Increasing capacity by 35% on Irish Cement's Limerick kiln

摘要

In 1983, Irish Cement commissioned Kiln No. 6 at their Limerick cement plant. At that time the kiln's rated production capacity was 2100 tonnes per day. The kiln system consists of a 4-stage single-string suspension preheater with ILC-E in-line calciner, a rotary kiln 75 m in length and 4.75 m in diameter and a planetary cooler. Over the years, the increasing demand for cement led to a step-by-step increase in capacity to the present production rate of 2,850 tpd. This overall production rate increase of 35% was achieved by upgrading the burner system, extending the ILC-E calciner, converting the lowest cyclone stage to a low-pressure drop design, replacing the ID and filter fans, installing a new cooling tower, adding a dynamic high-efficiency separator to the coal grinding system and installing an automatic laboratory. Irish Cement now burns 100% Petroleum Coke, 80% in the main burner and 20% in the precalciner. Thanks to the modern process monitoring and process automation systems that have been installed at the Limerick plant over the years, an impressive annual plant availability figure of 92% is achieved.