Experiences With the Design of Large Size Cement Plants Process and Layout Considerations in Pyroprocess Systems

A K Dembla Managing Director, Humboldt Wedag India Matthias Mersmann Vice President Global Technology and R&D, KHD International

IEEE-IAS/PCA Conference, May 2007, Charleston, USA

1079-9931/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE

1.0 ABSTRACT
The important task to update production process by means of latest technological developments must be accomplished by both the equipment supplier and the cement producer. The equipment supplier, being the technological partner to the industry can thus help greatly to stay competitive in the changing face of the industry. Off late due to the rapid growth rate of Indian economy there has been a thrust on the large capacity cement plants to catch up with the increasing cement demand and also take the advantage of the economies of scale. The company has the privilege of setting-up a good measure of these up-coming large plants in India of which one plant is of 10,000 tpd and three other plants are identical having 8,000 tpd rated capacity designed to produce 10,000 tpd. This paper discusses some of the major features in the selection and design of these plants and challenges to meet the layout requirements. A big challenge of the 10,000 tpd project was to accommodate the plant and machinery design to the very special location at the foot of the Himalaya mountain range in extremely hilly and environmentally protected surrounding. The topographical features of the site itself consist of several contours, hilly terrain and high altitude with a site elevation of 1370 amsl, which may arguably make this plant the largest cement plant to be set-up at such a high altitude. Under normal conditions the utilized equipment is sized to produce 12,000 t of clinker per day. One of the thrust areas for equipment selection was the emphasis on equipment reliability and fulfillment of stringent pollution norms as the plant is to be operated in environmentally protected and sensitive area. After several rounds of deliberations the final technological solutions that emerged are comprising a rotary kiln with 5.8 m x 85 m length with max 4.5 rpm and 2 x 940 kW drive, a four-string-6-stages preheater with cyclones of 7,9 m diameter having two tertiary air ducts, two In-Line calciners with separate tertiary air supply and four individual ID fans. A four string preheater system has been chosen to reduce the over-all building height below 150 m, which allows the use of cranes at this site. At the same time the four string preheater was judged more operation friendly and less pressure drop creating. Being an energy efficient and environment friendly plant, it has been incorporated with options to retrofit a combustion chamber for better adaptability to coarser alternate fuels like municipal solid waste in future. Three 8,000 tpd capacity cement plants have been ordered this year by one company to be erected at different geographical locations. The equipment will be identical for all three plants to allow the company to benefit from common operation, maintaining and spares logistics. Given the dynamic outlook for the Indian cement industry, the plant design has incorporated a lot of provisions to accommodate future requirements in terms of capacity reserves, fuel flexibility and availability safeguards. A kiln of 5.8 m x 85 m length will burn meal from the first LowNOx calciner in India. The calciner burner system will feature the unique and patented mixing chamber as well as the new splash box technology for lower temperatures and lower NOx emissions. The clinker will be cooled in the biggest clinker cooler of the suppliers latest design yet sold with a grate area of 196 m2 having a roller type clinker crusher.

2.0 INTRODUCTION
With an average 10% growth in medium term in Indian cement sector the per capita consumption of cement in India is gradually creeping up and is presently pegged at 118kg against the world average of 262 kg, leaving ample scope for the future growth of the region. With the de-bottlenecking era, witnessing the modernisation or upgradations of existing lines, as a gone phase, the increasing demand has enticed the cement manufacturers to increase the production via new set ups. Confronting the market situation and to constringe the demand and supply gap, two major Indian cement producers nailed down a spot in the cement production by upcoming with some of the largest clinker production lines with 10,000 tpd capacity and three identical lines of 8,000 tpd capacity.

It became an increasingly important task to update production processes by means of latest technological developments to keep these state of art plants globally competitive in the changing face of the industry and the company was chosen to be preferred partner for these kind of set ups.

