232  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)

Pregrinding with Barmac Vertical Shaft Impactors—

A Novel Technology to Improve the Energy
Efficiency at Cement Plants
S. Esen* and P. Cook**
*Metso Minerals Process Technology Asia-Pacific, **Metso Minerals (Matamata) Limited,
Brisbane, Australia Matamata, New Zealand

ABSTRACT: The increasing demand for “finer cement” products, and the need for reduction in energy
consumption and green house gas emissions, necessitate the optimization of grinding circuits. Opportunities
exist at cement plants to improve energy efficiency while maintaining or enhancing productivity. Several
technologies and measures exist that can reduce the energy consumption of the various process stages of
cement production including raw and finish milling. This paper presents one of these technologies, which is
pregrinding with Barmac B-Series Vertical Shaft Impactors (VSI) in raw and finish milling. Recent pilot plant
studies conducted at Metso Minerals show that significant clinker size reduction occurs in Barmac VSI
crushers, which can increase the cement mill throughput and decrease the energy consumption in finish
milling. In addition, a number of grinding simulations using JKSimMet software conducted to date have been
presented. The simulation results show that pregrinding increases mill throughput by 14 to 26%.

1. INTRODUCTION • Minimising the production costs without

Cement production is an energy intensive process.
It consumes 2% of the global primary energy and
5% of the total global industrial energy. Grinding
is a high-cost operation consuming approximately
60% of the total electrical energy expenditure in a
typical cement plant. The electrical energy
consumed in the conventional cement making
process is in the order of 110 kWh/tonne, of
which approximately 30% is used for raw
materials preparation and 40% for the finish
milling (cement clinker grinding). This is the
largest single consumption point of electric power
in the process of converting raw materials to
finished cement (Bhatty, 2004).
The cost of energy as part of the total
production costs in the cement industry is
significant, warranting the attention for energy
efficiency to improve the bottom line. Substantial
potential for energy efficient improvements exist
in the cement industry and in individual plants.
The cement industry is targeting technologies
focusing on:
• Increasing the mill throughput;
• Energy savings;
negatively affecting product yield or quality.
The industry is looking into energy-efficient
technologies to meet these goals. Energy
efficiency is an important component of a
company’s environmental strategy. Opportunities
exist at cement plants to improve energy
efficiency while maintaining or enhancing
productivity. Ball mills have undergone
considerable evolution in the last three or four
decades. The trends are reflected in increasing
mill size, use of high efficiency separators,
adoption of new designs of mill internals,
application of innovative control systems, and
adoption of hybrid plants.
Several technologies and measures exist that
can reduce the energy consumption of the various
process stages of cement production including
raw materials preparation, clinker production,
finish grinding, product and feedstock changes.
However, in this paper, the technologies and
measures in finish grinding, especially
pregrinding technology, were considered. This
paper presents the pregrinding technology using
Barmac Vertical Shaft Impact crushers
233  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)
manufactured by Metso Minerals including pilot fineness of the cement (Marchal, 1997). Several
plant results and grinding simulations. new mill concepts exist that can significantly
reduce power consumption in the finish mill to
20-30 kWh/ton clinker, including roller presses
2. CEMENT GRINDING AND and Vertical Shaft Impactors used for pre-grinding
PREGRINDING
in combination with ball mills (Seebach et al.,
Portland cement is made by exact proportioning 1996; Jankovic et al., 2004). The addition of a
of materials containing calcium, silica, alumina pre-grinding system to a ball mill will result in
and iron. Approximately 1.5 tonnes of raw savings of 6-22 kWh/ton cement (Scheuer &
materials are required to produce 1 tonne of Sprung, 1990; Jankovic et al., 2004).
finished cement. Grinding operation is the major In the past 20 years, High Pressure Grinding
operation and occurs at the beginning and at the Roll (HPGR) technology has been predominantly
end of the cement making process. The last step used in pre-grinding of clinker. Presently, many
in the process of manufacturing Portland cement American and European cement grinding circuits
is the finish grinding of clinker together with a have HPGRs which increase grinding capacity
small amount of gypsum and some admixtures. and energy efficiency. Vertical Shaft Impactors
The principal objectives of clinker grinding are to have started to find applications in the cement
