Limestone Dome : A Flexible & Hasty Solution For Cement Production

Limestone dome

A hemi-spherical structure with the curvature on top, when usually created to cover a sufficient room for bulk storage like cement, limestone, coal, lignite, gypsum, additives and many more. Depending upon the industrial purpose, followings are the storage domes with their advantages in industry: ‘Domes for power generation’, ‘Domes for Warehousing & dry storage’.

We, At Hindustan alcox limited, one of the dome manufacturers use the combination of basic features of dome structure and latest technology to make dome structure more functionally suitable and highly versatile in installation/reinstallation as well as in maintenance.

Domes for Warehousing & Dry Storage

In industrial bulk storage for large quantities of materials such as cement, fly ash, clinker, limestone and other fertilizers, maintenance of product integrity is a primary objective. Open stockpiles leave materials subject to degradation during storage. But storage domes are very helpful in maintaining product integrity as well as elimination of various other hazards. Various type of domes used for warehousing and dry storage are as follows:

Limestone Dome:

Cement is an inorganic, non-metallic substance used as a bonding agent in building materials by virtue of its hydraulic binding properties. Limestone, chalk and clay are the most common raw materials used in cement production. Limestone provides the required calcium oxide and some of the other oxides.

For cement production, limestone is first reduced in size by processing through a series of crushers and grinders. This fine powdered form of limestone is then mixed with some mineral aggregates (siliceous, aluminous, and ferrous materials) and water in high temperature kiln to form clinker. After cooling, the clinker will be stored in the clinker dome. The nodules of cement clinker are then ground to the consistency of face powder to produce powdered cement.

Flexible: Flexibility of limestone dome can be seen by its capability to cater maximum Space for storing limestone & how versatile it is with additional storage of various additives used in cement production.  These domes not only covers large span to facilitate the storage of various additives under same shed but also its future development can also be done if more space is needed.

Quick and Facilitating: Material handling of Limestone is based on various operations like loading, unloading, transportation, storing and feeding. In cement production industry, these different process stages may be in different locations, and each may have various feed conditions. Processing system will perform efficiently only when there is a proper set up for materials storage and handling. Limestone storage provides opportunity to get an efficient setup for material storage and handling process to utilize maximum space and also helpful for labor to have convenience in almost all operational works. All such facilities under single dome not only make the cement plant operation handy & hasty but also maintain energy efficiency level.

-          Hindustan Alcox Limited, New Delhi.