3.0 THE NEW 10,000 TPD PRODUCTION LINE

A big challenge of this project was to accommodate the plant and machinery design to the very special location at the foot of the Himalaya mountain range in extremely unfavorable environmentally protected surrounding. The topographical feature of the site consists of several contours, hilly terrain and a site elevation of 1370 amsl, which may arguably make this the largest cement plant to be set-up at such a high altitude. Apart from that the availability of transporting media like high capacity cranes for the lifting of bigger equipments has been a big challenge. Under normal conditions the utilized equipment is sized to produce 12,000 t of clinker per day. One of the thrust areas for equipment selection was emphasis on equipment reliability and meeting stringent pollution 3 norms (<30mg/m N ) being in environmentally protected and sensitive area. All the storage areas including limestone, coal and additive stockpile are planned to be covered to avoid any fugitive dust emissions. Being an energy efficient and environment friendly plant it has been designed to incorporate combustion chamber for better adaptability to even coarser alternate fuels like municipal solid waste in future.

3.1 SYSTEM EVALUATION AND SELECTION CRITERIA

The process team of the supplier has given meticulous solutions and approached freezing of the concepts of the project in two different options suiting the clients requirement Option A : To design the system for 6500 tpd in Phase I with provision to go for 10,000 tpd as expansion in Phase II Phase I (6,500 tpd): two PH strings - the solutions given were: A two tower concept (2-string-6-stage preheater with cyclones of 8.2 m diameter) Rotary Kiln (5.6 m x 82m length) 2 Grate Cooler (with 139 m grate surface) One common calciner
rd rd Phase 2 (10,000 tpd): Addition of 3 string - A new 3 tower is foreseen to be installed in conjunction with the two towers for 10,000 tpd capacity requirements. The grate cooler was proposed to be extended by adding another grate to meet the final area requirement to 184 m.

Option B: Option B envisaged going directly for 10,000 tpd in single phase. This again had two different versions i.e. 2 preheater vs. 4 preheater concept. Option B1: To design the system for 10,000 tpd directly with 2 preheater concept: The solutions given were: A two tower concept (2-string-6-stage preheater with cyclones of 9.6 m diameter) Two calciners, two tertiary air ducts and 2 dust settling chambers Rotary kiln (5.8 m x 85 m length) 2 Grate cooler (with 214 m grate area) This concept was abandoned due to an over all height restriction of less than 150m Option B2: To design the system for 10,000 tpd directly with 4 preheater concept the solutions given were: A Four tower concept (4-string-6-stage preheater with cyclones of 7.9 m diameter) Two calciner, two tertiary air duct and 2 dust settling chambers Rotary kiln (5.8 m x 85 m length) 2 Grate cooler (with 214 m grate area) After several rounds of deliberations the four string preheater system has been chosen to reduce the overall building height below 150 m, as a requirement that allows the use of cranes at this site. At the same time the four strings preheater was judged to be more operation-friendly and less pressure drop creating. The other points in favor of the final capacity selection were: The incremental cost of the project from 6,500 tpd to 10,000 tpd is marginal. 4-tower preheater system is more balanced from operation angle compared to 3 tower operation, low pressure drops, height of preheater tower restricted to 150 m thereby the approach of the tower crane for erecting the plant in the hilly terrain became simplified. To remain as single largest capacity plant from the single rotary kiln (10,000 tpd). Avoidance of plant stoppage for grate cooler extension while expanding the capacity and avoidance of hooking up the items from Option A to Option B schemes, that may call for longer shutdown.

3.2 SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The system battery limit starts from raw meal blending silo that is designed for a capacity of 21,682m (24,200 T). The silo has diameter of 24m and height of 77.8m. Two bucket elevators feed the blending silo through a parallel distributor having 8 feeding air slides. Twelve extraction points are provided at silo bottom for feeding to kiln feed pre bin. The dosing and metering system of kiln feed is incorporating a flow meter. The kiln feed is lifted up the tower by two bucket elevators, one for two preheater strings each, before a meal splitter take care of the right dosing onto the individual preheater strings. Due to its latest design cyclone and calciner technology, the 4-string preheater system features lowpressure drop and high efficiency, ensuring excellent heat transfer and low dust recirculation. In 6-stage 0 3 operation, the preheater exhaust gas temperatures of 260 C and dust losses of only 25mg/m are foreseen. In the specifically designed calciner, fuel is fired in a mixture of kiln gas and tertiary air. A mixing vessel is provided at the upper bend point of the calciner for improving the mixing effect and the retention time for efficient burnout. The cooler is equipped with 4 reciprocating grates, having a total grate are of 2 2 216m and a specific loading of 46.7t/dm . A kiln burner of the companys proprietary design provides optimum combustion in kiln main firing at significant reduced primary air (8%). The kiln burner is designed for firing coal as well as petcoke. The swirl air and jet air channels ensure optimized burnout behavior within the flame.
3

