GPSE
Efficient grinding in Lime Applications
by Bruno Kovacs, Senior Sales Manager at Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, Kaiserslautern
Lime and the Environmental Footprint
As we all experience, lime production has a significant impact on the environmental footprint by its nature.
Every body’s duty in our industry shall be to engage and investigate to exploit all possibilities reducing wasting of energy, in each production step.
So, for us, as mill manufacturer and grinding solution provider, the main question is how can we contribute to reduce energy waste and inducing a positive balance?
Simultaneous production
One approach to reduce the specific energy consumption is to increase the total production rate. Let’s take as an example the customer Kopalnia Wapenia in Czatkowice, Poland with a Pfeiffer mill type MPS 2800-B.
Here, a simultaneous discharge of grains is implemented. This process step is significantly decreasing the electrical power consumption of the total grinding circuit.
The first and the leading product is always the fine meal (product A). The secondary product are the grains (Product B, C, and D). The size and amount are linked to the fines. The production of grains and fines are approximately equally distributed. A downstream screening is integrated in the process, producing 3 coarse fractions in addition to the fines.
The following image is showing the performance of the grinding plant.
The tree blocks are visualizing the:
1. Total Power consumption; without and with grit discharge and the distribution in between the drives, Mill drive, Fan drive and classifier drive
2. Corresponding Production rate; without and with grit discharge
3. Corresponding Specific power consumption; without and with grit discharge
Ultrafine Grinding
The second approach and our contribution to reduce the environmental footprint is, to deliver high efficient grinding solutions in ultrafine grinding, paired with high production rates.
A recently commissioned grinding plant with a Pfeiffer MVR 1800 R-4 and 400 kW drive at Kraft Heidenheim in Germany, is capable to produce limestone meal with a fineness down to 0.1% Residue on 20µm sieve, with a D50 value of approximately 4µm, at a production rate of 12 t/h!