promote the hydration of cement and to ensure sector (mainly in India and China).
complete coating of inert aggregates. The fineness
of the cement affects the concrete properties in
3. THE OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF
terms of the workability, strength and
BARMAC VSI CRUSHERS
permeability. The finer the grind the more reactive
is the finished cement. Therefore, every type of Barmac B-series VSI (Vertical Shaft Impactor)
cement has got its own fineness to meet the crushers are applied to a broad range of materials
required quality. in minerals and aggregate industry. Due to the
A cement clinker grinding circuit reduces the “autogenous grinding action” it is especially
feed from an 80% passing size between 10 and efficient for highly abrasive materials such as
40 mm to 35-40 microns with the size reduction cement clinker. The crushing action is
ratio being in the order of 250-1000. Tube mills schematically presented in Figure 1.
with multichambers are traditionally used for
cement grinding either in open or closed circuit
operations. In the first chamber, larger balls (from
50 mm up to 90 mm) are used for coarse grinding
while the smaller balls (as small as 12 mm
ranging up to 50 mm) are used for fine grinding
(Bhatty, 2004). In recent years, the use of ball
mills, and more particularly, of air-swept ball mill
systems, is being overtaken by vertical roller
mills. Horizontal roller mills have also found
applications in cement grinding starting from
1990s (Bhatty, 2004).
The use of the concept of pregrinding to
increase production capacity has been the latest
technological milestone in the evolution of
milling systems starting from 1990s (Bhatty,
Fig. 1: Schematic of Barmac crusher operation
2004). The energy efficiency of ball mills for use
in finish grinding is relatively low, consuming up
Material fed into the top of the machine is
to 30-42 kWh/ton clinker depending on the
separated into three separate streams in a rock
Pregrinding with Barmac Vertical Shaft Impactors…
lined rotor, and is continuously discharged into
the crushing chamber at velocities up to 85 m/s.
Multiple events occur and a variety of forces act
on the individual particles as they are subjected to
a rock-on–rock chain reaction of crushing and
grinding. A second stream of material can be
cascaded in a controlled quantity into the crushing
chamber turbulence, causing an increase in the
particle population within the chamber, thereby
improving the energy transfer.
In this paper, potential benefits of using the
Barmac VSI crusher for clinker pre-crushing at
cement plants were studied. Figure 2 shows the
proposed cement grinding circuit with a
pregrinding stage.
Fig. 2: Simplified cement grinding circuit with a
precrushing stage
4. PREGRINDING RESULTS
This section presents the effect of the pregrinding
stage in a cement dry grinding circuit using pilot
plant and modeling studies.
4.1 Pilot Plant Test Results
On June 23, 2006, pilot crusher tests were
conducted at Metso Minerals Mineral Research
and Test Center (MRTC) for Cementos Apasco,
Mexico (MRTC, 2006). Test material was clinker.
The aim was to investigate the efficiency of the
Barmac VSI crusher as a pregrinder. Clinker feed
was pre-screened by 2.36 or 4.70 mm screens.
The Barmac VSI crusher was operated in a closed
circuit arrangement. Rotor tip speed was varied
between 55 and 65 m/s. The results are seen in
Figure 3.
234
Fig. 3: Clinker and the crushed clinker (product)
size distributions for Cementos Apasco, Mexico.
It is shown that Barmac VSI product is
significantly finer than the feed proving that
Barmac is efficiently producing the finer material.
In particular, the Barmac VSI produces significant
amounts of fine clinker (13-21% -75µm), which
should increase the performance of the ball mill
(Fig. 3). In addition to this, ball mill feed F80
(80% passing size) is reduced significantly (from
10 mm to approximately 1.5-2.5 mm), which
should necessitate smaller balls and some other
adjustments in the ball mill. The effect of finer
ball mill feed on mill throughput and energy
consumption will be given in the next section.
Note that the finer the final screen cut, the finer
the size distribution is. The specific energy
consumptions are approximately 1.3 and
1.5 kWh/t for the circuit with 4.70 mm and
2.36 mm respectively. Circulating load was found
in the range of 100-163% for the trial tests (Esen
& Jankovic, 2006).
4.2 Simulations of Cement Grinding
Circuits
In recent years, considerable steps have been
taken to improve comminution efficiency both in
the development of machines with the ability to
enhance energy utilisation and in the optimal
design of grinding systems to enable more
efficient use of existing machines. But it is still
necessary to have a better knowledge of the
effects of mill operating variables if optimum
performance is to be achieved.
235  Mineral Processing Technology (MPT 2007)
The best way to optimize the grinding circuit

