BORAL CEMENT
Build something great™
Cement manufacturing at
A.C.N. 008 528 523
A.B.N. 62 008 528 523
Berrima
Berrima
Berrima
VICTORIA
1800 673 570
TASMANIA
(03) 6427 0133
PRODUCT SUPPORT:
1800 721 258
www.boral.com.au/cement
BCC_10301_07/12
Boral Cement Works is situated at
Berrima 150kms south of Sydney and
supplies much of Sydney’s annual
cement requirement - over one million
tonnes per year.
Marulan-Berrima-Maldon production line
The Berrima cement works
are the longest in Australia. The
130km integrated manufacturing
process begins at Marulan – where
limestone is quarried, then railed to
Berrima where clinker is produced.
The clinker is then transported by
rail to Maldon for cement milling,
where it is bagged and distributed.
Berrima’s plant capacity is
1.4 million tones of clinker per
annum. Twenty five percent of
this output is transported to the
grinding plant at Maldon where it is
converted to cement. The remaining
clinker is ground at Berrima and
dispatched in large quantities to
Canberra, the NSW south coast
and other NSW markets.
The Berrima kilns are equal to the
most modern in the world with
continuous development upgrades
featuring the latest technology and
equipment. Electronic controls,
video display, computer control
systems and a chemical and
physical testing laboratory (with
x-ray fluorescent spectrometer)
have enabled Berrima to maintain
the high quality of cement
production for which it is known.
Environmental considerations are
a priority at the Berrima cement
works. Dust collectors are located
at all possible emission points,
water run-off filters through settling
ponds and noise levels are reduced
by sound-proof enclosures around
noisier equipment. Tree planting and
landscaping assist the Berrima plant
design to blend with the natural
surroundings.
Cement manufacturing at
Berrima
How Portland Cement is made at Berrima
TROMMEL SCREEN
in a large blending silo.
LIMESTONE
2. From the silo it is conveyed
BUL
K LIM
PRIMARY DRILL
& BLASTING
by elevator to the top of the
pre-heater tower with four
cyclone stages.
PRIMARY
CRUSHER
SECONDARY
CRUSHER
TO
BER
RIM
A
GED
E
LOCAL
SHALE QUARRY
LIMESTONE
SLAG DRYER
LOCAL
SAND
CLINKER
STORAGE SILO
COAL BLENDING
& STORAGE
BLAST FURNACE
SLAG STOCKPILE
DRY SLAG
STORAGE
GE
RA
STO G
KER ILDIN
BU
COAL MILL
RATOR
Y & CE
NTRA
L CON
TROL
ROOM
TO
PREHEATER PREHEATER
TOWER No1 TOWER N02 RAWMEAL
BLENDING SILO
SS
CE
RO
Y P KILN
DR
STACK
OL
CO
MA
LDO
N
LS
CEMENT MIL
ORAGE
MENT ST
BULK CE
CEMENT MIL
LS
CONDITIONING
TOWER
ATIC
OST OR
CTR ECT
ELE COLL
T
S
U
D
CONDITIONING
TOWER
CL
IN
E
AT
GR
ER
GYPSUM
CLIN
KE
R
BU ST
ILD OR
IN AG
G E
LABO
RAW MEAL
No.6 RAW MILL
HAUST
KILN EX
GASES
SES
GA K)
C
STE
WA O STA
(T
MENT ST
K
BUL
ORAGE
HAUST
KILN EX ES
GAS
GED
SILOS
NEWCASTLE
SYDNEY
MALDON
BERRIMA
MARULAN
NT
BUL
SILOS
KC
BAG
E
CEM
ENT
EM
KC
No.7 RAW MILL
BUL
GYPSUM
BULK CE
AL
ME
ST N
DU TUR
RE
The origin of cement dates
back to man’s earliest beginnings
when builders’ sought a material
to bind stones together to build
shelter and later homes. In the
early Egyptian era, cement
LOCAL
IRON ORE
WAST
E
(TO S GASES
TACK
)
kiln it passes through a grate
cooler where it is cooled to
120ºC and is then conveyed
to storage.
