Sludge Watch ==> Kiln Balls - A danger associated with alternative fuels

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Cement Kilns like to make more money by getting paid to take wastes as 
'alternative fuel' or 'alternative inputs'. So Lafarge Bath has been taking 
hazardous waste from GE Silicones New York, and a cement kiln in California 
has been taking sewage sludge.  The Lafarge Bath plant wants to start taking 
animal meal and tires and municipal trash.  The use of alternative fuels is 
sometimes  associated with the development of 'kiln balls'. These are chunks 
or material that starts to aggregate into a huge ball in the kiln.  This can 
be dangerous. It is often broken up with a shotgun.

If the cement kiln isn't running properly due to the use of alternative 
fuels this can have serious consequences for air emissions, and also product 
quality.

Similar developments can cause sewage sludge to vitrify (turn to a kind of 
glass).  The EnerTech sludge energy plant in Philadelphia has been having 
some problems with vitrification lately.

Anybody got a shotgun?

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www.rhmconsulting.biz/uploads/Kiln%20Balling%20Approved.doc

     Defeating An Old Adversary Cement Kiln Balls



      For reasons not well understood kilns  pulp, cement, etc.  form balls. 
  Although creative solutions, including use of the 04 gauge shotgun kept in 
a certain pulp mills control room, have been devised for their elimination 
such balls frequently grow without bound.  In addition to product 
degradation, as material at the core of a ball is less thoroughly processed 
than that on its exterior, this growth generally leads to problematically 
sized objects (e.g., up to a meter or more in diameter) which force kiln 
shutdown.  Beyond rework of product caught in the kiln when it became choked 
by large objects  which can also damage refractory material in the cement 
case  this drives a throughput penalty from frequent start-ups and shutdowns 
that can be the operational bane of a plants existence.  Hence, although 
blasting pulp balls out of existence can provide diversion for the control 
room staff and viable klinker is generally made (albeit at high cost) in 
cement kilns that are cycled up and down, prevention is a far superior 
solution.