Highlights of Hercules Cement´s modernization

In 1989, Hercules modified its cement plant direct coal firing system to a modern indirect system reducing the primary air percentage from 35% to 14% and improving the combustion efficiency. In 1990, Hercules built a new control room building and replaced its individual raw and finish mill analog control stations with centralized programmable logic controllers along with Industar software. Also during this time, the laboratory, which was housed in a separate building several hundred yards from the mills and kilns was relocated on the first level of the new control room building. The authors discuss the the scope of the project and describe its implementation. Project management aspects are also discussed