Designing cement plants of the future to meet the most stringent environmental codes

In the United States and most of the industrialized world there are two issues that are becoming more and more important to the cement industry. The first issue is producing low alkali cement from medium to high level alkali raw materials. Low alkali cement in this context does not necessarily mean only the 0.6% Na₂O_eq standard, but can be any defined level below 0.6%. The second issue is related to environmental issues such as the emissions of SO_x, NO_x, CO, CO₂, volatile organic compounds (VOC), particulates and even heavy metals. This paper deals with ways to design modern cement plants capable of coping with most environmental concerns facing the cement industry