World Cement August Issue 22

August 2022

The leader in cement shipping solutions is about to set everyone on their ear. Again.

CONTENTS 03 Comment 05 News REGIONAL REPORT: LATIN AMERICA 10 New And Improved Cement Production For Fortaleza Rafael Toppel, Votorantim Cimentos, reports on a new grinding facility in Pecém, Northeast Brazil.

14 Using Heat To Help Out Luis Filipe von Rainer Fabiani and Tiago Guelfi de Freitas, Dynamis, highlight the features of a new Fluidised Hot Gas Generator, recently installed at Votorantim Cimentos’ Pecém plant.

LOADING, UNLOADING, LOGISTICS & DISPATCH 19 This Is Big PSCL explains how cloud application technology has enabled the next step in the end-to-end integration of physical and business processes.

25 Aeration Advantages Austin Anderson, Vortex, walks through the maintenance-friendly features of loading and aerated conveying systems, and their promise in the cement industry.

29 Figuring Out Feeding Dr. Dominik Aufderheide and Dr. Luigi Di Matteo, DI MATTEO Group, delve into a system theoretic approach to AF feeding line architectures and the various ways a cement plant can ensure an uninterrupted fuel supply.

REFRACTORIES & THERMOGRAPHY 41 Too Hot To Handle Derek Stuart, AMETEK Land, discusses how effective temperature measurements are able to enhance cement kiln performance and longevity.

47 Stretching Lining Lifetimes Pankaj Gupta, HASLE Refractories, discusses a new precast modular lining helping Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works cut downtime by boosting the lifetime of their equipment.

MAINTENANCE & WELDING 50 Protecting Machines With Prediction Sunil Vedula, Nanoprecise, explains how AI and IoT can be implemented in cement manufacturing facilities to optimise production processes, and predict machine faults before they occur.

57 Seeking Sustainability With Wear Protection Martin Kirchgassner, Castolin Eutectic, explains how preventive maintenance and repairs based on advanced wear protection solutions can extend the life of critical machinery.

FILTRATION & DUST CONTROL 61 Purifying The Planet Kenneth Helm, Nordic Air Filtration, explores how new filter bag designs can address dust pollution issues in various areas of the cement production process.

GRINDING & MILLING 37 Reducing Waste With Residual Solid Fuels Cristian Muriel, Satarem, reviews a low-CAPEX project to adapt a vertical milling circuit to take advantage of solid fuel residues.

August 2022

ON THE COVER North America’s PSCL has long provided software and hardware solutions for cement distribution. Now, with a web app and IoT devices, they’re providing end-to-end services for customers at every level in the industry.

In their article on pg. 19, Craig Leavitt, VP of Development & Innovation at PSCL, outlines some of the new processes and devices at PSCL’s Customer Experience Centre.

The leader in cement shipping solutions is about to set everyone on their ear. Again.

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August 2022 World Cement

DAVID BIZLEY, EDITOR

T

he UK recently broke something of an unhappy record with temperatures on 19 July hitting the 40˚C (104˚F) mark for the first time.

For a day or so, the weather across much of a country renowned for its mild and rainy climate resembled that of Phoenix, Arizona.

Unlike Arizona, however, the UK is simply not set up to cope with this kind of heat, not least because the vast majority of homes have no air conditioning. Over the two day period covered by the Met Office’s first ever ‘red’ heat warning: fires broke out (the London Fire Brigade endured its busiest day since the Second World War, reporting 2600 calls instead of the usual upper limit of 500), the runway at Luton airport developed a ‘surface defect’ requiring it to be closed, and train services were disrupted as rails reached 62˚C (143.6˚F), causing them to warp and buckle.

And it’s not just the UK that has been dealing with the consequences of soaring temperatures over recent weeks; high temperatures have seen France’s Gironde region suffer from two devastating wildfires that have destroyed more than 20 000 hectares of forest, displaced thousands, and required 1800 firefighters and seven helicopters to stabilise. Fires caused by extreme heat have also broken out in Portugal, Greece, and elsewhere on the continent.

According to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we are already living in the hottest period for 125 000 years and, since the beginning of the industrial era, the global average temperature has already risen by 1.1˚C. This in itself doesn’t sound too dramatic, but it is the knock-on effects caused by this increase that drive extreme climate events. Prof Stephen Belcher, Chief of Science & Technology at the Met Office made it clear when interviewed by the BBC that the 40˚C temperatures recently experienced in the UK would have been “virtually impossible” without manmade greenhouse gas emissions.

This is why it’s never been more important for the cement industry to continue its drive to cut emissions and ultimately reach net zero. It’s also why it’s reassuring to see industry leaders taking solid steps towards this goal. Below are just a few announcements from recent weeks: ff HeidelbergCement’s ANRAV CCUS project in Bulgaria has received EU funding. The project will link carbon capture facilities at Devnya Cement through a pipeline system with offshore permanent storage under the Black Sea. ff CEMEX has signed a ten-year agreement to purchase 100% clean electricity from ACCIONA Energía to cover 30% of the electric power required for CEMEX’s cement operations in Spain. ff Holcim has secured two investments from the EU Innovation Fund for its breakthrough CCUS projects in Germany and Poland.

Large-scale projects and agreements like these (along with an ongoing drive for efficiency improvements and optimisation throughout the industry) will be vital to ensuring the viability of the cement industry’s path to net zero. World Cement will be there to keep you updated every step of the way.

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NEWS MSG Group inks a deal for a cement plant in Berbera, Somaliland

MSG Group of Companies through its DIFC Dubai based subsidiary company Horn Holding Group ltd (HHG) has signed an agreement with Bedeschi SPA for the construction of phase 1 of a full cement plant which will take about 18 months and have an installed production capacity of 700 000 tpy of cement. The entire full plant project will take three years to complete with a production capacity of 3300 t of cement and 3000 t of clinker per day. The agreement is as a result of negotiations lasting over year led by Bergs & More a leading law, tax and financial advisory firm with well established presence in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Somaliland is a net importer of cement hence this facility will put it not only in the maps of a cement producing nation but also an exporter of cement earning the country the much-needed revenues as well boosting the exports with a long-term positive effect on the country’s balance of trade. Phase 1 of the project is expected to translate into employment opportunities for locals during both the construction phase as well as once the factory comes to life. An estimated 300 Somalilanders are expected to benefit directly from this project by way of employment, and another 200 plus will benefit indirectly. To the region, the project will provide economic growth through opening infrastructural development as well as trading opportunities for both wholesale and retail businesses.

Its proximity to the Berbera port, will be key to the export of the cement which will, in the long run, lower shipping costs to Berbera since the freight companies would have a range of cement products to ship outbound.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mr. Mohamed Said Guedi, the group Chairman, expressed high confidence that the project would be a success and will be one whose economic benefits will not only flow back to the MSG group but as well to the government of Somaliland and its citizens. MSG group is widely known for its appetite for undertaking huge, complex projects, having successfully deployed fibre-optic cable across Somaliland linking Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia.

August 2022 World Cement

The general public believe that the project will be a success owing to the past successes as well as the experience of the Group Management team which is a blend of different multinationals tapping on the diverse talent abilities within its work force.

With a population of about 6 million inhabitants an area of about 177 000 km2 and a strategic location in the Horn of Africa facing the coast of the Arabian Peninsula Somaliland needs to accelerate its growth in terms of both infrastructure and as well as planned urban development. “Building a cement plant is therefore a strategic operation which will be of benefit to the country” noted Mr. Ahmed Said (Director HHG). “In addition, the agreement may pave way for further forms of collaboration and brings an Italian company that is a leader in its own sector to a new, unprecedented, complex and at the same time concrete untapped market” added Ricciardi, partner at Bergs & More.

“We are very proud of this project; it will be a state-of-the-art installation particularly from the environmental impact and power consumption point of view. Our R&D Department is constantly working to improve the efficiency and sustainability of our solutions as a main focus of our development strategy,” commented President Rino Bedeschi.

Founded in 1908, Bedeschi SpA is today one of Europe’s oldest companies specialising in the creation of turnkey solutions for Bulk material handling, Container logistics and bricks.

Horn Holding Group Ltd, founded and headquartered in Dubai with a branch in Somaliland, is headed by Mr. Mohamed Said Guedi (Chairman and Founder of MSG group of companies). The group is diverse with specialisation in Telecommunications & fibre-optic cables and internet provision, Manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, construction, energy generation and distribution, logistics, shipping, transit services and real estate and property management.

It employs over 700 employees with headquarters in Dubai and Djibouti.

The groundbreaking was been earmarked for July 2022 at the proposed project site in Berbera Somaliland.

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NEWS DIARY XXXVIII FICEM Technical Congress 2022 05 – 07 September, 2022 Cancun, Mexico https://congresotecnico2022. ficem.org POWTECH 2022 27 – 29 September, 2022 Nürnberg, Germany www.powtech.de BulkEx 22 18 – 19 October, 2022 Kenilworth, United Kingdom www.mhea.co.uk/bulkex22 2022 IEEE East Coast Conference 20 – 21 October, 2022 Birmingham, Alabama, USA https://ieee-ias-eastcoast.com TÜRKÇIMENTO 24 – 28 October, 2022 Serik/Antalya, Turkey www.turkcimento.org.tr bauma 2022 24 – 30 October, 2022 Munich, Germany www.bauma.de WCT 2022 09 November, 2022 ONLINE CONFERENCE www.worldcement.com/ wct2022

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Successful start of trade show trio

Good things come to those who wait. After the break caused by COVID-19, the trade show trio Solids, Recycling Technology, and Pumps & Valves 2022 in Dortmund proved to be an indispensable business platform. In summery temperatures and despite the new challenges caused by the crisis, almost 4000 visitors finally exchanged views with the experts of the 430 exhibitors face-to-face again, followed the numerous technical lectures and live explosion demonstrations, and explored the exhibition along one of the four topical tours. For many, it was important to be able to turn to the experts with concrete concerns for technical challenges.

“Like everyone involved, we were very pleased to finally be back on site in Dortmund with the trade shows. The large number of well-known companies and the intensive discussions at the stands clearly show us how important the personal exchange and how useful the new trade show combination is for the industries”, confirmed Sandrina Schempp, Head of Processing Cluster from the organiser Easyfairs Deutschland GmbH. For the first time, the representatives of three trade shows presented themselves at the same time in Dortmund. The combination of Solids, Recycling-Technik and Pumps & Valves was very well received by exhibitors and the public, because the sectors around the processes of pouring, recycling and pumping are closely linked.

With more than 3800 trade visitors from various sectors, the trade show trio was therefore well attended despite the new crisis-related challenges such as high inflation, sharply rising energy prices and still disrupted supply chains. Representatives of renowned companies such as BASF, Caterpillar, Estato Umweltservice, Haribo, Volkswagen or Stahlwerke Bochum went in search of new technologies on the two days of the trade show. The visitors were often looking for very specific solutions to technical challenges in their plants. Optimally prepared, the representatives of bulk solids, recycling, valves and pump technology showed their possibilities and were able to make numerous valuable contacts. This ensured great satisfaction among visitors and exhibitors.

Cynthia Günther, Strategic Buyer at Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, can also confirm this: “I was at the trade show because we have a design problem with a slide valve. I was hoping to find a supplier or dealer at the show who would support us with our request, and fortunately we did. I have found someone who is now taking on the project together with us.”

In addition to the promising innovations, the visitors were also enthusiastic about the informative show programme. Many listeners followed the high caliber lectures on the stages of the Innovation and Solution Centres and picked up valuable and practical suggestions.

The pre-planned topical tours were also well received. Numerous visitors took advantage of the opportunity to explore the exhibition along one of these routes and obtained specific information on certain core topics. In addition, there was still plenty of room to discuss markets that are under pressure. Besides process automation and World Cement August 2022

NEWS sustainable production, fire and explosion protection, agricultural and feed technologies were on the tour programme.

The successful debut of the three trade shows in Dortmund and the positive response of the participants encourage the trade show organiser Easyfairs Deutschland GmbH to continue to rely on the trio in the future. Just in time for the end of this year’s event, participants can already start thinking about the next edition of the big three on 29 and 30 March 2023. Until then, the organisers and experts will keep the community of Solids, Recycling-Technik and Pumps & Valves Dortmund up to date via blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Lubrication Engineers introduces Easy Bar with Almasol

Easy Bar® with Almasol® (9210) features a unique blend of mineral and metal lubricants suspended in a solid polymer binder that melts at approximately 49˚C (120˚F). Almasol, LE’s solid EP additive, provides an extra layer of wear protection to the proven technology of Easy Bar. When the bar is placed between the tire bore and shell, the binder melts – leaving no residue – and the rolling action of the kiln distributes the lubricant to create a film that protects against costly steel-on-steel contact. Due to high temperatures and high loads, proper lubrication of the tire bore is essential to minimise shell ovality, protect wear pads, and lengthen refractory life. The auto-ignition point of the bar is 538˚C (1000˚F), one of the highest in the industry, which prevents dangerous flame-ups.

