Kiln emergency

conditions

Many of the operation and control procedures explained and

described in the section of kiln operation can’t be applied and are not
adequate when the kiln is in upset conditions or an emergency case
exists.
In any kiln system an emergency situation that require immediate
actions will exists at any time.
 Fully understand the situation
 Know what he must do during this emergency
 condition The decision he took to be done in quick

and proper ways Understand the consequences of
In such condition
any action continuity
he might take.of operation is not the case, but the real
issue here will be how to make the correct decision that prevent any
major damage to the kiln equipments.
No kiln operator training should ignore the subject of emergency
condition, since any kiln operator should know and be familiarized with
these possible emergency conditions.
The operator should be trained to deal with emergency conditions;
therefore his
reaction should be spontaneous and natural.

Emergency
conditions
Emergency conditions in any rotary cement
kiln are:
1 Red spot on kiln shell.
.
Refractory material fell down and lost in any part of the kiln
2
system Burning zone temperature dangerously very high.
.
Dangerously high kiln inlet temperature.
3
. Unburned, raw material feed in the kiln out let and kiln’s
cooler.

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 6 Main burner’s flame shape is
.
distorted. Failure of precalciner
7
burner or burners. Failure of by-
.
pass system in the kiln.
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10. Red-hot clinker coming out from the
cooler.
11. Cooler drive or clinker transportation
stopped.
12. Snowman in the first stage of the cooler.
13. Rush of clinker materials in the kiln.
14. Power failure.
15. Loss of kiln feed.

1-Red spot on the kiln

shell

Red spots can be frequently seen on kiln shell in all cement

plants and it indicates the loss of bricks in the kiln different zone
especially with the modern short dry kilns.
Some of this red spots can be work on and can be disappear while
other red spots will be persistent and will leads to eventual kiln shut
down for repair the refractory in that area of the red spot.
The danger of working with red spots especially under very hot
areas will leads to severe damage to the kiln shell and the shell can be
punctured in the end. This red spots are diagnosed by
Visual inspection.
Shell scanner or hand pyrometer that will give an indication of
temperature

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when it reach temperature over 480ºC.
Bricks found with clinker either in the burning zone or with clinker on
the clinker conveyor.

A) If the red spot is located in upper transition zone or in the

 burning zone. Continue normal operation of the kiln
 Start cooling this spot with fans.

Shorten the flame to bring the black feed area under the burner
nearer or over the red spot to try to form a new coating inside
the area empty from bricks (red spot area).
 Keep the burning zone temperature at its normal range.
 Try in the period after the disappeared of this red spots to have
easy to burn kiln feed.
B Large red spot especially if located under the tyre or very near to
) welding
seams in the section of the tyre.
 Kiln should be immediately
shutdown.


 Be sure that there in no excessive overheating of the kiln-

 burning zone. Be sure that the flame configuration doesn’t cause
due to direct hit of the brick or for any other reason, localized
 coating erosion.
 Try to minimize kiln shut down or upset conditions.
Install the best available refractory bricks in the kiln and
employ proper refractory installation techniques and methods
 with proper and professional supervision.
Try your best to have the easy to burn kiln feed. This will ensure
burning clinker at lower temperature and having a reasonable
quantity of liquid phase to make good coating in the burning

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 2-refractory feel down or lost in any part of the kiln
system
The falling of bricks in the preheater areas or in the kiln inlet or
different parts of the bricks in the kiln before the upper transition zone
in the kiln or in the area of by pass before quench air area or in the
kiln fire-hood and in the kiln nose ring area or cooling end of the kiln
shell before the out lot nose ring or in the cooler walls in the hot zone
area of the cooler, etc. are potential reasons for

 Rapid rise in the area where the refractory is lost, until it becomes
red hot and deformed.
 Area parallel to the kiln axis, and the shell is very hot or red in this
 area. Loose bricks are found with the clinker on the clinker
transportation system.
 Loose bricks are seen with the clinker bed in the burning-
 zone. The consequences of such accident are:

Thermal damage to the kiln shell or the steel structure of the
other area and eventual loss of that parts with the possibility of
false air to the system and possibly hot material leakage to the
 outside of the kiln system.
The action that should be taken in such condition is to shut
down the kiln immediately.
How to prevent such conditions:

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  The procedure of installing should be revised and the proper
techniques and methods of applying refractory material in the
 kiln system.
The quality of the refractory used in this area should be
 questioned and investigated.
 The supplier should be contacted to ask him for help if needed.
Kiln techniques and procedures should be revised and
investigated to see if there is any excessive rotating of the kiln
 during shut down or start up or when it is cold during the
shutdown it self.

3-Burning zone temperature dangerously

very high
In any kiln system the kiln-burning zone can be very high. But
excessively and dangerously very high burning-zone is a case that
should never happen.
An inexperienced kiln operator or in condition of kiln commissioning
the kiln can be excessively high due to uncontrollable conditions in
the kiln system such as

1 Coating will be dripping off the kiln zone wall.

.
Clinker start to balling in the burning-zone and this phenomenon
2
is called sausage.
3 Sliding clinker bed will be found in the burning-zone.
.
Burning zone temperature is too high
4
First part of the cooler will have snowman.
.
Cooler under-grate pressure will be very
5
. high.

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 :
1 Rapid failure of the bricks in the burning zone will take place due
.
to the loss of coating and excessive heat on the bricks.
2 Red spots on the kiln shell and could be as a large area with
.
faint red-hot color or big or small area with red-hot color.
3 Thermal damage to the cooler plates and kiln hood area
. components will
be very costly.

