Case Study: Cement Production

To illustrate the capabilities of IDR-IIsim, a complete model for the Cement Industry is included in the Sources/cement/ directory.

Process Overview

The model follows a standard generic cement production process, divided into three main stages (Sub-processes):

  1. Pre-homogenization and Grinding (Process 1): Handling of raw materials like Limestone and Clay.

    • Key Physics: Mass balance of limestone/clay and electrical consumption for crushing.

    • Emissions: PM10 dust from crushing.

  2. Oven / Clinkerization (Process 2): The core chemical reaction.

    • Key Physics: Calcination at 1,500°C. High thermal energy demand (fuels) and water consumption for cooling.

    • Emissions: Significant CO2 emissions from chemical reactions and combustion.

  3. Milling (Process 3): Final grinding of Clinker with Gypsum. o Key Physics: Electrical energy for fine grinding.

Implementation in IDR-IIsim

The theoretical model is mapped to files as follows:

  • Sources/cement/process2-oven.yaml: Corresponds to Stage 2. It defines constants like CLINKER_LOSSES (0.38) and FUEL_HC (0.02693 MJ/kg). It calculates clinker_production and heat_losses based on the input mix.

  • Sources/cement/meta.yaml: Represents the entire plant. It defines the outcome (Total Cement Production) and aggregates the energy demands from the oven and milling stages into a total mechanical_energy variable (approx. 115 MJ/ton for pre-processing, 69.5 MJ/ton for the oven, etc.).