Easy Bar has been the industry standard for solid bar technology since 1995. Its patented solid bar lubricant has prevented unplanned downtime and reduced costs for organisations around the world.

“With Lubrication Engineers and its large network of U.S. consultants and international distributors, we can reach even more kiln operators, helping them with a holistic approach that includes their other lubrication reliability needs,” said Clay Lockett CEO, of Easy Bar. “With our 30 years of serving the industrial lubricant marketplace, we are excited to partner with a company that is focused on helping customers. Together, we will work to lower total 8

cost of ownership for cement, pulp and paper, and other operations that use kilns and dryers.”

Avoiding downtimes caused by diaphragm plate breakage

When a single plate in an intermediate diaphragm breaks, grinding balls get into the inner construct of the diaphragm and can destroy it immediately. The breakage of a plate in a diaphragm entails repair work lasting several days and can even lead to the complete destruction of the entire diaphragm and thus stop production indefinitely. Due to the global logistic crisis, getting the right wear parts can take time and thus enlarge the unscheduled downtime. Especially in view of massively increasing energy prices resulting in high production costs, avoiding unplanned production downtimes is becoming an existential factor.

For this reason, grinding plant specialist Christian Pfeiffer developed high-performance and reliable FLEXCORE technology plates. The unique hardened rolled steel has a breaking strength of up to 60 HRC due to a very hard shell and gradually softer material towards the core. Due to this technology the plates are wear- and breakage-resistant and maintenance can be planned to the exact day. What is more: the rapid availability of rolled steel plates is always guaranteed.

Robust, efficient, and easy to maintain The innovative design of the slotted plates results in a significantly more efficient and energy-saving grinding process compared to plates made of cast materials. In addition, the division of the plates lead to an effortless maintenance and replacement of the main wear zones or single plates. The conical shape of the FLEXCORE plate slots make an optimised material flow possible and thus avoids the risk of a slot blockage.

The separation of air and material flow, a major development by Christian Pfeiffer, also ensures that so-called ‘dead zones’ (zones without material to be ground) directly behind the mill diaphragm are avoided. The result is a superior and much more efficient grinding process.

World Cement August 2022

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New and improved cement production for Fortaleza Rafael Toppel, Votorantim Cimentos, reports on a new grinding facility in Pecém, Northeast Brazil.

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V

otorantim Cimentos’ first grinding plant, located in the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex, in the state of Ceará (CE), in the northeast of Brazil, started operating in 2008 to primarily serve the market in the metropolitan region of the state capital, Fortaleza. At the time, its cement production capacity was 200 000 tpy. The facility received its clinker from another Votorantim Cimentos plant located in the city of Sobral, also in the state of Ceará, transported via rail and road.

The development of a steel operation in the Pecém Complex and the consequent availability of slag for the production of cement made it possible to expand the existing grinding plant from 200 000 to 1 million tpy. The new plant, which receives clinker from the same source (resulting in lower production costs), enabled the expansion of the market radius and an improvement in the quality of the services provided to customers. In addition, the availability of slag in Pecém enabled the company to postpone clinker production investments

in other locations, aligning the project with Votorantim Cimentos’ 2030 Sustainability Commitments.

The plant

Occupying an area of 948 500 m2, Votorantim Cimentos’ Pecém plant has an open-air slag storage capacity of 800 000 t and a closed storage clinker capacity of 21 200 t in addition to other cement grinding additives.

These materials are handled by yellow line equipment. The open-air slag stock is reclaimed by an excavator equipped with a crusher bucket to process the

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clods that form over time and a hopper that feeds the mill’s dosing silo.

The plant is equipped with a 3000 kW FLSmidth OK-33 mill with two inlets for raw materials, one dry and one wet – the latter to reduce clogging; both of them have rotating locks, one of which is heated.

The Hamon bag-type filter is directly attached to the mill, and the cement is transported to the silo by chutes and elevators.

The grinding unit produces 115 t of CP III cement per hour with an average slag addition of 60 – 70%, which reduces the company’s environmental footprint.

The facility chose vertical mills instead of ball mills because of a recognised higher drying capacity and lower electricity consumption, especially when working with higher slag consumption.

To provide the energy necessary to dry wet slag (approximately 10% and 13%, depending on the time of year) a Dynamis Hot Gas Generator (HGG), with the capacity to generate up to 12 GCAL/h (or 50 GJ/h) was installed. In line with Votorantim Cimentos’ goal of reducing emissions, the equipment can be powered by biomass or low-sulfur petroleum coke.

The fuels are stored in a closed 1300 t capacity warehouse. The installed HGG can operate in a wide range of capacities, varying between 30% and 100%, which is important for the production of cements that require lower energy input.

To resolve the issue of lumps forming in the silo, the cement produced is cooled to a temperature below 70˚C by an FLSmidth cement cooler. Cooling water is kept in a closed circuit made up of cooling towers, which not only minimises water consumption but also aligns with the company’s sustainability goals.

To provide flexibility, the company chose a multi-chamber silo for cement storage. This Claudius Peters silo has a 10 000 t capacity divided into one 4000 t and three 2000 t chambers. It is equipped with a bulk loading trunk with a loading capacity of 250 tph.

The silo feeds a Haver & Boecker bagging machine with a capacity of 180 tph to fill 50 kg bags. It works together with a Beumer palletiser with the similar capacity. This system also allows for the shipment of cement in bags of different sizes.

The equipment is installed in a 40 x 90 m warehouse, with a ceiling height of 8.2 m and a storage capacity of up to 5678 t of bagged cement.

To accommodate the increase in demand, the existing power substation was expanded.

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A larger 12.5/15 MVA transformer with corresponding medium-voltage feeder cubicles was installed in the new facility. The entire electrical system is made up of Schneider distribution, control, and protection equipment installed in a total of four e-houses. A Schneider medium-voltage frequency inverter was also installed in the mill’s process fan.

The other inverters (VFDs) – such as the drive of the mill separator, which had its power increased to enable the production of high Blaine cements – are low voltage. For automation, the company used Schneider equipment.

To complement road dispatch, the existing rail branch was expanded by another 2600 m, making it possible to both ship cement by train to supply distribution centres in the region and circulate production inputs (clinker and limestone).

Approximately 38% of all shipments are expected to be made by train. A small engine with a traction capacity of up to 1000 t was acquired for input unloading and clinker loading manoeuvres.

Some parts of the existing plant, such as the central panel, laboratory, restaurant, warehouse, entrance gate, and truck parking lot were expanded and adapted to meet new needs and accommodate the additional staff.

Engineering

For the Pecém expansion, Votorantim Cimentos continued its practice of following the information provided by the main equipment suppliers (in this case: FLSmidth, Dynamis, Claudius Peters, Haver & Boecker, and Beumer) to develop and coordinate the engineering project and the engagement of local civil, mechanical, electrical, and automation engineering companies.

Construction

The construction of the new Pecém mill began with land grading in August 2020, followed by the laying of the foundations. Only the silo required piles to be drilled – the other facilities were built directly on the foundations.

In March 2020, when the government of the state of Ceará declared a lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, construction was interrupted and the contractors were demobilised. At that time, the project was only 25% completed.

Once the restrictions on movement were lifted, in September 2020, the contracts were renegotiated and construction work resumed, following the state health protocols that allowed the size of the workforce to gradually increase.

World Cement August 2022

Under normal circumstances, the number of workers on a project increases as the work progresses.

In this case, the increase took place as allowed by the state, which dictated the pace of the project.

The health restrictions also applied to the project management team. Older employees were moved out of the project, creating an additional challenge to restructure the team.

Votorantim Cimentos also implemented mass testing of workers to ensure that the construction project progressed smoothly.

The tests made it possible to quickly identify and isolate positive cases and their close contacts,which was key for maintaining continuity during the pandemic.

These procedures ensured that the grinding unit could be ready to start up on July 11, 2021.

Management, safety, and commissioning

The project followed an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (E+P+C) model managed by Votorantim Cimentos.

The company’s active participation in project management resulted in better alignment with the needs of the operation.

Health & Safety are non-negotiable values for Votorantim Cimentos. When construction was halted, turnover was practically 100%, which required an increase in staff dedicated to safety management and actions against COVID-19.

The company’s safety department was responsible for enforcing the health protocols and addressing the challenges that came with the pandemic.

According to operational requirements and needs, the process of commissioning the new industrial plant was carried out by an experienced team that was independent from the team responsible for the construction of the new grinding facility and reported to the project management.

The execution, quality, and testing control procedures ensured a successful start-up and rapid ramp-up.

With this independent team, those responsible for construction were able to stay focused on the construction, navigating the existing restrictions.

About the author

Rafael Toppel is Project manager at Votorantim Cimentos.

Luis Filipe von Rainer Fabiani and Tiago Guelfi de Freitas, Dynamis, highlight the features of a new Fluidised Hot Gas Generator, recently installed at Votorantim Cimentos’ Pecém plant.

A

fluidised bed hot gas generator (bubbling type), known as the D-FBed Chamber, has been in operation since last year. It was designed by Dynamis for Votorantim Cimentos’ newest cement mill at its Pecém plant.

The D-FBed Chamber has the capability to work with sand as inert material to support combustion, which generates very high thermal inertia, providing a stable system, even with fluctuations in the fuel characteristics, due to moisture or lower heating value (LHV).

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System characteristics

Figure 1. Exploded view of the HGG.

Figure 2. Fuel injection point into the combustion chamber with the screw conveyors.

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The fluidised bed system has significant flexibility in terms of the fuels the generator is able to use for combustion, such as coke, coal, or even lower cost fuels, such as biomass or alternative fuels.

This gives the customer multiple options with which to manage their fuel stock and carry out supply strategies, such as being able to buy the cheapest fuels available in a spot demand, or taking advantage of the seasonality of a specific fuel. Another main feature of the generator is that it is able to be fed fuels in high granulometry, without grinding them, which is very important for operational costs. Such features make it an attractive option in terms of OPEX and the competitiveness of the final product. Table 1 sets out some of the characteristics of the Dynamis D-FBed. The system starts with a hopper located in the fuel yard that feeds the combustion chamber (Figure 1) by a belt conveyor, being monitored by a detector and metal separator. In the case of small plants, an alternative can be considered in terms of layout, where a bucket elevator is installed instead of the belt, thus providing a smaller footprint.

The system is designed to operate 100% automatically with the control variable being the rotations of the screw conveyors, where each type of fuel requires its own pre-defined operations.

Additionally, the system also controls the minimum and maximum operating conditions of all equipment, the temperature and internal pressure of the combustion chamber, the bed height, and the recirculation gases or the fresh air injection for dilution air.

To go into more detail about its operation: for start-up, the fluidised bed system uses Dynamis burners, symmetrically distributed, featuring a high-quality combustion air injection system, with stainless steel nozzles. Those nozzles with the air distribution ring were specially designed to have a long service life and maximise fluidisation efficiency.

To complete the system, a load World Cement August 2022

of sand (with the correct grain size and bulk density for the application) is applied as an inert fluidising bed.

Table 1. D-FBed characteristics.

Parameters

Value

Nominal capacity

12 Gcal/h

HGG fuels

Coal or petcoke (< 30 mm) Biomass (< 50 mm)

Heating Fuel

Diesel oil

Hot Gas Temperature

800 – 900˚C

Hot Gas Flow Generated

30 000 – 43 200 kg/h

Expected pressure at the mill

-50 mm c.a.

Figure 3. Illustration of hot gas recirculation in Dynamis’ Fluidised Bed HGG design.

Operation

The actual operation of the D-FBed Chamber is simple: after heating the chamber and bed, the system can be fed with fuel in the fluidised bed and in this stage the control of the bed material is restricted to not reach a high enough fluidisation rate that could drag the sand and the ashes from the bed via pneumatic transport. After achieving the minimum temperature required by the fuel, and the fluidisation, the fuel injection process then begins until reaching a full load and regular operation commences.

Figure 4 shows details from the combustion chamber, the top row shows it empty with its combustion air injector nozzles, then with its bed filled with sand, and finally chamber being heated. The bottom row displays the operation phases: beginning with the bubbling, the start of fuel feed and then a stable combustion operation, and hot gas generation.