:
 Reduce fuel rate to minimum until sausage is stopped.
 Increase kiln speed 0.5 rpm more to help breaking the
sausage in the burning-zone.
 Increase the air in the cooler hot zone to maximum with
creating positive pressure in the kiln hood.
 Reduce primary airflow to control the temperature of the
 flame. When the sausage disappear, when the
agglomeration disappear, then start to restore the
condition of the burning-zone to normal again by:
 Reduce kiln speed and increase the I.D. fan speed while
increasing
the fuel rate.

If it is suddenly started to be frequently happening in the kiln it means

that kiln feed became very easy to burn and no body took notice.
The laboratory has to evaluate the possibility to provide that have less
liquid phase.
The operator must be more alert to the condition in the burning-zone
conditions. Evaluate the condition of kiln pyrometer installed in the
kiln hood and evaluate the flame position and shape to determine if
thinner, longer flame is required

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 4-Dangerously high kiln inlet
temperature
In any dry kiln, the temperature of kiln inlet is a major indication
on the kiln
conditions.

 I.D. fan speed sharply increased.

 Kiln speed decreased and became too low.
 The concentration of sulfur and chorine in lower most cyclones
are very high.
 Feed material is absent from the kiln inlet due to problem in the
kiln feed system or the lower most cyclones are blocked by feed
material and don’t discharge any material to the kiln inlet, or the
material are erratically behave in flushing waves from these
 cyclones.
The concentration of sulfur and chlorine may be increased in the
lower cyclones to the degree that will lead to erratic flow of
material form these cyclones. This is may be due to either
unsuitable by-pass fan speed or due to blocking of by-pass
 system and/or higher concentration of alkali chloride and sulfate
in the kiln feed.
 The lower most cyclones temperatures increase will lead to
blocking of these cyclones by over heated feed material (cake
 formation).
The inefficient by pass system or blocked by pass system, since
there may be drastic increase in the percent of both of chorine
and sulfate in the lower most cyclones, will make kiln operation
 increasingly hard with flushes of material coming from these
 cyclones.

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 The kiln will start to be in an upset
condition.

 Reduce fuel rate and I.D. fan speed to obtain less than 1-%
oxygen in the kiln inlet but the fuel rate should not be
completely cut, since this may trigger an explosion in the kiln
 electrostatic precipitator.
 Increases kiln speed and feed rate.
Don’t open any door in the kiln inlet area, so no fresh air will be
 introduced into the kiln system.
 When the temperature of the kiln inlet starts to be normal,
 then Return the kiln operation to normal operation

conditions.
First start to increase fuel in very slow steps.
 Start in the same time increasing the I.D. fan speed in the same
 slow steps.
:
 The kiln must not be operated without feed for more than 10
 minutes. Kiln operator must look routinely to the trends or
curves of the different instruments monitoring the condition of
 the kiln inlet area.
The performance of the measuring devices in the kiln inlet
 should be periodically examined.
During upset conditions, start up and shutdown time, the kiln
operator should give more attention to the conditions of
combustion of the fuel, main burner performance, feed rate
flow condition, feed system performance, kiln inlet
 temperature, I.D. fan speed and how much it is suitable for
prevailing kiln conditions

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 5-Unburned raw material feed in the kiln outlet or in the kiln
coolers

In any cement plant it is usually forbidden to get the kiln into

such condition. It is not acceptable from any kiln operator to wait
until he has unburned material in the burning-zone and then starts to
take action. He should promptly act when he sees the first sign that
indicates that this condition may exists in the burning-zone.
Delaying of action may indicate that the operator in not well
trained or he doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions.
When the kiln-burning zone will suffer from onrush of partially burned
raw feed,
the following will take place:
 Black feed area under the main burner flame is greatly advanced in
the direction of the kiln nose ring area.
 The burning zone is blacked-out.
 When the kiln hood area become black and dusty.
 Red grate in cooler and the temperature of the grates will become
increasingly high.
 Rapid increase in the temperature of the material discharged from
 the cooler. Decrease of secondary air and tertiary air temperature.
 Cooler drag-chain for transporting of under grate dust and spillage
will be

 either over loaded or amp very high.

 One of lower most cyclone or cyclones filled up by material and

suddenly released, while the kiln was on a maximum speed.
 The breaking of ring formation and the trapped material before it are
suddenly released.
 When there are bad kiln operation practices or bad operator behavior,
the feed
flow to the kiln may be so erratic to the degree that can cause such

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 Damage to the cooler components and internal parts may take
place with very bad results such as damage to the driving units or
bearing damage for the movable parts.
 Flame will disappear or completely extinguished in the burning-
 zone. Temperature in the clinker conveying system will be in some
instance dangerously high with eventual damage to this system on
 the long run.
This condition in the kiln may indirectly leads to excessive heating
of the kiln- burning zone. Since impaired visibility of the burning-
zone may make the operator try to clear it, by heating it up in the


 Stop kiln feed.

 Immediately stop the kiln and turn it on the auxiliary drive or
minimum speed according to the gravity of the situation.
 Start to reduce kiln main burner, and I.D. fan speed according to
the normal practices and slowdown procedure to keep the kiln
inlet temperature under- control.
 Reduce the speed of cooler different drives to cope with the new
situation, and switch to manual control, to control the temperature of
the material in the cooler to cool down.
 Adjust cooler airflow to obtain maximum cooling from the cooler
without creating positive pressure in the kiln hood.
 Inspect the cooler under grate if possible before start up the kiln
 again.
Start to heat up the kiln in the normal procedure until you have the

 proper condition in the kiln different parts.

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