Cement mill notebook

Cement Grinding Optimization

1. 1. CEMENT GRINDING OPTIMISATION Dr Alex Jankovic, Metso Minerals

Process Technology Asia-Pacific, Brisbane , Australia e-mail: alex.jankovic@metso
.com Dr Walter Valery, Metso Minerals Process Technology Asia-Pacific,
Brisbane, Australia Eugene Davis, Metso Minerals Asia-Pacific, Perth, Australia
ABSTRACT The current world consumption of cement is about 1.5 billion tonnes
per annum and it is increasing at about 1% per annum. The electrical energy
consumed in cement production is approximately 110 kWh/tonne, and around 40%
of this energy is consumed for clinker grinding. There is potential to optimise
conventional cement clinker grinding circuits and in the last decade significant
progress has been achieved. The increasing demand for finer cement products,
and the need for reduction in energy consumption and green house gas emissions,
reinforces the need for grinding optimisation. This paper describes the tools
available for the analysis and optimisation of cement grinding circuits. The
application of the Bond based methodology as well as Population Balance Models
(PBM) is presented using a case study. The throughput of current conventional
closed grinding circuit can be increased by 10-20% by pre-crushing the clinker
using the Barmac crusher. A potential for application of stirred milling technology
for fine cement grinding was also discussed. Key words: dry grinding, process
optimisation, modelling INTRODUCTION For all dry grinding applications,
cement production is certainly the most important. The estimate for the world
energy consumption for cement production is 18.7 TWh which is approximately
0.02% of total world energy consumption per year. The world consumption of
cement was about 1.72 billion tones in 2002 and it is increasing at about 1% per
annum. Cement production process typically involves: grinding limestone (and
other raw materials to achieve the right chemical composition) to about 90%
passing 90 microns in a dry circuit, making cement by the chemical reaction
between the components of the ground mixture. This chemical reaction occurs at
high temperature in a rotary kiln, grinding the cement clinker nodules to 100%
passing 90 microns in a dry circuit.
2. 2. Grinding occurs at the beginning and the end of the cement making process.
Approximately 1.5 tonnes of raw materials are required to produce 1 tonne of
finished cement. The electrical energy consumed in the cement making process is in
order of 110 kWh/tonne and about 30% of which is used for the raw materials
preparation and about 40% for the final cement production by cement clinker
grinding. Production costs and environmental concerns are emphasizing the need to
use less energy and therefore the development of more energy efficient machines
for grinding and classification. The world energy consumed for cement production
is similar to energy used for grinding in US mining industry, which is a significant
fraction of the world total. In the minerals industry, research in modelling and
simulation of the grinding process has a long and successful history. However, in
the cement industry, the grinding process is more of an art than engineering and
the equipment manufacturers exclusively hold the know- how. The process is
 designed and operated using carefully guarded recipes and rules. In such as
environment there is little or no room for process understanding and improvement.
This paper discusses how techniques developed in minerals processing can be
applied in cement grinding optimisation. Only the cement clinker grinding is
discussed and area of raw material preparation is not covered. CEMENT
GRINDING For most of the twentieth century, the dry grinding circuits for the
production of finished cement from cement clinker consist of two-compartment tube
mills and the air separators. It is not uncommon to produce the cement in an open
circuit. Advances in cement grinding technology is slow and these advances are
limited to more developed countries. Approximately 95% of the feed to the cement
grinding circuit are clinker and the rest of the feed are additives which includes
grinding aids. The quality of cement is measured by the surface area or the Blane
index. The unit of the Blane index is m2 /kg, and this index is determined by the
Blane air permeability test. The surface area of the cement powder depends on size
distribution of cement particles; smaller particles have larger surface area. If the
particle size distribution is known, the Blane index can be successfully predicted
(Zhang et al, 1995) The cement clinker grinding circuit reduces the feed from 80%
passing size between 10 and 20 mm to 100% passing 90 microns. The size
reduction takes place in a two- compartment tube mill; the first compartment of the
mill is shorter than the second compartment. The coarse clinker is ground in the first
compartment where larger balls (80, 60, 50 mm) are used and the fine grinding is