Dynamis designed its D-FBed Chamber to operate with high availability and reliability, eliminating the need for shutdowns for cleaning, removing the ash or adding the sand as fluidising material during regular operation, without shutdown or an unexpected maintenance outages.

One unique advantage of Dynamis’ project is the recirculation of hot gases, when operating in a 100% automatic mode.

This hot gas recirculation system, as shown in Figure 3, is designed to control the gas temperature without causing excessive cold air dilution – thus making the process more energy efficient and giving the system a high turndown ratio with operation now available at a lower capacity if necessary.

Looking to the future

Figure 4. Combustion chamber. Top: empty, filled, and heated. Bottom: bubbling, fuel feeding and combustion, and hot gas generation.

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The next steps that Dynamis has in store for its D-FBed Chamber technology are to widen its compatibility with a variety of alternative solid fuels.

For example, applications with 100% biomass, generating SynGas for combustion, applications for clinker and limestone production, and even for calcined clay – all so that any customer will have a path to neutralising the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions and achieving zero carbon.

World Cement August 2022

THIS IS

BIG PSCL explains how cloud application technology has enabled the next step in the end-to-end integration of physical and business processes.

P

SCL has long been recognised across North America for its automation solutions in the cement industry. Cement Distribution Management (CDM), Self-Service Loading (SSL) and Plant Portal (PP) manage physical processes as well as providing integration with ERPs and business processes for larger operations.

It was another PSCL program though, that yielded the methodology to integrate smaller

and remote processes in real time. FR8Works (Freightworks) incorporates IoT (Internet of Things) devices to allow even the smallest operators to track trucks and loads while reducing time and errors, and increasing safety.

Integrated into CDM and its new online app CDMConnect, all business and physical processes are now accounted for.

Each authorised user can quickly access the data that allows them to do their job.

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Scale of operation no longer matters. CDMConnect is designed to provide up-to-the-moment reliable data for an independent driver with their own truck, a large corporation with thousands of moving parts, or anything in between.

Craig Leavitt, VP of Development and Innovation at PSCL, outlines some of the new processes and devices at PSCL’s Customer Experience Centre: “This is what came out of FR8Works, and we’ve integrated it into CDMConnect: Bluetooth tags, RFID cards and barcode scanners. We have more physical devices that we’ve added into that ecosystem, like the updated kiosk, printers and more.”

“In addition, the PSCL’s green kiosk is now integrated into one self-contained unit. It can be mounted to a Strongarm or similar flexible pillar so drivers don’t need to get out of their trucks.

This reduces time on site and potential accidents.

There’s also a new UI that is more flexible than previous versions. And like the successful K5, these kiosks have been built to military grade (MIL-STD 810G) ensuring it can stand up to rugged use and extreme weather conditions.”

Meeting demand

There was an underserved entry level in the cement industry. Smaller operations had no idea what happened to shipments, even intra-company, leading to fraud and theft.

“By creating CDMConnect we utilised cloud application design to extend the capabilities of CDM, and in doing so removed the barriers that prevented smaller operations from benefiting from automation solutions,” adds Leavitt.

The entry level is now a subscription system. If there is a very low level of traffic (approximately one to five trucks per day) or simple one-off transactions, the person can log in and create their load before arriving on site.

It can be approved by the people they report to, and they can get their bill of lading. When they arrive at the plant, they scan into the system, and if everything is matched and approved, the gate is opened and there are bins for the various materials. The final scan at the bin ensures the materials are placed in the right location.

The benefits of scaling

With CDMConnect on smartphones, operators at the entry level – or those without any infrastructure – can create a load at a terminal, batch plant or elsewhere, and the workflow is the same. The driver receives it on their phone and marks it as delivered when they get to the location. An added benefit is the phone’s GPS confirms where the load was delivered.

Leavitt continues, “For these smaller, underserved markets, we now can bring them in. All the solutions are able to scale up or down.

The solution is matched to the opportunity instead of making the customer fit our predefined products. This is big.”

The scaling of CDM and CDMConnect is the new dimension added to PSCL’s offering. In the past there was a certain volume of trucks and cement terminals, and once product left the terminal there was no accurate way to determine what had happened to the load. Now, however, it is completely managed by software.

The next tier is a kiosk with software only – no physical paperwork is generated. Then kiosk to kiosk. And finally, the top tier in automation is stepping up to Bluetooth with tags which eliminates all personnel input. There is flexible identification. There is logging into the platform with a smartphone. You can identify with a card or automatically with Bluetooth.

Regardless of the way in which the information arrives, it all goes to CDMConnect. It is modular and able to mix and match like LEGO®.

Using an array of IoT devices and a cloud-based application, CDMConnect reduces human interaction and fraud while increasing product throughput and reporting accuracy.

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World Cement August 2022

Fraud prevention

It is an industry-wide open secret that ‘shrinkage’ leads to write downs in the cement industry.

While few will speak openly of it, companies can lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year, which translates into billions industry-wide.

With CDMConnect, there is no way around the system. Extensive automation and the removal of personnel input from the equation means the system can not be manipulated to a dishonest person’s advantage. Any attempts to do so are flagged, and the system notifies the right people to investigate.

A case study in workflow improvement

Previously, a PSCL client used the kiosks for on-scale material receiving. The setup there was suboptimal, but, at the time, it was the only solution that existed in the industry. The driver had to get out in order to interact with the kiosk, and the menuing system was complicated.

The system had no prior knowledge of what was loaded, who the driver was, and what they were there for. In terms of fraud, there was no way to determine how much he had when he loaded up. Nobody knew, and even if they did know, the information was in two disconnected information systems. The process of going back to check tickets and weights against each other manually was time consuming and labourious. For this client, IoT devices now sit alongside the existing installation, and the drivers with Bluetooth tags get off the scale right away. No personnel interaction is required. All required information is read from the tag and matched up inside CDMConnect, eliminating potential errors and fraud before they can occur.

The cement paradox

The people who manage and move raw materials and final cement product need to know how much material is in each location. Right now, when there is a cement shortage, it is a huge advantage knowing how much material is in each area for sales purposes, and to be able to manage that better. It has become more common for PSCL’s customers to say their silos are empty and trucks are still showing up to load. The lower the value of the material, the more valuable automation solutions are.

Customers have also reported that the lower the value of the material, the less time they want to spend on the paperwork and the administration side. When moving a low-value, slim-margin material back and forth, customers simply cannot afford an hour of admin on either side – they lose money on each transaction.

Customers have also asked for portable seals and tag scanners to create a chain of custody.

CDMConnect eliminates the need for these August 2022 World Cement

kinds of overhead-intensive processes. If there is a scale on either end, everyone can check the app for what is happening and no manual intervention is needed. If there is a problem, the app automatically flags it. Notifications are sent out and there is a visual indicator in CDMConnect’s dashboard.

Reporting and notifications

Everybody involved with a specific transaction – the terminal, the company, the carrier, and so on – can go in and verify the information on the dashboard of CDMConnect. There is a verification process. If there are any issues indicating potential fraud, the system flags them.

Every shipment can be analysed in as much detail as the customer wants, allowing them to see everything that has happened.

Each user is able to customise their dashboard to their specific job requirements and export reports tailored to their needs. Each notification type can be assigned a level of importance. For example, routine transactions can be viewed in bulk when the user performs that task, but errors or emergencies can be pushed immediately to the user’s smartphone for immediate response.

Each user sets what they want to hear about immediately, and what they want to deal with as routine transactions.

Similarly, companies can set user levels. Most companies likely do not want everyone to be able to create a shipment, but everyone involved in that shipment needs to see its progress and update it as required.

End-to-end

With CDMConnect, PSCL has been able to fill in the gaps that are turning out to be more and more important.

One example are raw materials like shredded tires. Waste fuels were expensive to manage, with many one-off solutions. Now, if there’s a tire plant in a remote area PSCL can create an order elsewhere and have it return to the plant, reducing time and admin costs on low-value materials. More revenue can be captured there, too, because there are many more small operations than big operations.

Parallel to that, for the giant operation there are thousands of small operations contained inside it. And there is a right solution for every size, whether the customer is a cement plant or a smaller aggregate supplier.

Leavitt concludes: “PSCL’s solutions have taken a step ahead when it comes to connecting physical processes. It’s very rare to find ticketing, financial and physical processes integrated and automated. That’s what makes it end-to-end.”

21

END TO SHIPPING SOLUTIONS “Our raw material piles have never been easier to manage. We know what we have on site, and misloads just don’t happen anymore.”

“With Bluetooth tags and other IoT devices handling the paperwork I can deliver more loads every day with no headaches.”

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O END No matter how big – or how small – you are, PSCL’s CDM and CDMConnect manage your unique part in cement distribution. Set up your operation your way and we’ll fit in right beside you with real-time automated data collection, user authorization, fraud prevention, increased safety and reduced errors. From the quarry to the batch silo, PSCL has your business covered end-to-end.

“ERP integration means we no longer manually reconcile transactions across multiple data systems.

We get accuracy and time savings.”

“Drivers stay in their trucks and they move steadily on and off site. Our safety is increased and errors and fraud are almost a thing of the past.”

“I know where we have product, when it will be there and how much we move at any moment. PSCL makes forecasting and planning a breeze.”

CONNECT THE DOTS.

Aeration advantages Austin Anderson, Vortex, walks through the maintenance-friendly features of loading and aerated conveying systems, and their promise in the cement industry.

W

hen designing systems for the handling of dry bulk materials, such as cement, it is important to consider the challenges associated with the material being handled and how to plan for future maintenance. Maintenance of these systems can be costly, time consuming, and dirty. Manufacturers of these systems must consider several key principles.

These include: minimising wear and abrasion to limit maintenance, decreasing production downtime, and extending product service life.

By sourcing and implementing products that can be both repaired and maintained in-line without being removed from the system, the consumer will benefit by saving in both upfront and future costs in terms of repairs and production downtime.

Loading spouts

Loading spouts provide fast and steady material flow during the loading of dry bulk materials such as cement into open and/or enclosed trucks, railcars, or stockpiles. When equipped with proper components, a loading system can be designed to capture fugitive dust, prevent material waste, ensure plant and environmental safety, and require minimal maintenance.

Loading systems are placed under an immense amount of pressure by the materials they handle.

Problems, such as cable fraying can naturally occur from wear and tear. To eliminate cable fraying, a loading spout can be equipped with an CNC-machined three-piece pulley with rounded edges and precision cable grooves. This design eliminates cable failure and other costly downtime for cable repair.

Many traditional spouts utilise eyebolts to guide the sleeve support rings during spout extension/retraction. The primary disadvantage of the eyebolts is their maintainability. If either the lifting cables or the outer sleeve need to be replaced, the eyebolts must either be removed from the sleeve or physically distorted (opened) to free the sleeve from the lifting cables.

To solve this maintainability issue, a spout can incorporate four spiral-shaped cable guides along the circumference of each outer support ring. The main advantage of spiral guides over eyebolts is that the lifting cables and/or the outer sleeve can be removed without having to manipulate the spiral guides. The lifting cables can be extracted from the spiral guides while the guides stay connected to the sleeve support rings.

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Most loading spouts feature a two or three-cable design. If one cable of a two or three-cable spout should break from wear or premature trucker pull away, it is inoperable until a repair is made.

Vortex Global’s four-cable lifting design provides stability and more lifting torque compared with some standard loading spouts. Should one cable on the Vortex four-cable spout break, the spout can be raised and lowered for maintenance, but it should be taken out of operation until the cable is replaced.

A cable can be easily replaced in the specially machined pocket within the Vortex drive hub.

Loading spout filtration systems

Spout filtration systems are engineered to capture the fugitive dust emitted from the spouts and deposit it back into the material flow during the loading process, eliminating material loss.

These filtration systems are more cost-effective than central dust collection systems and offer in-line maintenance features. Magnehelic® pressure gauges provide differential pressure readings. When high differential pressure is indicated, filter cartridge maintenance or replacement is needed.

Filtration systems that feature hinged panels secured by a handled, stationary clamping mechanism help accelerate the inspection and maintenance processes and allow interior access without tools.

Loading spout positioners

Positioners are used in conjunction with standard volume loading spouts to facilitate and speed up the loading of open or enclosed trucks and railcars at loadout stations.

Internally vented spout positioners allow for dust control during the loading process. While the hopper and spout remain attached to the positioner, hopper seal replacement can be easily performed to limit downtime.

A loading spout with dual axis positioner for handling cement.

Vortex aeration systems assist at tail terminal.

