Phoenix Cement Company is a regional supplier of portland cements, gypsum, and fly ash products. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, the company began operating in 1959 when American Cement Corporation constructed a plant in Clarkdale, about 100 miles north of Phoenix.
Cement
Minerals to Materials
Quarry
The Clarkdale Plant is surrounded by hills that are rich with high quality limestone that is quarried on site. The quarried rock contains both silica and calcium as well as deposits of volcanic material that provide alumina, iron and additional silica. All of these are necessary to make a suitable raw mix for cement.
Crush
Once quarried, the stone is trucked to the primary crusher where each type of stone is broken down and stored separately. In a secondary crusher, the stones are mixed in the correct proportion and reduced to less than 3-inch sized pieces. During this process, the rock is sampled regularly for quality. After the crushing process, this raw material is stacked.
Reclaimer
A special piece of large equipment, a digger-wheel reclaimer, retrieves the stacked rock to ensure that different types of rock are blended into a uniform feed for the kilns.
Raw Grind
The raw material is ground into a fine powder called raw feed that is sampled for chemical consistency and quality.
Heat
Raw feed is blended in the homogenizing silos and pumped into a preheater/calciner. The feed then drops into a rotary kiln where it is heated to temperatures of at least 2750 degrees F. At these high temperatures, lime, silica, alumina, magnesia and iron oxides form new compounds and produce small, hard, spherical shaped “clinker.”
Finish Grinding Mill
The clinker is cooled and stored in domes. Gypsum is added to the clinker and it is milled to a powder. The powder is cement.
Storage
Portland cement, mortar cements, and specialty grinds are pumped into storage silos on site.
Packed & Distributed
Bulk and bagged cement is distributed throughout central and northern Arizona. The location of the Clarkdale plant near the center of the state is convenient to the growing metropolitan area making concrete readily accessible and construction more affordable.
A few of the projects built with Phoenix Cement® include Glen Canyon Dam, the Central Arizona Project, Chase Field, Roosevelt Dam, I-10 and I-17 construction, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, The Pavillions Shopping Center, Mingus Union High School, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, numerous high rise structures and housing developments throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area and Northern Arizona.
Pozzolans
Power Plant to Product
Coal Transportation
Coal is transported to the power plants typically by rail, trucks or conveying systems placed in a coal storage area.
Coal Mills
The coal is then conveyed to storage silos and metered to the coal mills which crush the coal to a certain fineness to achieve efficient
Firebox
The coal is then injected into the firebox where burners regulate the amount of coal to be burned. Burning temperatures in the firebox may exceed 2,700°F. The coal ignites as it enters the fire ball in the firebox. However, all coal contains small quantities of mineral impurities such as clay, shale, sand, dirt and rocks that don’t ignite. These mineral impurities remain after the coal is burned, as either the heavy particles referred to as bottom ash because they drop to the bottom of the boiler or the fine particles referred to as fly ash because they exit the burn zone with flue gases via the duct work.
Bag House/Precipitator
The flue gases which contain the fly ash are passed through bag houses or precipitators which separate and remove the fly ash particles from the gas streams.
Raw Fly Ash Conveying and Storage
Once collected, the raw ash is then conveyed out of the bag house or precipitator via pneumatic conveying lines. At this point, SRMG has equipment installed that can sample and test the fly ash as it is being conveyed.
Inline Testing and Quality Targets
If the raw fly ash does not meet SRMG quality targets, the fly ash is diverted to the utility storage silos for disposal. If the raw fly ash meets SRMG quality targets, the raw fly ash then becomes usable fly ash and is diverted to the SRMG Fly Ash Beneficiation Facility where it will be processed further to meet certain quality criteria targets.
Feed to Classifier
Usable fly ash is metered into the SRMG Beneficiation Facility where the separation of the coarse and fine particles take place. The coarse fly ash drops out of the classifiers and is returned to the utility for potential reuse. The fine fraction that leaves the classifiers becomes product fly ash and is stored in a silo.
Product Fly Ash
Product Fly Ash is stored in SRMG’s product silos to be shipped via railcar or truck to customers or to SRMG distribution facilities.
The most common use of fly ash is to replace and supplement portland cement in concrete applications. When used properly, fly ash makes the concrete stronger, more resistant to deterioration and last longer than concrete made with just portland cement alone. Because fly ash is recycled and can replace a portion of the portland cement in concrete, there is an important environmental benefit that results as well. There is a reduction in greenhouse gas (mostly carbon dioxide) emissions due to less cement needing to be manufactured. SRMG’s Product Fly Ash has been used in the concrete for the Roosevelt Dam, Bartlett Dam, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix-area freeways and bridges, and for most homes, schools, and buildings in Arizona, California, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas for the past several decades.
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