Professional Documents
Culture Documents
24.1 Sources
The source materials for cement are common throughout most of the world.
The United States Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries for 2013
does track cement production, but states:
Although individual plant reserves are subject to exhaustion, cement
raw materials, especially limestone, are geologically widespread and
abundant, and overall shortages are unlikely in the future (USGS,
2014).
The distribution of cement production countrywise as of 2012 is shown
in Figure 24.1. Countries from which the United States imports cement
include: Canada, South Korea, China, and Mexico (USGS, 2014).
While it is obvious that the output of cement in China is enormous, it can
also be seen that cement is produced in large quantities in many other
developed countries in the world. Indeed, there are several national and
international trade associations devoted to the production, manufacture,
sale, and research into cement and its uses (Americas Cement
Manufacturers, 2014; British Cement Association, 2014; Mineral Products
Association, 2014; Verein Deutscher Zementwerke, 2014; Cembureau, 2014).
Fig. 24.1: Cement production, in thousands of metric tons.
The addition of fly ash (SiO and CaO) and iron ore to the mix.
2
4.
5.
As mentioned, these are the general steps of what is called the Dry Method.
The wet method is essentially the same process, but it involves the material
being in a liquid slurry (Americas Cement Manufacturers, 2014).
As far as the reaction chemistry that causes cement ultimately to form as a
solid, the material must first set, and then harden. Example reactions for
these broad steps are shown in Figures 24.2 and 24.3.
While the reactants and products of these three reactions may appear
somewhat complex, they are all examples of the formation of single or mixed
Both of these reactions are further examples that illustrate the formation of
sparingly soluble hydrates which essentially form a solid solution. All of these
reactions depend upon water, and thus can occur in or under water. While
formulations change based on the specific need, the materials used by
Roman engineers to build the now ruined piers at Caesarea off the coast of
Israel roughly two millennia ago are similar to modern mixtures.
24.2.2 Nonhydraulic cement chemistry
The driving force for the formation of cement in a nonhydraulic mixture is the
reaction of the material with carbon dioxide. The reaction chemistry for this,
in the simplified form, is shown in Figure 24.4.
CaCO 3 CaO + CO 2
CaO + H 2O Ca(OH) 2
CO 2(g) Ca(OH) 2 CaCO3 + H 2 O
CaC O 3 CaO+C O 2
CaO+ H 2 O Ca(OH )2
C O2 ( g )+Ca(OH )2 CaC O 3 + H 2 O
Fig. 24.4: Nonhydraulic cement formation.
While these three reactions together may seem rather circular, in that
calcium carbonate is an ultimate starting material as well as a product, all
the steps in Figure 24.4 are necessary. In the first reaction, calcium oxide
must be made, as it is not mined. Calcium carbonate has to be heated to
approximately 850 C to form the calcium oxide. Next, the addition of water
to the calcium oxide forms what is still often called the slaked lime (Ca(OH) ).
Finally, the atmospheric carbon dioxide is required to provide a driving force
whereby the slaked lime hardens as calcium carbonate.
2
24.3 Uses
Industrially, cement is always used as a binder in construction materials.
When mixed with stone and sand, it is more properly called concrete, the
common building material. The breakdown of cement uses does vary
somewhat by country, but the statistics from the Mineral Products
Association, from Great Britain are representative of most uses (Mineral
Products Association, 2014) and are as follows:
Housing, 35.7%
Other, 0.8%
CaCO 3 CaO + CO 2
CaO + H 2O Ca(OH) 2
CO 2(g) Ca(OH) 2 CaCO3 + H 2O
Large-quantities of quicklime are used in the manufacture of sand-lime bricks and aerated
concrete blocks. These are construction materials which are manufactured from limecontaining and silicate-containing raw materials and whose strength is due to the
hydrothermal reaction of the raw materials to calcium silicates.
Sand-lime bricks are manufactured by mixing lime, sand and water in a ratio of ca. 1:13:0.7,
forming and then
hardening in autoclaves at 180Cand 7 to 9 bar. Aerated concrete bricks are widely used as
light building
materials. They are obtained by mixing gas-forming additives into a moist mixture of lime.
sand and optionally cement. Industrially, the following reaction is generally used:
+ CaC03+CaCl, + H,O + C 0 2