Manufacture of Portland cement

Claim 1

In the method of making Portland cement clinker which comprises the steps of continuously introducing Portland cement raw feed mix into the upstream compartment of a travelling grate device to form a travelling bed of raw feed mix which extends through said upstream compartment into and through a downstream compartment of the travelling grate device and discharges into the inlet end of a rotary cement kiln, continuously introducing fuel and combustion air into the discharge end of the rotary kiln while discharging the combustion products into said downstream compartment of the travelling grate device above said bed at a temperature in the order of 950° C, recovering Portland cement clinker from said discharge end of the kiln, withdrawing the combustion products from said downstream section to cause at least substantially all of the combustion products entering said downstream section from said kiln to pass downwardly through said travelling bed to effect partial decarbonation of said raw feed mix in said downstream section, and then passing the withdrawn combustion products into said upstream section to pass downwardly through said travelling bed therein thereby to preheat the raw feed mix, the improvement which comprises: (a) increasing the continuous feed of raw feed mix to said upstream section whereby to increase the throughput of said kiln; (b) decreasing the volume of gas passing through said kiln whereby the amount of dust passing into said downstream section is reduced; and (c) increasing the temperature in said downstream section over said bed by an amount of about 70-100° C to effect a sufficient increase in said decarbonation in said downstream section whereby to recover said Portland cement clinker from said discharge end of the kiln despite the increase in throughput of step (a), said increase in temperature being effected by incinerating refuse on top of said travelling bed within said downstream section of the travelling grate device.