done in the second compartment where smaller balls (below 25 mm) are used. A
diaphragm (see Figure 1) separates the two compartments and allows only particles
below a certain size to pass to the second compartment. Ground material exits the
mill through the discharge grate which prevents grinding balls from leaving the
mill. A proportion of material, mostly fines, is air-swept out of the mill. The final
product is the fine fraction of the air classifier and the coarse fraction returns to the
mill.
3. 3. Figure 1. Diaphragm between the two compartments of the two-compartment
mill view from first compartment In the past 20 years, high pressure grinding roll
(HPGR) technology has been used in pre- crushing of clinker. Presently, many
American and European cement grinding circuits have HPGR which increases
grinding capacity and energy efficiency. CEMENT GRINDING SIMULATION To
optimise cement grinding, standard Bond grinding calculations can be used as well
as modelling and simulation techniques based on population balance model (PBM).
Mill power draw prediction can be carried out using Morrells power model for
tumbling mills (Morrell, 1998). Bond method The established technique for
determining power requirements for ball mills is the Bond method (Bond, 1961).
This method also involves the application of some efficiency factors as described
by Rowland (1975). Bonds equation describes the specific power required to
reduce a feed from a specified feed F80 to a product with a specified P80:
4. 4. Wm = Wi ( 80P 10 - 80F 10 ) (1) where: Wm - is mill specific motor output
power (kWh/t), Wi - is the Bond ball mill work index (kWh/t), P80 - is sieve size
passing 80% of the mill product (m), F80 - is sieve size passing 80% of the mill
feed (m), The efficiency factors (Rowland, 1975) modify equation 1 so that it
caters for circuit conditions which are different from that Bond used to develop his
original equation. There are efficiency factors for dry grinding, open circuit ball
 milling, mill diameter, oversize feed, grinding finer than 75 microns and too large or
too small reduction ratios. For cement application, the dry grinding (EF1), mill
diameter (EF3), oversize feed (EF4) and fine product (EF5) factors are relevant.
Therefore, the equation for the specific power requirement is: Wm = EF1 EF3 EF4
EF5 Wi ( 80P 10 - 80F 10 ) (2) According to Bond the specific power (calculated
using Equation 1) should be multiplied by EF3 where the mill diameter exceeds 8ft.
Rowland (1975) modified the application of EF3 and stated it should be used up to
mills of 12ft. For mills larger than 12ft the value of EF3 remains constant at the
value for 12ft mills. EF3 = (8/Dft)0.2 = ( ) .2 0 2.44 D (3) where: Dft - is the mill
diameter inside liners (ft) D - is the mill diameter inside liners (m) The oversize
feed factor (EF4) caters for situations where the feed size is coarser than a specific
size limit (F0), which is a function of ore hardness. Bond argued that if the feed ore
were coarser than this, bigger balls would be needed to break the coarser feed
particles at the expense of grinding of smaller particles. Conversely, if smaller balls
were used to grind the finer particles, the smaller balls would not break the coarser
particles. Either way a grinding inefficiency would result. The EF4 factor is applied
only when the F80 is greater than F0 and has a value greater than 1. The correction
factor, EF4, for the ore feed size is calculated as follows (Rowland, 1975): EF4 =
[Rr + (Wi - 7) ( 0 080 F FF )] / Rr (4) P0 = 4000 ( Wi 13 )0.5 for ball mills (5) Rr
= F80/P80 (6) where: Rr - size reduction ratio
5. 5. F0 - optimum mill feed size (m), F80 - actual mill feed size (m), P80 - mill
product size (m), The correction factor EF5 for the products finer than 75 m
(Rowland, 1975) is determined by: EF5 = 80 80 P*1.145 3.10P + (7) It was found in
the crushing area that there are significant differences between the real plant data
and the Bond calculations and therefore empirical corrections were introduced. The
following modified Bond equation was proposed for crushing (Magdalinovic,
1990): Wc = cP A Wi ( cP 10 - cF 10 ) (8) where: Wc - is energy consumed for
clinker crushing (kWh/t), Wi - is Bond ball mill work index (kWh/t), Pc -is sieve
size passing 80% of the clinker after crushing (m), Fc - is sieve size passing 80%
of the clinker before crushing (m), A - is an empirical coefficient, dependant on
clinker and crusher properties Based on the above considerations for crushing and
grinding, the energy consumption for the clinker pre-crushing and ball milling can
be estimated using the following Bond based model: W = Wc + Wm (9) As pre-
crushing product size Pc is equal to the mill feed size F80 then: W = 80F A Wi (
80P 10 - cF 10 ) + 1.3 * ( ) .2 0 2.44 D * {[Rr + (Wi - 7) ( 0 080 F FF )] / Rr} * 80
80 P*1.145 3.10P + * Wi ( 80P 10 - 80F 10 ) (10) PBM models In the area of dry
particle reduction, the population balance models (PBM) for crushers, HPGR, ball