3 For coal dosing there is a provision of four fine coal silos of capacity 250m each with dimensions of 4.4m diameter and 41.4 m height. Among them two silos are dedicated for each calciner firing, one for kiln main burner firing and the fourth one is for stand-by availability.

3.3 OPTIONAL FEATURES FOR UTILISING ALTERNATE FUELS

The offered system is designed for 100% coal or petcoke firing and also has a flexibility to substitute noble fuel by secondary fuels. It is possible to replace main fuel (coal/petcoke) by municipal wastes/or other waste derived fuels in the pyro line, up to 15% heat value (105 kcal/kg clinker) without utilizing a special combustion chamber. However, the system incorporates an option to incorporation an additional

combustion chamber and a provision for an alkali bypass system in order to maximize the utilization of lumpy waste derived fuels such as municipal waste, agricultural waste and other industrial waste. After the installation of the combustion chamber the substitution of alternate fuel is possible to go up to 27.5% of the total heat required in pyrosection. The municipal waste is expected to have calorific value of around 3000 Kcal/kg after treatment.

Layout of 10,000 TPD Plant

app. 100m Cooler & Cooler ESP Kiln & Preheater

1370 masl

Clinker Silo Finish Grinding

4.0 THREE IDENTICAL 8,000 TPD PYRO LINES

In another capacity expansion plan, one of the major Indian cement producers came at fore with the noesis of setting up three identical units to produce 8,000 tpd each in different geographical locations of India. The sites for these plants allowed a large extent of site fabrication and imposed fewer limitations for civil construction. These three plants are rated for 8,000 tpd but are designed to produce 10,000 tpd with provision to conciliate future requirements in terms of capacity reserves, fuel flexibility, environmental constraints as well as maintenance and availability safeguards. The equipment and process design for the three units will be identical allowing the producer to benefit from similar operation, maintenance practices and common spares reducing inventory costs.

4.1 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TECHNOLOGY

The battery limits for the supply of the company was stretching from the discharge of the bucket elevator for the blending silo up to the cooler discharge. The inverted cone type raw meal-blending silo is 3 formulated for an effective capacity of 30,000m (36,000 T) having dimensions of 26m diameter x 84.25m height. The bucket elevator feeds the blending silo by 12 feeding points via a common parallel distributor. The aeration system efficiently mixes the raw meal. The extraction of raw meal from the blending silo takes place by 14 discharge sections. From these extraction points the raw meal passes to a kiln feed 3 control bin of 330 m capacity, having dimensions of 7.5 m diameter x 8.5 m height. The level of the material in the bin is controlled by the signals of three load cells for high accuracy. Two-bucket elevators are provided to feed the meal to the preheater tower. The bucket elevator capacity is 550 tph, hence only one bucket elevator is required to run a kiln capacity up to 8,000 tpd and the other will remain as stand by. However, if the plant is producing 10,000 tpd both bucket elevators shall have to be in operation.

