Drake Cement, LLC in Drake , Arizona , USA , is the Southwest’s newest cement company, with full-scale operations underway. Located at the site of an old rail town in northwestern Arizona , Drake is 115 miles north of the city of Phoenix , Arizona , and 220 miles southwest of Las Vegas , Nevada . The Drake Cement facility is the first of its kind to be built in the state in over 50 years.

About Drake Cement

Drake Cement focuses exclusively on the production of Type II/V (LA) Portland cement, conforming to the physical and chemical requirements of ASTM C-150 for Types I, II, and V, low alkali cements, as well as ASTM C 1157 for Types GU, MS, and HS cements.

The plant includes a state-of-the-art, six stage precalciner/preheater kiln with a rated capacity of 660,000 tons of clinker per year or 2,000 tons per day. Medium to high volatile western coal is used as a primary fuel and gas for kiln start up. Most of the raw materials will be obtained from an adjoining quarry and the remainder will be imported, primarily from Arizona .

Several operating and pollution controls incorporated into the plant are so advanced that they are found in only a few other facilities throughout the world.

The Drake Cement kiln/raw mill system must conform to very stringent emission limits. To achieve the very strict NOx emission limit, the kiln line includes a low NOx burner, a six stage preheater with low fuel consumption and a low NOx calciner working in combination with the Selective Non Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) system for NOx reduction. Low sulfur coal and raw material is used in addition to the gas scrubbing effect of the raw mill to satisfy the SO2 threshold

Drake Cement and their project manager, ARPL Tecnologia Industrial S.A., awarded Industrial Accessories Company (IAC), Mission , Kansas , USA , the order for the baghouses for the project. Subsequently, IAC was also awarded the supply of the air-to-air heat exchanger, stacks, access stair towers, and structural support steel for the dust collection equipment.

About Industrial Accessories Company

IAC is an industrial design/build and original equipment manufacturer of baghouses, flue gas desulfurization, heavy metal mitigating sorbent injection systems, dry bulk materials handling, and pneumatic conveying systems.

IAC also provides replacement and new components for baghouses and bulk material handling systems as well as complete engineered systems for their customers.

IAC Provides 34 Baghouses, an Air-to-Air Heat Exchanger, Stacks and Custom Steel Fabrication to Drake Cement

IAC provided three process filters for the plant. An IAC M-Pulse long bag filter controlled emissions from the raw mill and kiln. Another controlled emissions from the clinker cooler after first being cooled via an IAC provided air-to-air heat exchanger. The coal grinding system was provided with a filter designed to withstand high internal pressures.

IAC supplied 31 nuisance and dust handling filters for the Drake project. These included four at the primary crusher and the three overland conveyors stretching 3500 ft. from the quarry to the plant. Three more were provided at the limestone covered storage and conveyor transfers to the raw material silos. Six more were installed to control dust from rail and truck receiving and during transport to storage as well as to raw material grinding. Three more were provided atop the blending silo, feed to the preheater and atop the preheater tower. Five provided dust control for clinker transport and two for transport of coal to coal grinding. Seven provided dust control for cement grinding, the cement silo filling and for loadout allowing two trucks and one railcar to be loaded simultaneously.

IAC also provided four de-dusting cyclones for primary collection from the raw meal grinding. During the course of the project, IAC provided over 1000 tons of steel in the form of stacks, access stair towers, and structural supports for the filters, cyclones, ductwork and stacks.

Raw Mill / Kiln Baghouse

A raw meal grinding system with an output of 164 ton/hr utilizes the hot gases from the six stage preheater of the kiln.

IAC provided a six module M-Pulse long bag pulse jet collector for this service. The M-Pulse filter has a penthouse enclosure providing weather protection and an electric overhead hoist to aid in lifting the insulated clean air plenum doors to access bags during maintenance. Its long bag design (7 meter) reduced the equipment footprint and capital investment for Drake. The baghouse contains PTFE coated fiberglass filter media for the 250oC service.

Steep pyramidal hopper design for each module aids material flow and simplifies material collection. Low 50 psi pressure pulse cleaning provides gentle bag cleaning action promoting longer bag life. Unique inlet gas baffle plate design aids in particle collection before filter media is encountered and in gas flow distribution in each module.