mills, air-swept ball mills and air separators have been developed (Lynch et all
1977, Austin et al, 1980; Zhang,Y et al, 1988, Morrell et al, 1997, Benzer et al,
2001,
6. 6. 2003). These models can be used to simulate cement grinding circuits and to
assist their optimisation. The work horse of the cement grinding plant is the two-
compartment ball mill, commonly called the tube mill. Significant advances in
model development were achieved in recent years (Benzer et al, 2001, 2003)
through research on industrial scale. The breakage and transport mechanisms are
better understood as well as the classification action of the diaphragm. Further
advances are expected in modelling the effect of diaphragm design on classification
 and powder transport. The basis for modeling the two-compartment ball mill is the
perfect mixing ball mill model. It can be illustrated by the following equation
(Lynch, 1997): i ii i j jj d pr p d pra f i j ij i +=+ = ][ 1 (11) where: fi - feed rate of
size fraction i (t/h) pi - product flow of size fraction i (t/h) aij - the mass fraction of
size that appear at size i after breakage ri - breakage rate of particle size i (h-1 ) si -
amount of size particles inside the mill (tonnes) di - the discharge rate of particle
size (h-1 ) The model consist two important parameter, the breakage function (aij)
that describe the material characteristic and breakage/discharge rate function (ri/di)
which defines the machine characteristics and can be calculated when feed and
product size distribution are known and breakage function is available. The air
classifier controls the final product quality. Therefore, the air classifier has a crucial
role in the circuit and a lot of attention is paid on the design and operation of the air
classifier. The classification action is modeled using the efficiency curve approach
(Lynch, 1997). Effect of the classifier design and operational parameters on the
efficiency is complicated and work is in progress to improve the current models.
7. 7. THE CASE STUDY Potential benefits of using the Barmac crusher for clinker
pre-crushing were studied for a cement plant. Figure 2 shows the proposed cement
grinding circuit. Double-deck screen Barmac crusher Clinker Storage Storage Two-
compartment dry ball mill Air classifier Finished cement Figure 2. Simplified
cement grinding circuit with precrushing stage Barmac B-series VSI (vertical shaft
impactor) crushers are applied to a broad range of materials in minerals and
aggregate industry. Due to the autogenous grinding action it is especially efficient
for high abrasive materials such as cement clinker. The crushing action is
schematically presented in Figure 3. When the incoming rock passes over the
distributing plate the rock is divided in three separate streams and is forcefully
impacted on the rock lining at the distributing plate. The material is being rapidly
accelerated by the centrifugal force of the rotor action and is compressed against the
rock lining which is formed in the crushing chamber. Multiple events occur and a
variety of forces act on the individual particles as they proceed. The crushed rock is
discharged through the clearance between the crusher chamber and the rotor wall.
8. 8. Figure 3. Schematic of Barmac crusher operation 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
100 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 size (mm) cum%pass Clinker case A case B case C Figure 4.
Clinker and the crushed clinker size distribution (case A, B, C) using Barmac
crusher Figure 4 shows the clinker size distribution and predicted Barmac crusher
size distributions. These data are based on Barmac pilot testing and the simulations.
It can be observed that the crushed clinker has a significant amount (10-20%) of -75
micron
9. 9. material. As the cement size is in this size range, it could be concluded that the
Barmac crusher produces a significant amount of finely ground cement. Table 1.
Bond method power calculation for two-compartment mill Mill feed F80 (mm) EF4
Power required (kW) Difference (%) 15.5 1.06 3564 0.0 4.5 1.01 3251 8.8 3.0 1
3133 12.1 1.8 1 3018 15.3 It can be seen that a reduction in two-compartment mill
power in the order of 915% is calculated for different crushed clinker feed F80
sizes. Corresponding to the change in factor EF4, a 5-6% reduction comes from
improving the milling efficiency with finer feed. In order to get this improvement,
the ball charge size distribution in the first compartment needs to be adjusted for
finer feed. As energy is consumed in pre-crushing stage, the total power required
 will be sum of two-compartment ball mill and Barmac crusher power. Figure 4
shows how the total comminution energy consumption depends on the Barmac
crusher product size. It can be seen that the total energy consumption would reduce
with reducing the product size of the Barmac crusher. This indicates that the cement
grinding efficiency may be improved up to 10% compared to a conventional circuit
