Effect of fossil and alternative fuels on clinker structure

The waste, which has been formed as result of the developed industrialization in Türkiye and Europe, has started to threaten the sustainable environmental life. The cement factories are not only a cement production facility, but they also bear the characteristic of a disposal plant to solve the environmental and economic problems, caused by the wastes. In this sense, the main purpose of this study is to use OTL (tires that completed their lifetime), industrial plastic waste, materials such as residual oil and treatment sludge which indicate high calorific content and contain a threat element to the environment in place of fossil fuels (petroleum coke, steam coal) that are consumed in rotating ovens of the cement factories. In this study, in a clinker production of a rotating kiln process, the fuel consumption ratio has been realized with alternative fuels in the form of 75 % petroleum coke, 14 % OTL and 11 % industrial plastic waste. The microstructure of the clinker, which was produced with alternative fuels, has been inspected and the rotating oven working conditions have been probed. As a result of this research, which was carried out in order to examine the effect of alternative fuels on the quality of clinker; It was determined that the use of alternative fuels caused an increase of 1-1.5 kWh/tonne in the specific energy of the rotary kiln and an increase in the cyclone top temperatures in alternative fuel feeds. It has been determined that the cyclone top operating temperature is in the range of 300-350°C on average in the rotary kiln process, but this temperature occasionally rises above 400°C in alternative fuel productions. In addition, it has been determined that there is a strength loss of about 1 MPa in clinker samples produced with alternative fuel. In the clinker microstructure examination, the presence of lamellar belite clusters in the abundance of void structures was detected. Keywords: Alternative Fuels, Fossil Fuels, OTL, Clinker