SHALE
SHALE
CRUSHER
RAW MATERIALS
ADDITIVE BUILDING
5. As the hot clinker leaves the
Berrima Colliery
LIM
gravity through each
interconnected cyclone
during which the hot gases
from the kiln pass through the
cyclones and heat the raw
meal to approx. 1000ºC.
hot meal enters the rotating
kiln and travels toward the
fusion zone, when it is heated
to 1450ºC.
LN
LIME KI
Marulan Limestone Quarry
3. The raw meal falls by
4. From the bottom cyclone the
E
ROTARY
BAG
W
RA
Berrima employs a dry process
for cement manufacturing in which
1. The dry ground meal is stored
ST N
DU TUR
RE
quarried on the cement works
site. The small quantity of iron
ore required to make cement is
obtained from outside resources.
Sand is supplied locally when
required for fine correction of
the mix.
Portland Cement
The New Berrima works are the longest works in Australia - they begin their 130km integrated manufacturing process at Marulan - when limestone is
railed from there to New Berrima, where clinker is produced. It is then transported to Maldon for cement milling, where it is bagged then distributed.
ATER
IA
AND L BLEND
IN
STO
RAG G
E
Limestone is the primary raw
material in cement with a high
level of calcium carbonate. Chalk
or coral can also be used. The
limestone used at Berrima comes
from the Boral Cement Limestone
quarry at Marulan (70kms south of
Berrima) and is a high grade stone
won by blasting, then crushed
before being transported by rail
to the cement works. Shale is
raw materials are ground to a fine
powder in a vertical raw mill, then;
RAW
M
Cement making is a simple
process in which carefully
measured quantities of limestone,
shale, iron ore and occasionally
sand are blended together, ground
to a fine powder and fused at a
very high temperature in a rotary
kiln. The fused material or ‘clinker’
is cooled and then ground with
a small amount of gypsum in a
ball mill to produce the finished
cement powder.
The Marulan-Berrima-Maldon Production Line 2012
Berrima Clinker and Cement Works
MELBOURNE
GEELONG
EME
NT &
BUL
K CE
SLA
G
CEM
ENT
Maldon Cement Works
MEN
T
material was produced by burning
gypsum. The early Greeks and
Romans used lime and limebearing cement for buildings,
roads, bridges and aqueducts.
The word ‘cement’ was
derived from the early Roman
‘Caementum’, a rough, unhewn
stone or chips of marble from
which a kind of ‘mortar’ was
made. The term ‘Concrete’
came from ‘Concretus’- meaning
‘growing together’. The Romans
used cement to make loose
stones ‘grow together’ into a
single rock-like mass to build
concrete structures such as
the Roman baths (27BC), the
Colosseum and the Basilica
of Constantine. The ruins still
survive today.
It is believed the Romans also
developed the first known
hydraulic cement – cement
capable of hardening under
water. Created by mixing slaked
lime with a volcanic rock or sand
called ‘Pozzolana’, the cement
was named after the place where
it was first found - Possuoli near
Mount Vesuvius and is commonly
known as Pozzolanic cement.
Portland cement dates from its
discovery by an English mason,
Joseph Aspdin in 1824 who
obtained the patent and gave
the product its name ‘Portland
cement’ because the mortar
colour it produced resembled a
natural building stone obtained
from the Isle of Portland off the
English coast.
Portland cement significantly
improved on earlier cement
developments by preparing a
synthetic mixture of lime and
clay without depending on raw
materials found in nature which
might contain such elements in
desirable proportions.
In 1877 the first rotary kiln was
patented in England. In 1885
Englishman Frederick Ransome
patented the first rotary cement
kiln. Since that time rotary kilns
have developed in size, capacity,
output quality and operational
economy. Now with modern
materials handling equipment,
more efficient combustion
techniques and computerized
processing and control, kilns are
capable of producing over four
thousand five hundred tonnes of
cement clinker per day