without pre-crushing. The alternative benefit of introducing the Barmac crusher in
pre-crushing stage is increasing the circuit capacity, as the capital investment is
relatively low compared to HPGR. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 0 2 4 6 8 10
12 14 16 Barmac product P80 (mm) TotalgrindingkWh/t Figure 4. Specific power
requirement for cement grinding circuit including pre- crushing stage with Barmac
crusher
10. 10. The PBM modelling of the clinker grinding was carried out using the principles
described earlier. It should be noted that in order to obtain the site specific model
constants, detailed surveys of the milling circuit are required: the size distribution of
the material in each stream as well as from different points inside the mill. In this
study the model constants published in the literature (Benzer et all, 2001, 2003)
were used. The base case flowsheet generated in the JKSimMet grinding simulation
software is shown in Figure 5. The first compartment was modeled as two ball mills
in series, diaphragm between the first and second compartments was represented as
a screen and the second compartment is represented as one ball mill. Information
given in the flowsheet is solids throughput (t/h), 80% passing size and % passing
0.01 mm. Figure 5. Greens Island base case JKSimMet simulation flowsheet Using
the above base case model, simulations with different feed size distributions (raw
clinker, and pre-crushed clinker using the Barmac crusher) were carried out,
keeping the product size constant at P80=0.038 mm. The resulting increase in
throughput is shown in Table 2.
11. 11. Table 2. Simulated increase in throughput F80 (mm) Simulated throughput (t/h)
Increase (%) 15.5 110 0.0 4.5 125 13.6 3.0 135 22.7 1.8 140 27.3 Table 3
summarises the potential increase in throughput from using a Barmac crusher to
pre-crush the cement clinker. It should be noted that this result does not consider
any circuit physical limitations such as conveying, aeration and air classifier
capacity. Table 3. Predicted increase in throughput using the Bond and grinding
modelling method base case throughput 110 t/h Feed F80(mm) minus 75 microns
in Barmac product (%) % throughput increase, Bond method % throughput
increase, PBM 15.5 0 0 0 4.5 12.1 9.1 13.6 3.0 15.4 14.3 22.7 1.8 20.5 18.2 27.3 It
can be observed that Bond calculations gave less throughput increase than PBM
simulations. This could be because the PBM simulation results may have been
overoptimistic as the separator performance was kept the same. A model capable of
simulating changes in performance with different air separator loads was not
available. STIRRED MILLING POTENTIAL As the product size decreases the
energy required for particle breakage increases rapidly. The pre-crushing stage
increases the milling efficiency in the first compartment of the two-compartment
mill where coarse milling takes place. Pre-crushing however does not affect milling
in the second compartment apart from producing significant amount of final product
size (10-15 %). In order to produce the final product size, the length of second
compartment is usually double that of the first compartment. Smaller grinding balls
are also used in the second compartment. The efficiency of fine grinding in the
 second compartment is largely controlled by the size of grinding balls. Due to
limitation of the mills rotational speed, the smallest ball size is usually restricted to
about 15 mm. Cement grinding using stirred mills (Pilevneli and Azizli, 1999)
indicates that using smaller media (5-8 mm range) improves grinding energy
efficiency up to 50% using stirred mills. For specialized types of cement, which are
finer than Portland, this figure would be even higher. Significant benefits of using
Tower mill were also reported (Shibayama et all, 2000) as well as the industrial
applications for production of fine 12000 Blane cement. The stirred mills can be
used in different roles and it is expected that their application in the future will be
significant.
12. 12. CONCLUSION There is a scope for significant optimisation of the traditional
cement grinding circuits. Grinding process modelling and simulation methods can
be used for optimisation. A case study conducted using the data from an industrial
cement plant indicates that: Pre-crushing of cement clinker using a Barmac
crusher offers realistic benefits to a cement plant in terms of process efficiency.
The introduction of the Barmac crusher can increase the cement circuit throughput
in order of 10-20%, providing that there is no capacity limitation in other parts of
the circuit. This is an attractive option due to relatively low capital investment of the
Barmac crusher. The overall energy efficiency of the circuit can also be improved in
order of 5-10%. The stirred milling technology could further improve energy
efficiency of cement grinding. Initial work indicates great potential and significant
development in this direction should be expected.