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Case study: loading spout with dual axis positioner handling cement In this truck loadout application, a cement plant in Arizona sourced a Vortex Loading Spout and Dual-Axis Spout Positioner to assist in their application.

This spout features a 14 in. (355 mm) outlet scavenger. The positioner is capable of positioning 1 ft (305 mm) front-to-back and side-to-side above a truck. The system also features an internal vent-through hopper that contains two hopper assemblies: one for materials handled, and one for dust. The hoppers include maintenance-friendly seals that can be replaced without disassembling the positioner.

Case study: loading spout, filtration system and positioner assist at coal refinery This coal refinery ordered a Vortex Loading Spout, Spout Positioner, and Filtration System to assist in processing waste coal and turning it into a clean carbon fuel.

The telescoping loading spout is equipped with a four-cable hoist system and CNC machined cable pulleys for less spout maintenance.

The dual-axis spout positioner allows a 2 ft (610 mm) spout movement along the X and the Y axis so trucks need not reposition during the loading process.

World Cement August 2022

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An in-line filter traps dust created during the loading and re-introduces it back into the load making for an environmentally friendly loading process.

Aerated conveying systems

Aeration systems are designed to convey dusty, powdery, or flaky materials by using gravity on a downward slope. They can be installed on the inside bottom of a storage container or mounted to follow a specific path inside the plant. Products typically included in aeration systems are aerated conveyor systems, aerated bin bottoms, and aerated trough systems. Aeration systems can be custom designed and manufactured to individual project specifications so they can handle any material and desired flow rate.

Conveyor Aero-Slide Conveyors consist of a rectangular shaped convey line which is horizontally separated by an air-permeable, porous media to create an upper and lower chamber. To encourage material flow, the conveyor is installed at a slight downward slope – typically 6 – 8˚ from horizontal. In the upper chamber, handled materials are transferred along the porous media.

Through the lower chamber, a fan or blower injects low pressure, dry air – typically 1 psig | 6.9 kPa. As air is pumped into the lower chamber, it permeates upward through the porous media. When counterbalanced by gravity, the air-gravity conveyor uses physics similar to an air hockey table to fluidise/aerate handled materials as they flow downstream through the upper chamber. Once materials are transferred downstream, the excess air is vented through a system bin or filter.

Aero-Slide conveyors feature several maintenance friendly features. Among these are cleanout ports, which allow for the inspection of product in the lower air chamber and maintenance, if necessary. Each section of the conveyor has a cleanout port, located along the bottom of the lower air chamber. Additionally, there are no moving parts other than the blower, leading to increased operator safety, reduced wear and prolonged service life.

Gate valve The Aero-Slide gate valve is specifically designed to be used in tandem with the Aero-Slide conveyor. Designed much like a conventional roller-supported slide gate, the gate valve features a vertical-mounted blade with a downward closing stroke. While the gate valve can be used for metering, it is primarily intended to shut-off material flow. Depending on application, the gate valve can either be installed within the convey line 28

or beneath the silo discharge, at the conveyor’s inlet. Its narrow profile allows for limited space installations.

Drum valve The Aero-Slide drum valve is a self-contained unit that prevents material packing, dusting to atmosphere and other valve failures. This valve is specifically designed to be used in tandem with the Aero-Slide conveyor. Unlike the Aero-Slide gate valve, which is primarily intended for material shut-off, the Aero-Slide drum valve is well-suited for metering material flow.

The drum valve features a rotating, cylindrical blade with a V-notched bore. This provides for more precise metering control. Additional advantages of the valve include its ability to shut-off or meter flow and the fact that it is dust-tight to atmosphere.

Case study: rail terminal A rail terminal in the American southwest required three products from Vortex’s line of aerated conveying systems: The Vortex Aero-Slide conveyor, drum valve, and gate valve.

The conveyors offer many advantages for transporting lighter, dry bulk material. These advantages include infinite length, dust tight to atmosphere, no moving parts, subdued noise, cost effective energy consumption, simple installation, and maintenance expense savings.

This conveyor is equipped with a manually operated drum valve (maintenance valve), a pneumatically operated drum valve (material flow control valve), and a gate valve (shut off valve).

The drum valve features a rotating, cylindrical-shaped blade that incorporates a parabolic curve opening for more precise metering of material.

Conclusion

Maintenance is a necessity when handling dry bulk solid materials. When designing systems for these processes, certain factors must be taken into consideration to ease the frequency of required maintenance.

By sourcing products that require little maintenance, abrasion/wear concerns can be addressed and equipment can be serviced and maintained while in-line without having to interrupt operations, thus saving both time and money.

About the Author

In his third year with the company, Austin Anderson is the Content Writer for Vortex Global. He has created numerous case studies and written articles for a range of global publications sharing the successes Vortex products have experienced.

World Cement August 2022

Figuring out feeding S

ustainability has become the most important word in cement manufacturing throughout the last decade and is by far the primary decision-making factor when it comes to future investments and plant optimisations. Therefore, the substitution of fossil fuels with more sustainable energy sources is a primary goal for

every player in the industry. In this context, the introduction of a circular economy for the re-use of former waste streams in the clinkerisation process is a very prominent example of one of the first fully implemented closed material chains. In regions with highly developed waste collection and sorting systems, the co-processing of Alternative Fuels

Dr. Dominik Aufderheide and Dr. Luigi Di Matteo, DI MATTEO Group, delve into a system theoretic approach to AF feeding line architectures and the various ways a cement plant can ensure an uninterrupted fuel supply.

and Resources (AFRs) can be introduced on the solid foundation of pre-existing fuel supply chains with various different suppliers and material sources available in a healthy market.

However, the implementation and operation of the necessary AFR feeding equipment in the cement plant can be challenging for designers and operators, this

29

is due to the fact that the material sources used in co-processing differ immensely from conventional bulk materials typically handled in cement plants.

As shown in several technical reports, the actual pre-processing of collected waste streams into an AFR source typically involves a defined sequence of processing steps, as indicated in Figure 1, which leads to volatile material properties.1 For example, the bulk density and the particle size distribution (PSD) of the AFR can vary enormously over time. Furthermore, even if a biological drying of the AFR stream is involved in the pre-processing procedure, the humidity of the substitute fuel is typically unstable due to the influence of additional moisture, e.g. from storing or transport.2 If an AFR handling installation is not well planned and implemented, there are typically a lot of operational problems associated with the inhomogeneous material properties, such as clogging, immense wear and tear, and low availability. In recent years, modular AFR handling procedures were established in the industry, which are based on well-proven practical scenarios from former projects. In ‘Systematic Classification and Modularisation of Handling Systems for Alternative Fuels’ the so-called Seven Stage Concept (SSC)

of the Di Matteo Group is described in detail.3 However, even if these modular toolkits are utilised, there is still potential for misconceptions about new handling lines, especially if multiple kiln lines and/or calciners shall be fed by a single installation.

General architectures of AFR feeding lines

If a new installation for the handling of AFR is planned, it is useful to formally describe the generalised plant setup in theoretic terms by using set theory, where a defined set of n AFR sinks S = {S1, S2, …, S(n-1), Sn} , shall be fed by a system of m material storages M = {M1, M2, …, M(m-1), Mm}, which are actually filled by a set of k individual reception systems R = {R1, R2, …, R(k-1), Rk}. It should be noted that each AFR sink refers to a thermal process, such as a kiln, calciner, or an additional calciner combustion chamber; while any reception system is a specific piece of equipment where material enters the cement plant, e.g. a truck reception system and/or a bale opener. In a holistic planning stage, each of the aforementioned elements would be assigned with a defined set of technical parameters, such as a storage capacity

Figure 1. Typical pre-processing procedure for the preparation of AFRs.

Figure 2. Definition of reception, storage, and AFR Sinks for a possible AFR line setup.

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for a silo Mi or a maximum infeed massflow for an AFR sink Sj. Thus, for the general layout of the optimal AFR installation, a combinatorial problem can be formulated in order to find the best possible plant setup. Figure 2 shows an example of a possible pre-definition of reception elements, storage systems, and AFR sinks.

For the optimal combination of the different plant elements, different general plant setup patterns can be defined by using terms from classical system theory. Here each plant’s actual number of independent inputs and outputs usually distinguishes the different systems. The different standard system types are visualised in Figure 4, where four main architectures can be differentiated: ff Single Input / Single Output – SISO. ff Single Input / Multiple Output – SIMO. ff Multiple Input / Single Output – MISO. ff Multiple Input / Multiple Output – MIMO. In order to clarify the various differing plant architectures, it is useful to define simple examples for some of the different system categories. Thus, it can be shown, why the proposed formalism is an interesting possibility for optimising AFR installations, before they are even realised.

The following sections of this article will describe different scenarios based on the basic system definitions and will provide best-practice examples of how those architectures are typically implemented.

Single input/single output (SISO)

The definition of simple SISO system with a single material source and a single AFR sink can be easily done by considering a simple ‘plug and play’ AFR feeding system, which incorporates one docking station, where material is received from a truck and then conveyed to a gravimetric AFR dosing system, such as the ODM-WeighTUBE.4 Finally, the material is pneumatically conveyed to

the single kiln by using a rotary injector. Figure 3 shows such a SISO system.

Single input/multiple output (SIMO)

The system design gets more complex if more than a single AFR sink needs to be supplied with fuel simultaneously. This would always require an intermediate buffer storage, whereby there are two possible system setups possible. On the one hand side, it would be possible to design an AFR installation, where a single reception system R1 feeds a set of m storage systems: M = {M1, M2, …, M(m-1), Mm}.

The charging of the different storage systems would be done in a sequential order by means of m different conveying lines from R1 to the different storages. Each storage Mi would then be connected to its AFR sink counterpart Si, since it can be assumed that the number of storage elements is equal to the number of kiln lines.

However, the aforementioned system design would not be very convenient, due to the fact, that it would require the installation of m independent storage systems including the associated discharge machines. Furthermore, each storage system needs to be filled by individual conveying lines from a single reception station, which also does not seem to be very efficient. In such a system setup, the storage units themselves can be seen to act as the SIMO device; where the multiplexing, from a single material stream to several at once, occurs at the entrance of the storage systems, as shown in Figure 5a.

In contrast, a system architecture where the multiplexing would be relocated to the exit of the storage system, as shown in Figure 5b, the overall setup of the installation would only require a single storage M1 and the individual conveying lines to the different storage would also disappear. In the latter case, a possible implementation could be based on the ODM-MultiTUBE solution as offered by the Di Matteo Group. In this instance, a single storage solution can be combined with a defined number

Figure 3. Example for a SISO AFR Architecture.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 4. Basic System Definitions: (a) – Single Input/Single Output (SISO); (b) – Single Input/Multiple Output (SIMO); (c) – Multiple Input/Single Output (MISO); (d) – Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO).

Figure 5. Possible Scenarios for a SIMO AFR Architecture: (a) – Multiplexer positioned between reception and storage; (b) – Multiplexer positioned between storage and AFR sinks.

of discharge systems in order to feed multiple kilns from a single storage. The setup, as shown in Figure 6, contains a single cylindrical storage system and a defined number of outlets. Each outlet is equipped with an ODM-WeighTUBE gravimetric dosing system, which realises a stable massflow to each kiln line by measuring and controlling the massflows for each outlet.5

Multiple input/single output (MISO)

If, instead of multiple desired outputs, the scenario changes to a system setup with a given set of AFR reception points R = {R1, R2, …, R(k-1), Rk}, used in order to feed a single thermal process S1, it would also be necessary to incorporate at least one storage device M1. A possible arrangement is shown in Figure 5a. In this case, each reception Ri needs to be connected to the same storage M1 in order to define a pure MISO system. This could easily be done, as indicated in Figure 5b, where ODM-DockingSTATIONs for moving floor trucks are connected to a single drag chain conveyor, which is feeding a single silo system.

However, the story can be also told in a different way, if one considers reception systems also designed with an integrated storage capacity. In order to describe this according to the system design patterns introduced earlier, a combined reception and storage device RMi needs to be introduced. An example for such a combined reception and storage system would be an ODM-SurfaceFEEDER as shown in Figure 7a. Such a system could be fed by a dumper truck, for example, and acts at the same time as a reception element, but also as an intermediate storage. It is usually designed to be able to hold a defined number of dumper truck loads in order to guarantee no interruptions to the AFR feeding line. The associated system setup is visualised by using a combined reception and storage model in Figure 7b.

Conclusion

Figure 6. ODM-MultiTUBE solution for the gravimetric feeding of multiple AFR lines from a single storage.

