Abstract:
Cement manufacturing is one of the most energy intensive processes and is accountable
for substantial pollutant emissions. Increasing energy costs forces Cement manufactures
and researchers to search for alternative options to improve energy performance and reduce
CO2 emissions. In this paper a solar calciner plant is designed, the heliostat field and solar
reactor simulated. Data have been extracted from various literatures and from the log sheet
in central control room and direct measurement from the plant using portable instruments.
Analysis of energy balance in convectional and solar calciner operation with different
combination of coal and solar power investigated.
Solar Cement Plant size calculated, heliostat field layout and calciner receiver is simulated
with Solarpilot and Soltrace software. Based on the calciner heat requirement analysis
result the required solar thermal energy for sizing of the calciner reactor is taken
60,000KW.The Solar simulation and design results found that power incident on field
93,063KW, power absorbed by the receiver 68,451KW and optical efficiency including
receiver 73.55% which fulfils the thermal heat requirement of the calcination process. It is
designed that heliostat geometry with structural width of 12.2m, structural height
12.2m,3m and heliostat collision radius of 8.6m at slant heliostat focusing type. The
simulation also results in a cylindrical calciner reactor with receiver diameter of 10m and
height 15m. It is also found that design point receiver thermal loss of 30 kw/m
2
.
Simulation of calcination process on the solar calciner developed using Aspen Plus and
verified with literatures. Simulation of the heliostat shows that an increase on the number
of heliostats improves the field efficiency and additionally, the CO2 emission reduction for
cement calciner is up to 25%. This research benefits other cement manufacturers as a
reference and guide line to further investigate and use solar thermal power as a source of
calcination process.