The study of the granulometry along the ball mill

3 The results analysis with the curve and its interpretation.

When we received the results from the laboratory, we do the following sheet and draw the
size distribution curve along the mill:
 Interpretation of the results:

Chamber 1:

The reduction seems to be good up to the third sample but there is an accumulation of
uncrushed particles at the intermediate

diaphragm (sample ch1,4).

This accumulation concerns mainly the particles with a size between 5 and 10mm
(12,7%).

As the slots of the grate plates (of the intermediate diaphragm) have a width of 6mm, a
certain number of particles will enter into the second chamber.

In this case, we have 22,4% residue on 2,5mm.

What are the reasons of this bad efficiency?

A first factor may be the too short length of the first chamber, but this can only be
rectified if one can increase drastically the filling degree.

- The too high granulometry of the fresh feed:

1. Check the granulometry of each component with the laboratory

2. Monitor the condition and efficiency of the equipment ahead: limestone crusher,
clinker hammer crusher, pregrinding system

like Roller-Press or Vertical Shaft Impacter

- The hardness of the fresh feed:

1. Identify the uncrushed material

2. Make a hardness test of this material

- The wear of the lifting lining:

1. Check if the lining type is appropriate

2. Check the condition of the lining

- The ball charge:

 1. Compare the initial ball charge and the real ball charge

2. Measure the maximun diameter and the mininum diameter

- The coating: extremely rare for cement mills, this can happen with raw mills.

Conclusion:

When no other action is possible, the only way to improve the situation is the
modification of the ball charge removing some tons of balls and adding an equal quantity of
bigger balls (90 and 80mm).

Observation: In some cases where a component has a very high hardness, balls of
100mm are necessary.

Chamber 2:

There are 6,9% of particles higher than 2,5mm at the inlet of the compartment. This is
due to the bad efficiency of the 1st chamber,

but these particles are well crushed and disappear further.

We can consider (in case of classifying lining of course) that the dam composed of 60-
50-40mm balls is efficient.

We can also observe that the curves of 212 and 90 are practically horizontal from the
middle of the chamber to the outlet diaphragm.

It means that from the middle of the chamber, the material lower than 0,5mm is no more
grinded.

What are the possible reasons of this poor grinding efficiency?

A first factor may be the too short length of the second chamber (for example, a raw mill
converted into a cement mill) but it is very rare

- The lining: the grinding efficiency is drastically lower if the lining doesn't classify the
balls. It is not the case here.

- The coating:

1. Check if there is coating on the balls and/or the liners

2. Check the water injection system

 - The ventilation: check the ventilation wich can be the reason of the coating (too small
ventilation) or the cause of the poor grinding efficiency (too high ventilation).

- Pollution by uncrushed particles: It is clear that it is not the case in our example.

- Ball charge gradation:

1. Check the ball charge (maximum diameter and minimum diameter), an experienced
person will see if the charge is too coarse!

2. Check the classification of the balls

Conclusion:
If the classification is good, the ventilation optimal, there is no coating and no uncrushed
particles, the only way to improve the production of fines is to remove a certain tonnage of
balls and to add the same quantity of 20-17mm balls (up to 15mm in open circuit).