In contrast to the 10,000 tpd plant, here a two string preheater has been selected considering the much reduced site elevation and the fewer logistic and tower height constraints. However, this system is also designed to allow for 100% coal or petcoke firing. The preheater is a 2-string-6-stage system with vessels of a diameter of 8.8 m (for cyclones 2-6) and 6.4 m for cyclone 1. The civil structure for the preheater tower stands to a height of 152m, whereas the concrete structure supports the preheater to a height of 129m. The two calciners are classical in-line calciners with two tertiary air ducts, one for each calciner. The pyrosystems are going to be with the first Low NOx calciner systems to be installed in India by the company. To control the NOx levels, the fuel will be fired at two different locations within the calciner. The pyroclon burners are located in those parts of the calciner where the pure tertiary air is present while the low-NOx burner will use kiln exhaust gas as combustion gas. Hence, the pyroclon burner produces an oxygen-rich exhaust gas and the low-NO x-burner creates an exhaust gas in which the high CO content effectively reduces the kiln generated NOx. Further up the calciner, both strands, the oxygen-rich and the CO-rich strand, are subsequently mixed and the CO-rich strand is continuously oxidized. This process can be considered as a continuous staged combustion. The calciner burners are fired through a novel mealand fuel entry box, offering improved homogeneity of fuel and meal and thus preventing temperature peaks and excessive NOx-generation. The system is highlighted by a compact mixing chamber inducing a stable swirl onto the gasflow which facilitates burn-out and effectively surpresses CO-peaks. This calciner concept, comprising a low-NO x technology in combination with the swirl chamber, replacing the traditional 0 180 bow, has proved its capability to reach even the stringent emission limits without use of any additives.
3 The fuel for kiln and calciner firing is stored in three bins of 300m capacity each, with dimensions of 5.3m diameter x 28.9 m height. Agitators are provided at the bottom of each storage bin. To achieve optimum firing control, dedicated firing lines are provided for each pyroclon burner as well as for the kiln burner. For the two Low-NOx-calciner burners the fuel is split into equal flows after being transported in a common line. However, all the calciner burners are designed to allow an operation ranging between 0 100% firing, giving utmost flexibility to the system. Rotor Scale feeders with load cells, flow measurement system and check weighing are provided for best possible accuracy.

The rotary kiln of dimension is supported on three tyres with six supporting rollers. The clinker is discharged into the clinker cooler of latest design. The cooler has been designed for the specific throughput of the material to be cooled with due considerations to the capacity fluctuations which occur for 2 different operating conditions. The effective cooler area is 196m with the specific grate loading of 40.8 2 t/d/m @ 8,000 tpd. The cooler is the biggest of its type supplied so far by KHD and this new design was chosen over other alternatives owing to the lowest possible wear, optimum aeration, low investment and maintenance cost.

5.0 FOUR CAPACITY EXPANSIONS AT A GLANCE

A brief comparison of technical features of the equipments used in these two systems is tabled below. Item Altitude above MSL Raw meal blending silo capacity diameter height Production nominal max specific heat demand Rotary kiln dimensions kiln speed nominal max motor Preheater no of strings inside shell diameter stage 2-6 stage 1 calciner length diameter retention time fan volumetric flowrate pressure drop at PH outlet Kiln burner burner capacity fuel throughput fuel type net calorific value Clinker cooler active grate area specific loading air fans Cooler ESP operating flow rate operating temperature outlet dust concentration Fuel dosing and firing fuel silos capacity diameter height no of firing points Unit m t m m tpd tpd kcal/kgCli diameter x length,m rpm rpm kW No mm mm m m sec m/min mbar GJ/h tph Kcal/kg m 2 t/m /d No
3 m /hr 0 C mg/Nm 2

10,000 TPD 1370 24000 22.4 77 10,000 12000 698 5.8 x 85 4.0 4.5 2 x 940 4 7900 5330 91 4.985 6000 43(operating) 730 40 coal/petcoke 4200 214 46.7 17 1,134,610 241 30 coal/petcoke 4 250 4.4 41.4 3

8,000 TPD 300(avg) 36000 26 84.25 8,000 10,000 698 5.8 x 8.5 3.55 5 2 x 940 2 8800 6600 101 4.385 6.4 8845 54(operating) 630 19.3 petcoke 7800 196 40.8 10 6,662,56 282-285 30 petcoke 3 300 5.3 28.9 5

(No) 3 m m m No

6.0 CONCLUSION
With the commissioning of these four lines expected to be completed by the middle of 2008, there will be a vigor of capacity addition of around 14.5 mtpa of cement in the current capacity of the Indian cement industry. These four plants with their specific technical specifications and provisions for future modifications will undoubtedly carve a niche in the market share.