Re: Fuels

This problem of the clinker dusting with the conversion to petcoke firing has been reported from a number of Indian cement factories. I think you will find that your Grasim South factory at Reddipalayam is suffering similar problems. This has prompted me to research the problem and the Tech Forum article in the April issue of ICR will be based on this topic. From my research it seems that the excess sulphate in the clinker flux reduces the viscosity and surface tension of the liquid phases in the kiln. The sulphur content in the petcoke is causing the breakdown of the clinker nodules. With grey cement I would suggest increasing the melt content of the clinker, however with white clinker this is not possible. My only suggestion is to increase the alkali content of the clinker by addition of feldspar to the mix. This should combine the sulphur as alkali sulphate and solve the problem. Unfortunately nodulising the clinker before the cement mill will not solve your problem and will only increase your manufacturing costs.

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Fuels Question 16

What are the additional facilities required to use petcoke of sulphur content around eight per cent in a cement plant. Could you site some of the results of trial runs in cement plant using petcoke of eight per cent sulphur content.

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Re: Fuels

Eight per cent sulphur is very high and I don't know of any cement companies using petcoke of that sulphur content. This is likely to result in over two per cent sulphate in clinker and therefore the amount of gypsum that can be added in cement grinding will be limited. Possibly this coke could be used to produce mineralised clinker however extensive trials would be necessary.

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Fuels Question 17

Ours is ILC 5-stage pre-heater kiln with 3300tpd production capacity. Recently we have changed the kiln fuel from fuel oil to 100 per cent coal. The kiln torque in case of fuel oil firing used to vary between 28 and 38 on normal kiln running. After switching the kiln on coal, the torque figure remains between 6 and 11. The litre weight of the clinker remains between 1.35 where as on fuel oil the same varied between 1.22 and 1.28. Otherwise the operational parameters for kiln in both the cases are more or less same.

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