Lafarge Cement

Holcim Apasco
Argos Cement

Green Island
to achieve economic plant operation is by
simulation, using proven mathematical modeling
techniques. Simulation is a valuable tool in
process technology if the process models are 1
Ball mill feed F80, mm 20 32 14
accurate and if model parameters can be – without
5.5
determined in a laboratory or plant. It is now used Ton-nage,
pregrinding 50 110 125 138
tph
extensively for the design and optimisation of wet Ball mill feed F80, mm 2.3 3.0 3.5 2.7
grinding circuits and has brought large economic – with Ton-nage,
60
13
143 174
pregrinding tph 5
benefits. It is likely that economic benefits are a) Tonnage
also attainable in dry grinding. increase, 20 23 14 26
%
JKSimMet Simulation package has been a
proven tool to optimize the dry grinding line
(mill/separator) operating variables. Lynch et al. 5. CONCLUSIONS
(2000) and Benzer et al. (2003) developed a
This paper shows that the pre-crushing of cement
modelling approach for the two compartment clinker using a Barmac Vertical Shaft Impactor
cement mills using extensive data around and offers realistic benefits to a cement plant in terms
inside the mill. It should be noted that in order to of process efficiency. Pilot plant tests showed that
obtain the “site specific” model constants, Barmac VSI is efficiently producing finer
detailed surveys of the milling circuit are material. In particular, the Barmac VSI produces
required: the size distribution of the material in significant amounts of fine clinker, which should
each stream as well as from different points inside increase the performance of the ball mill. The
the mill. In this study the modelling approach and cement milling simulations carried out using
the model parameters were taken from the studies grinding simulation software showed that pre-
published in the literature (Benzer et al., 2003). grinding increases throughput by 14 to 26%. The
Simulations with different feed size overall energy efficiency of the circuit could also
distributions (raw clinker, and pre-crushed clinker be improved in the order of 10-15%.
using the Barmac crusher) were carried out, A few Barmac pregrinding systems have
keeping the product size constant at P80=0.038 been installed in India and China. It has been
mm. A number of cement milling simulations reported that the increase in the capacity of the
were carried out by Metso Minerals Process mill has reached up to 33% after the introduction
Technology group located in Brisbane, Australia. of the pregrinding system.
These included the simulations for Argos Cement, In order to get the benefit from the finer feed
Green Island, Lafarge cement and Holcim Apasco resulting from the pregrinding, necessary circuit
cement (Jankovic, 2003; 2005; 2006; Esen & optimization should be carried out to achieve the
Jankovic, 2006). Simulations were carried out throughput increases. This includes the
using JKSimMet software and supplied ball mill optimization of a number of parameters in the dry
feeds (with and without pre-grinding). Table 1 grinding circuit which requires a comprehensive
summarises the results. It is shown that pre- survey and simulations based on the survey. Such
grinding increases throughput by 14 to 26%. The a study ensures that a plant would obtain the
overall energy efficiency of the circuit could also targeted throughput increases and reduced energy
be improved in the order of 10-15%. consumption while not affecting the product
quality.
Table 1: Summary of cement milling
simulations
Pregrinding with Barmac Vertical Shaft Impactors… 236
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