Clinker Cooler Baghouse

A clinker cooler with air beam technology is employed for the 2000 ton/day production rate. IAC provided a four module M-Pulse baghouse here with 6 meter PTFE coated Nomex bags for the 200 oC service.

IAC provided the baghouse’s steel supporting framework and stack for this filter.

Air-to-Air Heat Exchanger

The gases leaving the cooler, traveling to the clinker cooler baghouse first pass through an air-to-air heat exchanger provided by IAC.

The Air-to-Air Heat Exchanger reduces the temperature of the clinker cooler gas venting to the dust collection system, thereby lowering the gas volume to be handled and baghouse fan horsepower requirements.

During upsets, the air-to-air heat exchanger aids to protect the downstream equipment so that it stays within design temperature limits.

The dust that drops out of the gas stream passing through the air-to-air heat exchanger is collected in a bottom hopper and transported out by a screw conveyor. At the discharge of the screw conveyor, a rotary valve minimizes false air intake before passing the dust to the subsequent conveying system.

Coal Mill Baghouse

Coal is pulverized by a vertical mill with a capacity of 14 tons per hour. The mill includes an IAC pulse-jet filter equipped with explosion relief panels. The baghouse is a "walk-in" plenum design reinforced and insulated.

Nuisance Dust Collection Baghouses

IAC provided a total of 31 dust handling and nuisance dust filters on the project. Each had 8 ft. long bags. All were designed with 70 degree hoppers and were factory insulated to promote discharge of material, avoiding condensation effects due to dramatic shifts in the nighttime and daytime desert temperatures.

Stacks and Custom Steel Fabrication

IAC supplied both the raw mill/kiln exhaust stack and the clinker cooler baghouse exhaust stack. Both were equipped with multiple access levels to allow ease of maintenance of the continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) and for safety during stack testing. The two stacks were 2 meters in diameter and 65 meters tall.

During the course of the project, IAC provided over 1000 tons of steel in the form of stacks, access stair towers, and structural supports for the filters, cyclones, ductwork and stacks. All of the nuisance and dust control baghouses were shipped from the factory pre-piped, prewired and insulated. Process baghouses were field insulated, plumbed and wired under IAC supervision.

Drake Cement’s Environmental Citizenship

With their state-of-the-art cement plant near Paulden , Arizona , and their vertically integrated ready mix position in Arizona and southern Nevada , Drake Cement is positioned to provide a wide variety of solutions to the cement and concrete industries. IAC is proud to have provided air pollution control equipment to satisfy Drake’s environmental responsibility and commitment to being a good neighbor and corporate citizen.

Integrating Biomass Drying to Produce Alternative Fuel and Raw Material (AFR) Sources for Cement Production Facilities

There are signs that in the future there will be a need for most of the cement clinker production in North America, indeed throughout the world, to generate a portion of their output from renewable sources, of which biomass is a key component. This will allow plants to work towards CO2 neutrality and the establishment of a "greener" footprint.

Potential biomass sources include wood waste, construction & demolition (C&D) wastes, and some carbon rich industrial and agricultural byproducts or waste streams which contain significant moisture such as pulp and paper mill sludges.

Several cement producers have expressed an interest in securing local renewable sources of biomass for their AFR and have requested IAC’s assistance in providing design services and equipment to meet these needs.

Industrial Accessories Company is helping cement manufacturers to identify ways in which a biomass drying system can be integrated into their plants to utilize the wasted energy from their processes, specifically their preheaters. IAC is able to incorporate its airto- air heat exchanger technology if required to utilize preheater waste heat while limiting corrosion and erosion from these gases in its biomass drying systems.

IAC Offers Assistance to Cement Producers

For cement producers wishing to install new, retrofit or upgrades to existing air pollution control equipment, sorbent injection or material handling systems, or are interested in determining if biomass, particularly wet biomass, can become one of their alternative fuels and raw materials - IAC is ready to assist.

Call IAC at 800.334.7431 or 913.384.5511 today to allow us to provide your air pollution control or material handling needs.