Abstract

Developing nations are also battling with global warming. Therefore, optimizing industrial energy is a must and the de-carbonization in cement production in developing countries should be encouraged. This research work seeks ways of optimize energy recovery and exergy recovery of a cement clinker cooler. This will not only improve plant performance but also reduce cost of cement production. Nigeria (Developing country) cement plant used for this research has production capacity of 6000 tons of clinker per day, and with an energy mix of natural gas and heavy fuel oil. Energy recovery and exergy recovery in a clinker cooler was a major factor in optimizing the clinker production and cement grinding process. The running clinker cooler has an energy recovery was less than 50% which was low despite the high energy efficiency of the clinker cooler, which was above 90%. The exergy recovery of the clinker which was less than 45% was also observed to be lower when compared to exergy efficiency of the running clinker cooler which was 63%. To improve the mass flow rate of the air supplied into the system, between 20 and 25% can possibly reduce the heat losses due to uncooled clinker leaving the system, and can improve combustion process, cement grinding process and cement quality.

Key words: Energy recovery, exergy recovery, clinker cooler, mass flow rate, clinker temperature.