Basic Refractory Bricks for Cement Kilns

With given options, choice of refractories is ex-tremely important for smooth running of the kiln. Obvious choice has been basic bricks.

 

- Dr. B Mishra

Made in India Basic Refractory Bricks for Cement Kilns

Cement manufacturing has under gone a sea change in the recent past. The wet process which had been the main technique until 1960 has been replaced by dry process. The dry technique with suspension Preheater and later by Preheater with Precalciner helps deal with increased demand in production and energy efficiency requirements, both of which impact refractory selection.

Changing trends:

To meet the growing demand of cement world over, particularly in Asian countries, cement manufacturers are under tremendous pressure to increase production at a competitive cost. They now need a longer life of the kiln, with minimum down time and low specific energy consumption. The cement industry has been able to achieve this by installing multistage Preheater with Precalciner upstream of the cement rotary kiln, which has led to transferring the Preheating and calcining reaction from the kiln to the Preheater and Precalciner. The shortened kiln now needs a balanced one-year life to meet the growing demand with minimum energy cost. Further, to decrease fuel cost, cement manufacturers are focusing towards alternative fuels like pet coke, used tyre, oil sludge, municipal waste etc.These and a variety of other influences affect refractories in cement rotary kiln, causing a chemical, mechanical and thermal loading of the lining. To achieve high performance of refractories in the rotary kiln, it is therefore necessary to have a proper understanding of the quality of bricks and location of the bricks in the kiln.

Basic refractory bricks from the Indian refractory pioneer: