International Cement Review articles tagged under : Manufacturing Technology
Efficient grinding meets reduced CO2 emissions
While cement plants have made sound progress in terms of reducing CO 2 emissions from fuel consumption, progress relating to such emissions from electricity consumption has been slower. VDZ looks at a key power consumer in the modern cement plant: the grinding section. By Jonas Knappert, Kevin Treiber and Stefan Seemann, VDZ, Germany. Figure 1: electrical energy consumption of the ceme...
External circulation technology for VRM raw meal grinding
The pressure differential of a traditional vertical roller mill (VRM) system for raw meal grinding is high, with the fan accounting for about 45 per cent of power consumption. Sinoma International Engineering has dev...
Countdown for Bardon
As part of LafargeHolcim’s Capital Markets Day in 2018, guests enjoyed a site visit to Europe’s largest aggregates quarry at Bardon Hill, east of Coalville, Leicestershire, UK. Owned by LafargeHolcim subsidiary Aggre...
The digital quarry
Quarries often give the impression that they have been forgotten in capital investment projects, having bypassed technological changes for several years. However, the quarry is where production starts and here, moder...
Processing depth for AFs
In his paper ‘A new approach to burning alternative fuels’, delivered at the Cemtech Europe 2018 conference in Istanbul, Turkey, Oral Turesay of KHD Humboldt Wedag introduced the concept of ‘processing depth’. His th...
Portland cement, lime and alkali-activated binders
Following on from last month’s discussion regarding the production of alternatives to Portland cement clinker, Arthur Harrisson takes a closer look at alkali-activated binders. Fly ash needs to be activated to...
A cooler for the future
To reduce frequent clinker cooler downtime and high clinker temperatures a US cement plant required a new cooler to be installed. As an additional benefit future upgrades would also be easier to carry out. By IKN, Ge...
Digital twins
Established for some time in industries such as automotive, logistics and even healthcare, digital twins are becoming more widespread. For the cement industry digital twins can also provide benefits as they enable ac...
Belite appearance in clinkers
This month Arthur Harrisson looks at the second-most abundant constituent of cement – belite – and its appearance in clinkers. Figure 1: Type I belite with multiple sets of parallel laminations. The blue cryst...
Modular miracles
Cement producers looking for fast entry into growing small- and medium-sized markets are increasingly looking at employing the light-asset approach. Modular and mobile grinding systems can provide a versatile and cos...
Alternative clinkers
The drive to lower the carbon footprint of cement has led to the development of alternative cement clinkers to replace Portland cement clinker. Arthur Harrisson examines the potential of carbon reduction in four alte...
Admixtures and sustainability
With reducing the environmental impact of cement manufacture high on the agenda for producers, sustainable cement additives based on renewable materials can contribute towards reducing a plant’s carbon footprint and ...
FCB Horomill® turns 25
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the FCB Horomill ® , a breakthrough technology for raw meal, cement, slag and minerals grinding. Having actively participated in the development of the mill, Buzzi Unicem refle...
Bearing the load
Due to its inherent characteristics, cement production is one of the most severe processing environments and the bearings employed must be reliable, tough and robust to withstand such harsh operating conditions. By N...
Aluminium and iron in clinker
Aluminium and iron are two of the key components in Portland cement clinker. Varying their presence in clinker can have significant effects on the final clinker. Arthur Harrisson looks at some of the impacts of such ...
The intelligent enterprise
In a commoditised business such as cement, companies are using lean, intelligent processes to enable efficient production and timely delivery. Optimising processes and operations presents an opportunity for producers...