Abstract
Cement manufacturing is one of the most energy intensive processes and is accountable for substantial pollutant emissions. Increasing energy costs compel stakeholders and researchers to search for alternative options to improve energy performance and reduce CO2 emissions. Alternative fuels offer a realistic solution towards the reduction of the usage of fossil fuels and the mitigation of pollutant emissions. This paper developed a process model of a precalciner kiln system in the cement industry using Aspen Plus software to simulate the effect of five alternative fuels on pollutant emissions and energy performance. The alternatives fuels used were tyre, municipal solid waste (MSW), meat and bone meal (MBM), plastic waste and sugarcane bagasse. The model was developed on the basis of energy and mass balance of the system and was validated against data from a reference cement plant. This study also investigated the effect of these alternative fuels on the quality of the clinker. The results indicated that up to a 4.4% reduction in CO2 emissions and up to a 6.4% reduction in thermal energy requirement could be achieved using these alternative fuels with 20% mix in coal. It was also found that the alternative fuels had minimum influence on the clinker quality except in the case of MSW. Overall, MBM was found to be a better option as it is capable on reducing energy requirement and CO2 emissions more than others. The outcomes of the study offer better understanding of the effects of solid alternative fuels to achieve higher energy performance and on mitigating pollutant emissions in cement industry.
Highlights
Increasing fossil fuel prices and new regulations from environment protection agencies to reduce the emissions from the industry sector is a great concern to stakeholders at the present time
This paper developed a process model for cement manufacturing process using Aspen Plus software to study the effect of alternative fuels on its energy performance and pollutant emissions
In the reference condition, selected alternative fuels are capable of reducing CO2 emission with an exception for bagasse
Summary
Increasing fossil fuel prices and new regulations from environment protection agencies to reduce the emissions from the industry sector is a great concern to stakeholders at the present time. In an ILC, the tertiary air and kiln exhaust gas are carried to the burning zone of Quarry, raw meal preparation, preheating of raw meal, kiln, clinker cooling, grinding, storage the calciner, which is useful to burn waste derived alternative fuel as well as coal and natural gases. Raw meal preparation, preheating of raw meal, kiln, clinker cooling, grinding, storage and reactions is calcination, which is basically the decomposition of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) at about dispatch; these are the basic steps of cement production process. The major reactions occur where calcium ferrous oxide to form the silicates, aluminates and ferrites respectively This clinker is ground in oxide reacts at high temperature (typically 1400 ◦ C–1500 ◦ C) with silica, alumina and ferrous oxide the ball mill together with gypsum and other additives to produce cement. Excess oxygen in the precalciner depends on the flow rate of tertiary air and the kiln gas
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