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The system theoretic approach to the design of AFR feeding lines is a promising approach in order to validate and evaluate different architectures of the intended installation. For this, different general system models can be used for the description of multiple World Cement August 2022

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feeding scenarios. However, the theoretical approach is only one aspect of a successful implementation of a new alternative fuels handling system and needs to be accompanied by the selection of the optimal machinery based on experience from other projects.

It can be stated, that with the novel system approach combined with the currently implemented Seven Stage Concept (SSC) of the Di Matteo Group, a powerful and fully modular toolkit for the efficient planning of co-processing system is available.6

References 1. ‘Guidelines on Pre- and Co-Processing of Waste in Cement Production’. GIZ and Holcim Technologies (2020) 2. AUFDERHEIDE. D., & DI MATTEO. L., ‘Efficient Utilization of Alternative Fuels of Varying Quality’, Cement International, Vol. 17, n. 1, p. 38 – 43, Jan. 2019, Verlag Bau+Technik, Erkrath - ISSN 1610-6199 3. DI MATTEO. L., & AUFDERHEIDE. D., ‘Systematic Classification and Modularization of Handling Systems

for Alternative Fuels’, Cement International, Vol. 13, n.

2, p. 54 – 61, Mar. 2016, Verlag Bau+Technik, Erkrath ISSN 1610-6199 4. DI MATTEO. L., & AUFDERHEIDE. D., ‘Towards High-Precision Metering and Dosing of Alternative Fuels: A Taxonomic Approach’, Cement International, Vol. 19, n.

1, p. 40 – 49, Jan. 2021, Verlag Bau+Technik, Erkrath ISSN 1610-6199 5. AUFDERHEIDE. D., ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ. M., & DI MATTEO. L., ‘An HiL-Approach for Factory Acceptance Testing of Gravimetric Dosing Systems’, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Information Technology for Sustainable Industry (ICONETSI).

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, NY, USA, Article 48 – ISBN 978-1-4503-8771-2 6. AUFDERHEIDE. D., STROTKAMP. U., & WAGNER. K., ‘Increasing Alternative Fuel Utilization at Phoenix Cement’, Cement International, Vol. 18, n.

1, p. 2 – 8, Jan. 2020, Verlag Bau+Technik, Erkrath ISSN 1610-6199

Figure 7. Pure MISO AFR Architecture with multiple receptions and a single storage.

(a)

(b)

Figure 8. Adapted MISO architecture by using a combined reception and storage element: (a) – Using the ODM-SurfaceFEEDER for the reception and storage of material; (b) – Adapted system setup.

36

World Cement August 2022

REDUCING WASTE WITH RESIDUAL SOLID FUELS

Cristian Muriel, Satarem, reviews a low-CAPEX project to adapt a vertical milling circuit to take advantage of solid fuel residues.

I

n the last 20 years, there has been a global phenomenon in terms of economic growth, especially in the expansion of Asian markets, namely India and China, in both electricity and cement production.

This growth in energy demand has been accompanied by a considerable increase in the price of coal. This price increase occured even though China, India, and the USA (the second largest

energy generator in the world) have guaranteed local production and politically protected reserves; the impact has been even more significant in countries without major local coal extraction sectors, such as Brazil.

Given this context, the Brazilian cement industry, which has shown constant growth in demand since the 2000s, has been making a migration in the type of fuel used for cement production from

coal and natural gas to varying alternatives. The large cement manufacturers in Brazil have found in petcoke an interesting and accessible alternative to conventional fuels. This is due it to being a by-product of heavy oil extraction and the Brazil’s significant oil production, which makes it readily available.

Currently, the use of this petroleum by-product is attractive due to its high calorific value.

37

However, it is a very volatile market and depends on environmental regulations, as well as petcoke prices relative to those of natural gas. When natural gas prices increase, petcoke becomes an economically attractive energy source.

The use of petcoke has become a key ally to cement producers in Brazil, however, some cement plants have grinding circuits that are ill-equipped to process this material due to the material’s hardness (grindability index between 35 – 42 HGI), and in many occasions stone and sand sediment can be found in the mixture, making it difficult to grind.

The project

For this reason, one cement producer in Brazil invited Satarem to design and implement a project taking advantage of petcoke residues generated in the vertical milling circuit of the plant, given Satarem’s extensive experience in designing and implementing projects focussing on waste utilisation and the uses of alternative fuels in the cement sector.

When grinding using vertical Raymond mills, any material that the mill is not able to process is rejected, an outcome that becomes more frequent if the fuel has a higher hardness index.

For this project, the plant had a grinding circuit composed of two Raymond mills in parallel with a total capacity of 24 tph, rejecting between 8 and 10 tph, that is, 41% of the material being discarded, generating a significant economic impact on the kiln operation.

To solve this problem and take advantage of this rejected petcoke, which is composed of approximately 50% petcoke (HGI 35 – 42) and 50% silica, an open circuit grinding system was proposed, that would allow processing of the material to a fineness of 10% retained in mesh #170 and reincorporated into the ground coal silos to feed the main burner of the kiln.

To ensure the economic viability of the project, Satarem offered a solution that involved supplying high quality equipment under the banner of being a BCC (Best Cost Country) supplier, with a delivery time of less than 16 weeks under the restricted conditions of the pandemic and the subsequent logistical crisis.

The circuit

The rising price of coal.

Vertical Raymond mills and rejected petcoke in the outlet.

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The project consisted of implementing a deviation of the rejected petcoke from a bucket elevator to a 30 m3 storage silo.

Dosing is conducted through a weighing belt to feed an 8 tph air-swept ball mill; the product is recovered by 25 000 m3/h bag filter. Subsequently, the pulverised fuel is mixed in the Raymond mill silos by means of screw conveyors.

Since the proposed solution does not integrate a closed circuit with material separation and classification systems, it can be implemented fairly simply and requires considerably lower investment than a closed-circuit alternative.

This fact made the project financially viable in a global economic climate of reduced investment in World Cement August 2022

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projects in this sector due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

In addition, Satarem has a special focus on operational safety given the hazards of pulverised fuel. For this purpose, self-locking anti-explosion valves were installed in the outlet duct of the ball mill and in the inlet duct of the main filter to allow the expulsion of gases in case of accidents.

Furthermore, explosion doors have been installed in the filter itself to guarantee reliability and safety in operation and to prevent possible damage to the filtering elements.

Results

Pulverised rejected petcoke.

Although its erection and commissioning were affected by the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, which at that time had greatly affected Brazil, the project was ultimately completed, providing the client with an economic solution to re-incorporate, at zero cost, the material that was being discarded.

This grinding circuit currently operates continuously with a capacity of 8 tph, reaching an approximate production of 4700 tpm of rejected petcoke that is used to replace the ground petcoke by approximately 25%, i.e., 8 tph of rejected petcoke produced, replaces 4 tph of ground petcoke out of a total of 28 tph consumed. This means a decrease in petcoke consumption of 2400 tpm. With a petcoke price of US$140/t, this allowed the client to obtain a profit of US$336 000 per month and a ROI (return on investment) of the entire project within less than one year.

Conclusions

Petcoke rejected from vertical mills.

There are important opportunities in the cement industry to reuse industrial waste for raw materials, fuel, and additives, amongst other uses. However, due to the high levels of investment required in this industry, it is common that many of these projects are implemented without the necessary adaptations being made to the process.

The use of fuel residues allows a significant reduction in operating costs of cement plants; however, it is necessary to make the appropriate technological adaptations to maximise the economic benefits of such implementations.

The development of projects with BCC suppliers such as Satarem, makes waste reuse opportunities financially and technically viable.

About the author

The mill during the erection process.

40

Cristian Muriel is a Mechatronic Engineer with experience in automation and process control in cement plants. He has led Satarem’s recent projects for dosing and pneumatic transport at cement plants in the Latin America region, and projects contributing to alternative resources usage and energy efficiency improvement for Satarem clients.

World Cement August 2022

Derek Stuart, AMETEK Land, discusses how effective temperature measurements are able to enhance cement kiln performance and longevity.

Too hot to handle

T

emperature monitoring across the cement manufacturing process is essential for supporting process efficiency and cement quality. It can also help to prolong the life of the kiln by detecting refractory issues or insufficiently quenched clinker at an early stage – which could lead to production stoppages if left unchecked.

Temperature monitoring at the

kiln also supports safety and emissions control.

Controlling a cement kiln underpins the efficient and consistent production of high-quality cement with the lowest environmental impact. However, this can be challenging to achieve, as it requires close attention to several factors such as the raw mix feed rate, the fuel-to-air ratio, and

the temperature distribution throughout the kiln.

Conditions within the kiln make it difficult to measure many of these key operational parameters, particularly temperature. Kiln rotation, high temperatures, and the movement of the sintering material along the kiln make thermocouples and other contact temperature

41

sensors impractical. Radiation thermometers (pyrometers) provide a non-contact temperature measurement, but their effectiveness is limited by the high-dust conditions, especially within the burning zone.

Accurate measurements of the Burning Zone Temperature (BZT) are critical, because this shows whether or not there has been a complete transformation from dicalcium silicate (C2S) to tricalcium silicate (C3S), which occurs in the region of 1300 – 1450˚C (2372 – 2642˚F).

Many kilns use a ratio pyrometer to measure the BZT. This is much less susceptible to errors caused by obscuration from dust because it uses the ratio between the radiation intensity at two wavelengths instead of the absolute intensity at a single wavelength.

Combined with a peak-picker algorithm, a ratio pyrometer can give an accurate temperature measurement even when there is 95% obscuration of the field of view.

Thermal image showing the rotary kiln interior.

A viewing port within the firing hood located below and to the side of the burner allows the best measurement of clinker temperature, but this is a very aggressive location, so usually the pyrometer must be installed with a water-cooled jacket to prevent damage to the electronics, and an air purge to protect the delicate optical surfaces from hot and dusty process gases.

However, the ratio thermometer gives only a single measurement value from a small part of the kiln, so its readings can be deceptive if the target area is not optimised.

A short-wavelength thermal image, using a near-infrared sensor and borescope probe, gives a lot more information about the conditions within the burning zone.

Borescope measurements

The borescope probe, including the water-cooled jacket, is only 61 mm (2.4 in.) in diameter, so can be inserted through a small viewing port without major disruption to the process. To minimise exposure to the aggressive process conditions, the borescope tip is typically slightly recessed into the wall of the process. This does not affect its function and the large 90˚ by 67˚ field of view enables it to form an image of the relevant parts of the process.

An automatic retraction system provides an additional safety precaution; this withdraws the entire instrument from the process if either purge air or cooling water should fail.

AMETEK Land offers both electrical and pneumatic integrated retraction systems for its probes.

Because the borescope has a wide-angle image with high spatial resolution, it can

AMETEK Land IMAGEPro Software.

42

World Cement August 2022

provide accurate temperature measurements in the burning zone and some way into the kiln.

Image processing software continually assesses the temperatures of the clinker, burner flame, and refractory.

Since its wavelength is in the near-infrared range, the image suffers less scattering from particles within the field of view compared to a conventional video camera or borescope operating at visible wavelengths.

The borescope can be a powerful tool for performing measurements in the firing zone, but it cannot measure temperatures further along the kiln in the heating and calcining zones. An elegant non-contact method for temperature measurements in these areas is to mount a thermowell through the refractory and view it with a pyrometer mounted close to the kiln. This allows accurate measurements to be carried out while avoiding the drawbacks associated with mounting a thermocouple inside the kiln. The pyrometer can easily be accessed for calibration or adjustment even while the kiln is in operation.

Kiln shell temperature

A further measurement that is highly important in relation to plant reliability is the kiln shell temperature. The kiln’s steel shell has a melting point of 1300˚C (2372˚F) and the maximum practical temperature is less than 500˚C (932˚F).

As a result, it needs to be protected from the hot feed and the gases within by a thick layer of refractory bricks.

These refractory bricks have a low thermal conductivity that protects the kiln shell. They are also used for their physical stability and resistance to abrasion as well as the highly basic chemistry of the clinker. Over time, chemical changes in the surface of the refractory bricks can lead to spalling, which means the bricks will rapidly deteriorate if they are exposed to overheating in the burning zone.

Sudden mechanical damage is also possible, especially if the kiln shell distorts because of uneven rotation. Whatever the underlying cause may be, the deterioration of refractory bricks causes an increase in the kiln shell temperature.

Measuring the shell temperature, therefore, allows the operator to monitor any long-term changes in the refractory and detect loss or damage to individual refractory bricks.

There are several methods for measuring the kiln shell temperature. Point measurements can be made using thermocouples with wireless transmitters, but it is impractical to install enough sensors to detect the condition of individual refractory bricks.

Alternatively, a handheld pyrometer can be used to make repeated measurements with good coverage, but the results depend on the

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skill of the operator and, obviously, real-time measurements are not possible.

A handheld thermal imager allows the operator to visualise the kiln shell and identify hot spots, but it is also non-continuous.

A fixed industrial thermal imager is another option, but it is difficult to get a satisfactory image of a long, thin object such as a kiln using a conventional image sensor. This is because a wide-angle lens is needed to cover the whole length of the kiln – for a 70 m (230 ft) long kiln, a 640 x 480 pixel image sensor provides a resolution of only 110 mm (4.3 in.), making it difficult to detect damage to an individual refractory brick.

The most effective tool for continuous measurements of kiln shell temperature, therefore, is a line-scanning infrared sensor.

This uses a single detector with a scanning mirror

to repeatedly scan along the length of the kiln, giving the equivalent of 1000 pixels along the kiln.

The rotation of the kiln allows the scanner to build up a complete image of the kiln shell. Using a single sensor allows for excellent consistency of measurement when compared to a thermal imager. Even the best image sensors exhibit considerable pixel-to-pixel variability, whereas the scanner uses the same sensor for every point in the measurement.

When using this technique, it is important to limit the scan angle to 90˚ or less. A wider angle allows the scanner to be mounted closer to the kiln, but the surface emissivity of the kiln decreases rapidly at high angles, and the imaged spots become very elliptical, leading to reduced accuracy and degraded spatial resolution.

If it is not possible to set the scanner back far enough to obtain a full view of the kiln, image processing software can stitch the output of multiple scanners to give a single display. This approach also allows enhanced spatial resolution, as it effectively doubles the number of pixels in each scan.

Case study: a solution for kiln monitoring

Thermal image of the kiln shell exterior.

AMETEK Land’s NIR-Borescope.

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Cal & Cemento Sur SA Peru, a subsidiary of Yura SA, is one of the leading producers of cement and lime in Peru. Its plant is located in the district of Caracoto, in the province of San Román, and supplies the high Andean zone and the jungle zone of the south-eastern region of the country.

The company wanted a more effective method of temperature measurement in its rotary kiln, including the ability to take high-quality images inside the burning zone of its cement kiln, ensuring close-control of the manufacturing process and improving production output.

To this end, AMETEK Land recommended its NIR-Borescope-656 (NIR-B-656) thermal imager. This instrument provides higher quality images than conventional video cameras, and clearly shows the temperatures of the key areas of the process.

The continuous rotation of the kiln means that the clinker collects on one side so, for best effect, the NIR-B-656 was installed under the burner towards the opposite side, sighting onto the clinker.

World Cement August 2022

The thermal imager produces a detailed, live radiometric image, with accurate temperature information that allows the operator to measure any subset of 324 000 live data points. This enables measurement of the flame temperature in the burner zone, clinker temperature, and refractory wall temperature.

The live image also provides the operator with a large amount of information that cannot be obtained from a single spot measurement, such as identifying ash rings inside the kiln. It is also superior to a standard video camera as it is less prone to being affected by heavy dust levels in the kiln.

As a result, the NIR-B-656 allowed Cal & Cemento to make improvements to product quality, reduce fuel consumption and improve reliability. The images of the firing zone have proven especially valuable to the cement company, as they provide insights that are not accessible using other techniques, and they expect to achieve further process improvements as they understand how the image data correlates with other process parameters.

The results generated thus far have improved the understanding of the normal temperature range in the kiln, allowing Cal & Cemento to achieve more consistent operation.

Wilmer Chura, Production Manager at Cal & Cemento, said: “The image quality that the camera provides is very good. We defined four areas of interest to measure the temperatures within the kiln. We use the information from the NIR-B-656 for process control with reference to the lime temperature, the flame temperature that is generated, and to check for the presence of internal elements, such as scabs and ring formation.

“The NIR-B has helped us to maintain the temperatures between closely defined parameters – for lime, for example, between 1050 and 1090˚C. It has helped us to better understand the process operation by relating to other variables or operating parameters, such as the temperature of the transfer chute, pre-heater, cooler and the furnace head temperature. In addition, we can make decisions to regulate the amount of fuel that the system requires. We continue to look for other benefits and we want to analyse the data further.”

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Conclusion

Modern temperature measurement techniques provide many insights into all aspects of the cement kiln operation, allowing for improvements to product quality, reduced fuel consumption, and improved reliability. Borescope images of the firing zone are particularly valuable, as they provide insights that are not accessible using other, more traditional techniques.

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SAVE TO YOUR AGENDA 16 TÜRKÇİMENTO International Technical Seminar & Exhibition

24-28 October 2022

Kaya Palazzo Golf Resort Belek, Antalya We have been holding our event since 1987 biennually, which aims to enable domestic and foreign companies that develop new technologies, services, systems and products for the cement industry to introduce the technologies they have developed in their fields to cement manufacturers, to help managers follow new developments concerning the sector, and to provide a comparison environment for the investments they consider for their businesses.

Our event, in which we achieved international success as TÇMB in 2019, brought together the national and international cement industry with 611 participants and 232 companies.

After a short break, we continue from where we left off this year.

Hope to be together again at the

16 TÜRKÇİMENTO International Technical Seminar & Exhibition

FOR REGISTRATION:

STRETCHING LINING LIFETIMES Pankaj Gupta, HASLE Refractories, discusses a new precast modular lining helping Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works cut downtime by boosting the lifetime of their equipment.

N

estled between trees outside Chandrapur in Maharashtra state, India, lies Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works Unit.

Ambuja Cements Ltd. is a member of Holcim, the global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. Among the leading cement companies in India, with a capacity of 29.65 million t, Ambuja Cement has five integrated cement manufacturing plants and

eight cement grinding units across the country. Ambuja Cement’s plants operate on Indian coal and approximately 11 – 12 % alternative fuels and are continuously seeking ways to operate in a more efficient and sustainable fashion.

The company has focused on environmentally friendly practices since it started operations in 1983, At the start of 2021, Ambuja Cements Limited became the first ever cement company to make it

47

to the ‘A’ list in global water stewardship by the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) based on its disclosure in 2021. At the core of the company’s modus operandi is embracing sustainability one step at a time. Achieving more sustainable production entails lowering the use of natural resources, reducing the use of fossil fuels, and optimising energy use – installing HASLE’s precast modular lining has been part of the solution for the Maratha Cement Works Unit.

Solving short lining lifetime in the kiln inlet arch

In early 2015, the cement plant had been experiencing problems with short lining lifetime in the kiln inlet arch.

The plant had been using a low cement castable to line the arch, but unfortunately, the lifetime of the lining was always less than one year. The installation required proper form-work and skilled workmen to achieve the desired shape and quality lining, and the time required for both installation and curing was extensive, due to the location and shape of the arch.

Needing a long-lasting and sustainable alternative, Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works Unit turned to HASLE for a suggestion on how to solve the short lining lifetime in this area. After analysing the operating conditions, HASLE’s team of engineers suggested lining this critical process area with a

Modular Lining in inlet arch during installation.

Completed modular Lining installation in inlet arch.

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unique precast modular lining. The precast modular lining is a hot face refractory lining for the critical areas of high temperature industries; it is durable and resistant to abrasion, chemical attack, and coating, resulting in a significantly longer lifetime than the existing alternatives on the market. Since its creation, it has stood the test of time and will typically last two-to-three times longer (or more) than a traditional cast lining. Soon after, it was decided to install HASLE’s precast modular lining in the kiln inlet arch – a decision which has since proved to be very beneficial for the plant. The installation took place in August 2015, and as always, a team of HASLE supervisors participated on site to ensure that the optimal installation technique was used.

In August of 2020, the precast modular lining installation had been in operation for five years, with no re-linings or repairs needed to keep it running. With a proven track record of exceptional durability and long-lasting performance, the Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works Unit decided to reline the kiln inlet arch with HASLE’s precast modular lining in December of 2020, when the first installation needed to be replaced. According to Mr. K. Subbulakshmanan, VP-Tech., Operation Head, at Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works Unit, the precast lining has been a ‘lifesaver’ and highly recommends using it in areas with frequent coating formation due to high usage rates of alternative fuels and fuel mix variation.

Designed for longevity. The precast modular lining’s low, open porosity and smooth impact surface makes it highly resistant to alkali attack and build-up – even in extremely hostile environments. A traditional in-situ casted solution typically has an open porosity of 18 – 20% or more, whereas the modular lining was designed to have an extraordinarily low open porosity of only 8 – 10%. This quality is achieved by a combination of selecting raw materials with an optimal corn distribution curve and adding only a very small amount of water (as little as 4.5%) when mixing the castable. The result is a refractory lining which has an exceptionally long lifetime, is highly abrasion and alkali resistant, and even when installed in plants operating on 100% RDFs, build-up is practically eliminated.

All modular lining elements are casted and pre-fired under strictly controlled conditions in HASLE’s plant in Denmark using specialised equipment such as vibration tables, special moulds, dry-out ovens, and trained workers. The process includes dry mixing for 60 sec., adding water, wet mixing for 4 – 5 min., casting it into moulds and covering the elements in plastic immediately afterwards. The elements are then left to cure for 24 hours and are subsequently pre-fired for five days up to a peak temperature of 500˚C. All these steps are carefully monitored to secure a consistently high quality for all pre-cast elements, and each element is both visually inspected and subjected to a strict quality control procedure prior to leaving the production facility.

World Cement August 2022

Fast and easy installation

Installing the modular lining is both fast and easy.

Due to a smart element design which combines steel anchors with a tongue-and-groove system, the installation time of the pre-cast modular lining often takes about 50% less time than the installation of a traditional in-situ casted solution. Once preparations are completed, the manhours required for a typical lining is 80 min/m2, depending on the condition of the area to be lined i.e. number of air blasters, inspection holes, manholes, etc. After welding the rails and steel plates holding the elements, the console elements are easily installed. Upon these, the square modular elements (250 x 250 mm) with a tongue and groove system are installed. The precast elements weigh only about 15 – 16 kg each, so no special lifting equipment is required.

A step towards sustainable production

K. Subbulakshmanan reported that, “Ambuja Cement Limited has been using HASLE’s products for many years, due to severe working conditions like frequent coating formation at kiln inlet caused by a high usage of alternative fuels and fuel mix variation. HASLE’s product are proven to be beneficial and are a lifesaver for us. The five year plus lifespan of the lining in the Inlet Arch with HASLE Precast Elements is a good example of this.”

While choosing to install HASLE’s precast modular lining at the Ambuja Cement’s Maratha Cement Works Unit helped optimise their production process, it has also contributed to making the production more sustainable. Already at installation, the plant saved manhours, as the easy installation process required ≤ 50% less time than a castable lining would have. The lining lifetime in the kiln inlet has been significantly extended (by at least 500%), which has not only lowered their use of natural resources per produced unit as relining has not been needed, but also resulted in more stable production overall. To ensure the successful completion of each installation project, HASLE Refractories always supply approximately 5% more elements than needed. These have unlimited shelf life which also reduces waste of material.

With precast modular lining, it is also possible to achieve a lining thickness of down to 185 mm. This is often less than the thickness of a traditional casted lining and presents two options: reducing heat loss by applying more back-up lining, or increasing the cross-sectional volume, which will give additional space in any given area. Both factors contribute to lowering the CO2 emission through optimal use of the energy.

HASLE’s precast modular lining offers additional benefits when used in other areas of different industries. It has shown good performance when installed in a variety of applications throughout the world, i.e. feed pipes, coolers, cooler bull noses, smoke chambers, cyclone roofs, as well as cyclone August 2022 World Cement

bull noses. The elements can be adapted for curved and cylindrical structures and have even been installed in boilers, incineration plants, and foundries.

Companies in all high temperature industries can make a tangible efficiency improvement by installing a modular lining to realise a more sustainable production process. HASLE Refractories is ISO 9001:2015 and serves the cement, power, waste, biomass, steel, glass, and paper industries worldwide.

About the author

Pankaj Gupta is Business Head at HASLE Refractories and services the Indian, Middle Eastern, and African cement markets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Ceramic Technology a Master’s Degree in Business Management. Having rich industrial exposure of around 16 years, he has extensive theoretical and practical experience from on site installation and in-depth understanding of refractory challenges and solution.

Modular Lining after 24 months of operation (taken during shutdown).

Modular Lining after 36 months of operation.

49

Sunil Vedula, Nanoprecise, explains how AI and IoT can be implemented in cement manufacturing facilities to optimise production processes, and predict machine faults before they occur.

