Cement plant

Cement

The Cement industry, vital for construction projects, faces challenges in maintaining consistent and reliable raw material feed for production, with issues like poor material flow, abrasive wear, and segregation leading to process disruptions, increased energy consumption, and reduced output.
Overview

Cement Industry

Cement quality relies upon consistent kiln feed and reliable raw mix formulation.

The Cement industry provides the main building material for commercial, residential, and governmental projects involving infrastructure (e.g., roads, bridges, tunnels).

Most new plants or line expansion projects are seeking techniques to reduce production costs, while minimizing adverse environmental impact during cement production.  To meet ever increasing demands, cement kilns must have consistent, reliable feed of raw materials, such as limestone, clay, sand, mill scale/iron ore, and bauxite.  Though dry process cement plants are advantageous over wet process plants due to significant energy savings, they experience additional material handling problems during feeding, milling, and calcination. Cement plants continue to seeks ways to reduce fossil fuel consumption through use of alternative fuels. Clinker substitution with limestone or pozzolanic additives is now a common practice.

A cement plant

A cement plant

Cement plant with stockpile of cement next to silos

A stockpile of cement next to silos.

Services

Cement Industry Services

Whether you are retrofitting bins to alleviate flow problems, implementing a new mass flow silo or stockpile to maximize gravity reclaim, or feeding alternative fuels to the kiln, Jenike & Johanson can help you achieve reliable material flow and consistency at your cement plant.

Engineer inspecting cement plant

Engineer inspecting a cement plant.

Raw material conveying belt at a cement plant

Raw material conveying belt at a cement plant.

Clay minerals

Mining clay

Challenge

Common Cement Industry Challenges

The majority of raw materials handled at a cement plant are prone to poor flow during reclaim from stockpiles, storage silos, or hoppers.  These problems can lead to process upsets, down time and require frequent operator intervention.  Materials handled are often dusty, cause abrasive wear of equipment, and stick in chutes and conveyors, all contributing to reduced cement output.  Erratic feed and wide particle size variability (segregation) will lead to poor mill performance, increased energy consumption, and vibrations in vertical roller mills.  Cement can be prone to both caking and flooding (flushing) behavior.

Cement plant silos

Silos at a cement plant.

Mining limestone

Mining limestone.

Concrete silos as a cement plant

Concrete silos as a cement plant.

Materials

Common Materials Handled

Here is a shortened list of some of the most common bulk materials we have successfully handled in the Cement industry to date. Please reach out to us if you’d like to discuss our experience with your specific material.

  • Limestone and raw meal (kiln feed)
  • Lime (slaked, burnt, quicklime, hydrated, pebble)
  • Clay (kaolin, bentonite, ball, calcined)
  • Cement (Type 1/2/3/4, OPC, GBFS)
  • Clinker (cement kiln dust)
  • Silica additives (Sand, fly ash, ESP ash, bottom ash, clay, silica, quartz, mica)
  • Alumina additives (bauxite, clay)
  • Iron additives (mill scale, iron ore, pyrite)
  • Alternative fuels (RDF, biomass, tires, plastic, shredded waste)
  • Pozzolan additives (pozzolana, synthetic & natural gypsum, limestone, volcanic ash, slag, dolomite)
  • Fossil fuels (coal, coke, lignite)
Clients

Cement Industry Clients

Some of the clients who we have successfully provided bulk material engineering services for in the Cement industry.

  • Lafarge
  • Holcim
  • Cemex
  • Cementos Argos
  • Ashgrove
  • Texas Industries
  • Votorantim
  • Cimpor
  • Lehigh Cement
  • Atlantic Cement
  • Ash Grove Cement
  • Blue Circle Cement
  • Caribbean Cement Co. LTD
  • Cemento Polpaico SA
  • Cementos Nacionales
  • Cementos Progreso
  • Cemex
  • Essroc
  • Fuller Company
  • Heidelberger Cement
  • Holcim
  • Holderbank
  • Holnam
  • Humboldt Wedag
  • Irish Cement
  • Kaiser Cement
  • Korean Cement
  • Lafarge Canada
  • Lafarge North America
  • Lake Ontario Cement, Canada
  • Lantic Cement, Canada
  • Lehigh Cement
  • Medusa-Citadel Cement
  • Nesher Israel Cement
  • Phoenix Cement
  • St. Lawrence Cement
  • St. Mary’s Cement
  • South Dakota Cement
  • TEC, Inc.
  • Tilbury Cement
  • U.S. Gypsum
Jenike & Johanson engineer
Jenike & Johanson engineer

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