Preliminary calciner

Abstract

In the former years, the total amount of heat indispensable for clinker formation was obtained in the kiln burner, which determined the maximum of this heat, thus the kiln efficiency was simultaneously determined. The kiln has the double role: the hearth and the chemical reactor. The diminishing of the heat loading of the kiln can be obtained only by emitting the calcination heat of raw materials from the kiln. At the same time, it gives the possibility of significant increase of the kiln productivity, which was already no longer limited by the heat quantity, linked to the kiln burner. In this technology, the kiln burner was only applied to heat the material in the kiln from the temperature of 1100°C to 1450°C, which was fulfil about 15% of the heat, from the entire heat demand of clinker burning. It will be 3050 x 0.15 equal to about 480 kJ/kg of clinker. As is known in the clinker formation process, radical changes of the properties of the roasting material occur, which are started at the temperature of 1260°C and are linked with the liquid phase appearing. After the liquid phase appears, the process cannot be conducted in the fluid reactor, because the material can form the roasting formation on the reactor walls, which can cause its plugging. From these reasons, the best technological solution was the division of the process into two operations, applied in two different equipments: (a) heating and calcining conducting in the fluid heater, which was the preliminary calciner, and (b) sintering and clinker formation in the rotary kiln. This technological division caused the high kiln capacity, because the quantity of heat needed in the kiln was low and the heat charge of the zone of fuel burning in the kiln burner was also low