PROTECTING MACHINES WITH PREDICTION

50

W

ith a global market of US$326.81 billion in 2021, the cement industry is one of the oldest and most complex manufacturing industries in the world. It is characterised by high-energy intensity as well as high-volume, continuous production.

Cement manufacturing plants are composed of a wide variety of components including stacker and reclaimers, ball mills, crushers, kilns, clinker cooler & dryers, roller press and silos, among others involved in crushing, blending, heating, cooling, and grinding. A catastrophic fault in any one of these pieces of equipment can cause serious downtime, resulting in financial losses to the manufacturer by way of process failures leading to lost batches, as well as danger to workers.

Rotary machines in a cement production plant operate in a dusty and corrosive/erosive environment which naturally leads to a reduction in the useful lifespan of these assets when compared to other industries. The equipment

often runs at dynamic loads and speeds and faces failures and downtime due to the repetitive nature of the tasks being performed. Additionally, higher demand for efficiency and quality in production output has put an ever-increasing strain on maintenance teams to prevent unplanned downtime, which has a significant negative impact on the bottom line of the organisations. It is, therefore, essential to reduce the likelihood of unplanned downtime as much as possible. This can be achieved with the help of condition monitoring, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).

AI and IoT in cement manufacturing

Equipment failures in a cement manufacturing plant result in severe consequences for the manufacturer, with a loss of production, increased maintenance costs, and danger to worker safety. With the rising demand for efficiency and quality in cement production, manufacturers are turning to digitalisation in order to optimise their operations.

51

The use of IoT devices for monitoring the performance of machinery has been a significant step towards optimising cement manufacturing.

Manufacturers have been moving towards IoT adoption due to its potential to provide smoother operations coupled with advanced machine-to-machine communications. The capability of IoT in conjunction with AI to collect machine health data, detect patterns, and identify the optimal performance metrics in challenging applications is what is driving its adoption in the cement manufacturing industry.

It allows operators to obtain complete visibility of their overall manufacturing process and then combines it with monitoring systems to get an integrated view of plant operations that incorporates machine health.

Advancements in IoT technology have meant that massive volumes of data are now at the disposal of maintenance professionals, and they are in search for tools that can help extract meaningful and actionable insights from these datasets.

Signal processing, automation algorithms, and artificial intelligence are advanced tools with the

Figure 1. P-F Curve.

potential to parse through massive amounts of complex data collected from these machines and provide the critical information needed to improve maintenance activities. How various pieces of the software tool kits are combined together is crucial and the more advanced systems start with ensuring clean signals that process data streams through algorithms such as Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (CEEMDAN).

Once signals are processed, different algorithms, automation, and AI can be used in myriad ways.

The fundamental goal is to ensure that the right tools are used to analyse different kinds of data from the machines in a truly automated fashion that is scalable and then able to provide real-time insights on machine health with high accuracy that does not lead to false positives or miss key events or faults. When implemented appropriately, it can detect even small changes in the machine performance, and suggest root causes that can be used by maintenance and operations teams to prevent equipment failures and avoid unplanned downtime.

AI and IoT have brought about a paradigm shift in asset maintenance and management in cement manufacturing with the ability to offer critical information about the health of the machines and tailoring maintenance routines to fit the need of each equipment set. The ability to view the machine conditions in real-time, ensures that maintenance and reliability professionals witness fewer surprises and can also avoid problems altogether by enabling earlier preventative action.

These kinds of systems were previously only economical on less than 15% of equipment in industrial operations but the costs have dropped dramatically while the performance of the automation and algorithms has increased markedly. This is leading to much wider and faster adoption.

Use of acoustics in fault detection

Figure 2. Early Failure detection with Acoustics, AI, and IoT. 52

When a machine is operational, it generates elastic waves due to the rapid release of energy from sources within its material. This is known as acoustic emission.

Along with vibration, it is another effective tool for monitoring the condition of the machines.

There are multiple methodologies for condition

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monitoring that are available today, and using acoustic emissions is one of the oldest of these methods. High frequency acoustics, sometimes called ultrasonics, are the earliest indicator of failure with operators having used sound to gauge the condition of machines for many years.

When a fault develops in a machine, the acoustics of the machine begin to change and it becomes worse i.e., noise levels increase, as its condition begins to deteriorate. During high levels of noise, the equipment may still continue to operate within required parameters but, when left unaddressed, its health will start to deteriorate at a faster rate until its components completely break down. However, in most cases, the distinction in sound is not heard in time to prevent unplanned downtime, mainly because of the inherent complexity of the human ability to hear, as well as the fact that many machine failures only become discernible to the operator when a significant change has already occurred.

Moreover, early-stage faults are more evident at high acoustic frequencies, between 20 – 80 kHz, which are beyond human audible range. They start appearing in the audible frequency zone only when the faults become severe. However, by this stage, the time to act is significantly reduced.

Advanced AI and IoT technology can overcome the challenge of identifying even the subtle change in the sound of the machines (including at frequencies

beyond human audible range) and will help to listen to the machines without any inherent bias. These technologies also reduce the stress on manpower that is already strained with maintaining equipment at their optimum levels. For example, it is estimated that between 8 – 10% of industrial equipment is currently experiencing some level of fault condition but knowing which assets need attention is key to reducing the stress on operations and maintenance teams while pursuing the uptime goals of the organisation.

Transforming cement manufacturing operations with acoustics, AI, and IoT

AI and IoT in combination with acoustic emission can provide significant value to operators in identifying impending failures and subsequently planning their maintenance activities.

Significant advances in technology have allowed for the development of systems that can emulate the hearing abilities of experienced operators. This advancement, combined with the adoption of AI and IoT, offers opportunities to implement robust condition monitoring systems that can use acoustic emissions to detect failures weeks or even months in advance.

The role of edge computing

Advanced IoT sensors with on-board edge computing capabilities collect machine data every few minutes and subsequently evaluate this data for anomalies. If anomalies are detected, then the data sets are uploaded immediately for in depth, automated, cloud analysis. This allows nearly full-time monitoring without full-time connectivity, thereby preserving the battery life on wireless IoT devices.

Anomaly detection using edge computing, based on the acoustic Figure 3. Anomaly detection with edge and cloud computing. waveform of the machine, informs the maintenance teams about very early signs of a developing fault. This allows for early detection of failures, thereby enabling maintenance teams to schedule inspections, repairs and planned shutdowns as they see the fault develop.

Condition monitoring in cement plants

Figure 4. ATOX raw grinding mill.

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Recent advancements in IoT technology, have paved the way for remote condition monitoring with devices that have robust designs and can still capture the output parameters of the machines without any interference, which reduces their need for maintenance.

In addition, they work on cellular networks, thereby enabling hassle-free deployment and efficient, faster, and more secure data transmission.

World Cement August 2022

Moreover, the acoustic sensors combine with other sensing modalities to monitor parameters such as vibration, temperature, and magnetic flux simultaneously. These factors ensure complete remote monitoring of all critical and non-critical assets in cement manufacturing plants, with a very high level of worker safety.

Typical cement plants operate various static and dynamic equipment sets, some of which run at variable speeds. Condition monitoring of this equipment using route-based techniques, does not allow engineers and technicians to obtain information about the health of the bearing inside the equipment.

For example, the health of the inside bearings of a VRM grinder is quite difficult to monitor effectively as it is contained inside the assembly. Furthermore, equipment sets placed at certain heights above ground level, such as silo tops or bucket elevators, pose the challenge of reaching vantage points manually and thus monitoring is tough in such hard-to-reach places. AI and IoT can capture acoustic emissions from these machines to provide meaningful insights about their health and performance.

These insights help cement manufacturers detect any anomalies in the equipment sets by emulating the capabilities of human auditory senses, enabling early fault detection and eliminating downtime even for equipment sets that are tough to monitor.

Cement manufacturers often encounter applications that are challenging to monitor even with the best of tools. Acoustics, AI, and IoT offer the potential to solve such issues by matching the frequencies of the acoustic emissions and vibration signals with appropriate fault modes. One such application where vibration is less useful than acoustics is on an Atox grinding mill, which functions as follows: ff An Atox raw grinding mill uses the pressure and the shear generated between the roller and the rotating table to crush and grind the raw material. ff Pull/tension/tye rods made of alloy steel are used to exert grinding pressure on the rollers. ff The grinding forces are transmitted vertically by three pull rods placed at 120˚ apart directly into the hydraulic cylinder and to the rollers.

ff Thus, any fault in the bearing will reflect on the roller, subsequently damaging the Tie-rod. ff The application is noisy and also undergoes high load fluctuations which makes it difficult to capture a good vibration signals that can indicate faults in advance. ff However, the use of IoT sensors with multiple sensing modalities such as acoustics and vibration, in combination with AI has proven to be very effective in the early detection of faults in the bearing that runs on the table from the tye-rod.

The sensor captures acoustic emission data and analyses it to detect anomalies using on-board edge computing capabilities. The data is further transmitted to the cloud where it is analysed using advanced signal processing algorithms to detect faults in advance, to prevent catastrophic failure in the Atox mills.

Conclusion

Automated AI-based condition monitoring solutions with the capability to hear & analyse their acoustic emission levels for obtaining evidence of their performance, empowers the maintenance and reliability professionals in cement plants, with the right data at the right time.

Accelerated use of AI and IoT has already enabled cement manufacturers to uncover insights and patterns which were previously unavailable, thereby allowing them to operate assets at their optimum performance levels. Furthermore, the early alerts offered by AI and IoT are helping maintenance engineers to make smart maintenance plans that allow for the optimised performance of cement manufacturing plants.

About the author

Sunil Vedula is the Founder & CEO of Nanoprecise Sci Corp, a predictive maintenance solutions provider. He is a professional engineer from Canada with extensive experience in the manufacturing sector. He is extremely passionate about technology commercialisation in the field of IIoT, AI & Industry 4.0, to improve efficiency and reduce carbon emissions as much as possible.

Your air pollution control equipment is our core business Simatek provides a broad range of fabric filter equipment for any application requirements.

Our filter technology ensures compliance with latest regulations in the cement industry.

In 2021 Simatek acquired FLSmidth’s fabric filter technologies. At the same time, the engineering teams located in both Denmark and India have joined Simatek.

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SEEKING SUSTAINABILITY WITH WEAR PROTECTION

Martin Kirchgassner, Castolin Eutectic, explains how preventive maintenance and repairs based on advanced wear protection solutions can extend the life of critical machinery.

T

he wear of vital machine parts is a significant cost for the cement industry, not only in terms of repairs, replacement, and ongoing maintenance, but also in lost production – millions of dollars per day in some cases.

The cement challenge

Machinery in cement production is subject to various different types of wear such as abrasion, impact, friction, erosion, fatigue, corrosion, and heat, as well as combinations of all of these factors. Since 1906, Castolin Eutectic has been developing and applying wear solutions for

all aspects of the process from the quarry to the packing plant.

This now forms the basis of the company’s philosophy ‘Pioneering Industrial Sustainability’, since if critical equipment functions optimally, it consumes less energy. Therefore, cement plants can help improve their energy efficiency and reduce their CO2 footprint.

This article outlines how wear protection in the form of advanced welding solutions or coatings can make a major contribution to uptime and productivity in four main areas: the Vertical Roller Mill (VRM), roller press rollers, kiln tyres, and fan refurbishment.

57

VRM: fast response and extended life expectancy

A VRM is used to crush materials into very fine particles. The key components in the VRM are subjected to severe wear which can increase dramatically when high silica content is found in the raw materials or where mills are grinding slag. The finish milling process is generally the single largest area of energy consumption in a cement manufacturing plant. That means wear problems can have an important impact on energy efficiency, and therefore plant profitability.

A worn VRM roller profile also reduces grinding efficiency, which further impacts energy efficiency.

A key concern for any cement plant is the availability of the critical processing equipment, especially the VRM. Downtime during refurbishment is a major cost, and there is continual pressure to reduce this time and enable the plant to return to full production status.

Castolin Eutectic responded to these challenges by reviewing the entire on-site welding operation to develop the Advanced High Speed Repair Concept. Its team delivers this through advanced welding equipment technology, application-specific welding consumables, advanced automation and data logging, multi head control, modern logistics and a dedicated VRM package.

This service provides the cement industry with the highest grinding performance and the fastest refurbishment speed – 36 hours for 3 or 4 rolls and a table. In some cases it totally avoids any

A VRM crushes materials into very fine particles.

VRM top end applications.

58

kiln stoppage if the customer has the capability to store material temporarily.

