10 (tetracalcium aluminoferrite (C4AF))
 Cooling
As clinkers are coming from burning zone, they are very hot. The clinkers are
cooled down by air admitting counter current direction at the base of rotary kiln.
Resulting hot air is used for burning powdered coal or oil.
Cooled clinkers are collected in small trolleys or in small rotary kiln.
 3) Clinker (cement) Grinding
Cooled clinkers are ground to
fine powder in ball mill or tube
mill.
2-3% powdered gypsum is
added as retarding agent during
final grinding.
So that, resulting cement does
not settle quickly, when comes
in contact with water.
4) Storage and packaging
The ground cement is stored in silos, from which it is marketed either
in container load or 50kg bags.
Thank You