References to hotmeal are common in cement plants and the concept is relatively simple – hotmeal is the kiln feed after drying and before clinkering. There is a considerable amount of information available from hotmeal which is not always collected and used. Therefore, this article takes a closer look at the useful findings that may help to steer the cement production process in the right direction.
Hotmeal is generally considered as the partly- or almost wholly-calcined feed just before it passes into the rotary kiln. It can also be taken as the feed at any stage after initial drying and up to complete calcination. The ability to sample hotmeal varies with different processes. Some Lepol grate kilns have a facility to take feed samples leaving the grate which can be invaluable in determining and monitoring the degree of calcination on the grate which corresponds to good kiln performance. Many precalciner kilns are equipped with sampling points from one or more of the cyclones. In any event, for a precalciner at least one measure of the degree of calcination of the feed entering the kiln would be regarded as essential data.