The VRM can be divided into two parts, the top end and the bottom end. These parts can be fabricated from special wear plates known as CastoDur Diamond Plates (CDP®) based on composite bi-metallic materials. They comprise an easy-to-weld steel plate overlaid with abrasion and erosion resistant alloys by three possible methods: arc welding, metal-atomised coating or plasma powder coating.

At the top end, VRM outlet ducts often suffer severe wear due to the high-velocity fine particles. A previous solution would be to use AR 600 wear plates based on heat-treated high-carbon steel with wear and abrasion resistance around 15 times that of ordinary steel. However, when substituted by CDP the operational lifespan is increased by up to six times more than AR 600 wear plates.

In this application, the CDP features a mild steel base with a coating developed for extreme abrasion and erosion resistance. Its complex carbide structure contains a high density of hard particles. Extremely hard boron and niobium particles are finely dispersed in between chromium carbides, reducing their spacing and ensuring the best protection from abrasive and erosive media of finer size.

Similar benefits are experienced when replacing the separator vanes with CDP, while for the body liners the life is increased by up to eight times. The grit cone is subjected to severe abrasion and erosion due to being exposed to fine particles at a high velocity that cause it to wear out on both sides.

In this case double sided CDP wear plates are used for up to eight times more life.

The inlet chute liner is subjected to abrasion and mild impact. So, a different type of CDP is used. This features a coating of primary chrome carbides, finely dispersed in an iron-chrome-carbon matrix. Again, life expectancy is increased by up to eight times.

At the bottom end, abrasion and erosion act on the water spray nozzle.

Previously, the only solution would be replacement. However, it can now be repaired by welding using a manual metal arc welding electrode developed for protection against combined abrasion, pressure and low impact. As an alternative, the repair can be carried out with a high-temperature-resistant polymer coating that incorporates a high alumina and silicon content within the resin and hardener system.

World Cement August 2022

On curing it provides a surface with outstanding wear protection. Either option will offer up to three times the lifespan. The choice depends on the length of shutdown available.

The VRM roller is the crucial part of the mill and is subjected to a combination of pressure, severe abrasion and erosion that results in a high wear rate. Traditionally, the solution is replacement. However, these rollers can be refurnished by the use of a special welding procedure using an open arc wire. This provides an extra smooth surface as well as an extremely resistant coating. This approach can reduce the wear rate by up to 30%.

There is a perception that sintered carbide rollers are not weldable and very often customers scrap them after a certain period of crushing.

Using welding procedures developed by Castolin Eutectic it is possible to refurbish scrapped sintered carbide rollers to as-new condition.

The bell housing, protection cover and roller guard suffer from abrasion and erosion and are normally replaced by spare parts. Using CDP can double their life. The same applies to the scraper ring and louver ring plate, which is a critical part of the mill and located in a severe wear zone.

Severe abrasion can occur on the table due to the presence of fine particles with high silica content. Previously, it would need to be replaced.

Now it can be repaired by hardfacing using metal arc welding. The repair costs 40% of a new table while offering 30% more life.

Roller press refurbishment

The roller press is used mainly in the cement industry to grind clinker, slag, or other raw materials. It features two rollers rotating against each other. One roller is fixed, while the other roller is forced against it by hydraulic pressure.

The demanding operating conditions subject the rollers to combined pressure, abrasion, and impact. The entire roller can be refurbished by

gouging out the fatigued material, rough grinding, machining, build-up and hardfacing using special welding wires and final stress relieving. The process can be carried out in the workshop or in-situ.

Kiln tyre splinter repairs

A persistent challenge for cement manufacturing is the maintenance and efficiency of the kilns.

These are large, round, fabricated steel tubes, up to 4.5 – 6 m in diameter, and from 45 – 150 m long. Since they are lined with fire-resistant refractory brick, constantly rotating on rollers (spaced approximately every 15 m), and heated internally to 1450˚C, they are susceptible to serious operating and maintenance problems.

The longer the kiln, the greater these problems can be, especially with respect to cracking and misalignment of the rollers.

The rotary kiln is supported on the rollers by a large steel tyre. The high pressures and contact stresses acting on the tyre can cause surface cracking and the detachment of large splinters. The high cost of a kiln tyre and the long downtime associated with replacement has resulted in the development of a process to weld splinters back to the tyre. Traditional pre-heating is usually impractical due to the large mass. Successful welding is possible with the combination of a local heating process, speciality low-heat manual metal arc welding electrodes and an exacting procedure.

In one case, the Castolin Eutectic team was called in by a customer that had a crack in a kiln tyre that needed immediate repair. A new replacement was available but making the change would have required a downtime of 30 days – at US$2.4 million/d that was an unacceptable cost.

An on-site repair was carried out using welding wires formulated specially for this type of application. They offer enhanced resistance to fatigue cracks caused by stress raisers or thermal cycles.

The result was that a repair was completed in just 10 days, saving the customer 20 days of high-value production. The replacement could then be planned for a scheduled downtime period.

Fans refurbished to better than new

On-site vertical roller mill inspection.

Roller press refurbishment.

Kiln tyre repair.

In common with any high-speed rotating equipment, fans must be perfectly balanced in order to operate smoothly. Vibration can seriously damage important components such as fan bearings and surrounding structures and, therefore, increase downtime and maintenance costs. Once the blades are severely worn-out, airflow dynamics are altered and consequently, the flow rate will be reduced and energy consumption will increase. Using wear-resistant coatings not only extends the fan service life but also saves energy and decreases other component maintenance costs.

To improve the service life of fans, and ensure smooth operation, a full range of solutions is available. The most common is to use CDP wearplates. They can be utilised as liners or, when mechanical stress is low, even as structural parts. They are regularly used for manufacturing large centrifugal fans and also casings.

In a typical example, a customer’s fan and housing was subject to wear by high velocity fine particle abrasion. Instead of using the traditional AR plates, refurbishment was carried out using CDP. The system now works like new as well as having an enhanced lifespan.

Another technique to extend fan life is arc-spray wear-resistant coatings. These can be applied on thin parts or lightweight fans working in an airflow which is not too heavily laden with particles, but which still require a cost-efficient protective layer. Erosion and corrosion solutions are available for complex geometries such as airfoil blades that can easily be coated in the workshop, as well as directly on-site when equipment needs to be repaired.

Refurbish rather than replace

Fans protected by arc spraying.

60

Intuitively, it might seem that the replacement of worn-out parts is the best option. However, in the cement industry, where uptime is often the primary concern, repair and refurbishment will often prove superior. It is not only a question of providing a faster return to action, using the latest coating technology can also significantly improve operational life, often several times over.

The result is greater reliability and the best possible total cost of ownership.

World Cement August 2022

Kenneth Helm, Nordic Air Filtration, explores how new filter bag designs can address dust pollution issues in various areas of the cement production process.

T

he problem of air pollution and the reduction of greenhouse gasses is one of substantial importance to all humanity. The cement industry is a major concern when it comes to dust emissions; a study from China has found that the cement industry accounts for up to 40% of total Chinese industrial particulate matter (PM) emissions.1 It should be noted that China accounts for more than 56% of the world’s cement production, so the number might be a little lower worldwide, with geographical differences.2

61

The complexity of the PM also needs to be taken into consideration, as dust is emitted by multiple sources within the cement factory, such as the crusher silo, raw mill, kiln, and coal mill (Figure 2).3 As such, the PM emitted is a complex mixture of solid particles and aerosols that vary in size, shape, and chemical composition. 4 PM that is less or equal to 10 µm, can be inhaled into the lungs and can cause various adverse health effects. All of these facts add to the complexity of lowering the dust emission levels of cement production; hence the cement industry is an area of special interest, not only for cement plants

Figure 1. Customising the filter cartridge to correct application.

and governments, but also for individuals more generally.

Providing a solution

Lowering dust emissions is a science in itself, and the importance of knowing the particulate matter, operating conditions, and the specific processes are crucial when selecting and customising the correct filter cartridge (Figure 1), providing safe working conditions for the employees and ensuring cleaner air for the wider population.

Nordic Air Filtration produces pleated bags, which are a substitute for traditional filter bags.

During its 30 years of operation, the company has gained valuable insights from different cement installations worldwide, providing with both smaller dust collection systems in Europe and larger scale systems in China.

One of the main findings from these installations is that the dust collection systems are lowering emission levels by more than 90% in the majority of cases. In Croatia, for example, emissions decreased from 45 to 4 mg/m3,5 and in Portugal from 22 mg/m3 to 1 mg/m3.6 Addressing the customers’ exact problem, the company aims to find the right solution for that specific application, and is able to retrofit its solution without changing the existing dust collector.

Despite shortening the length of the bag, the pleated solutions means that the surface area of the filter is increased by 2 – 3 times, improving the life cycle of the filters significantly, not to mention lowering maintenance costs, reducing

Figure 2. Example of baghouses and processes in a common cement factory.

62

World Cement August 2022

energy consumption, optimising air pulsing, and ensuring a lower dP. Table 1 shows a comparison of the characteristics of pleated and traditional filter bags.

In total, cement plants are able to not only lower their dust emission levels, but they will also shrink their CO2 emissions, and save money on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Handling the heat

than 90% by also significantly reducing CO2 emissions and energy costs.

References 1. HASANBEIGI. A., KHANNA. N., & PRICE. L., ‘Air Pollutant Emissions Projections for the Cement and Steel Industry in China and the Impact of Emissions Control Technologies’. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2172/1372903. https://www.osti.gov/ servlets/purl/1372903.

2. ‘Key Facts & Figures’, The European Cement Association – https://cembureau.eu/about-our-industry/key-facts-figures/ 3. ANDERSON. J. O., THUNDIYIL. J. G., & STOLBACH. A., ‘Clearing the air: a review of the effects of particulate matter air pollution on human health’. Journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology 8(2), (2012), 166 – 175 – https://doi. org/10.1007/s13181-011-0203-1 4. CIOBANU. C., ISTRATE. I. A., TUDOR. P., & VOICU. G., ‘Dust Emission Monitoring in Cement Plant Mills: A Case Study in Romania’. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 9096. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph18179096 5. ‘Case study: Croatia’. Nordic Air Filtration – https:// casestudies.nordic-air-filtration.com/dust-emission-down-45only-4-mgm3 6. ‘Case study: Portugal’. Nordic Air Filtration. – https://casestudies.nordic-air-filtration.com/nordicspleated-bags-increased-output-reduced-emission

In the cement industry it is common knowledge that the kiln is the heart of both production and pollution, with the majority of its emissions being produced at this stage of the production process, and if a breakdown of the kiln occurs it is a costly affair.

Thus there is a great incentive to develop a solution for this extreme operating environment, and Nordic Air Filtration has developed the UHT pleated bag for this purpose. The UHT pleated bag can withstand a working temperature of 230˚C and peak of 250˚C, and is highly durable, it has a special high dynamic glue design and a heavy-duty filter media crafted in Germany.

The media is made from a polyimide-based fibre that is well known for its thermal stability, which can endure extremely high temperatures without melting. The Table 1. Pleated bag characteristics compared to UHT pleated bags are made with traditional filter bags 100% metal end caps and top caps with integrated locking function for Filter length Maximum 3 m. non-detachment with an additional outer stainless-steel band ensuring Filter surface area 2 – 3 times larger than bag filter. the stability of the pleat pack. These enhancements have contributed to an Life cycle Excellent; significantly improved. estimated lifetime of 3 years, helping to decrease further maintenance costs.

60% lower installation and maintenance No operation environment is identical, Installation/ Maintenance costs. and so the UHT pleated bag system was developed considering potential Reduced filter abrasion; moved out of Abrasion/ Leaks proximity to salt water, deserts, variable abrasion path. humidity levels, and the type of fuel used to heat up the kiln, among other Emission level >90% lower emission level. factors.

Nordic Air Filtration can also Power consumption >50% lower energy consumption. help advising on the planning of the exchange and the retrofit of the 50 – 70% less cleaning air acquired existing collector. A full replacement Air required for cleaning from compressor. is a big and important decision, and the company tries to make it as easy Efficient pulsing 3 – 6 bar. and beneficial as possible for their customers.

Summary

Dust emissions must be reduced, a cost-effective way to achieve this is to replace filter bags with customised pleated bags, offering more than simply lowering dust emissions by over August 2022 World Cement

Air permeability

Excellent; >20% higher throughput.

Pressure drop

>20% lower DeltaP than conventional filter bag.

Drop out box

Extended; reducing filter mechanical stress.

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AD INDE X ABC www.abc.org.uk

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OBC

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IFC

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World Cement www.worldcement.com

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