Introduction to limestone drying

The main component of limestone is calcium carbonate, it is widely used in various industries such as construction materials, metallurgy, mineral processing, chemical engineering, and cement. After mining and crushing, limestone contains some moisture, it will affect later processes as well as transportation and storage. Therefore, limestone moisture reduction is necessary. There are mainly two types of drying machines for limestone drying - rotary drum dryers and fluidized bed dryers. What are the differences between them? Next, I will introduce them from four aspects: working principle, applicable materials, processing capacity, and application fields.

1. Working principle

The rotary drum dryer is an inclined rotating drum with a lifting plate inside to lift the raw material. Limestone enters the drum through the feeding device. As the drum rotates, the material is lifted and thrown down by the lifting plates, forming a "material curtain". It comes into full contact with the high-temperature hot air generated by the hot air furnace, causing the moisture to evaporate. The dried limestone is then discharged through the discharge device. The fluidized bed dryer is equipped with evenly distributed air plates inside. Fine limestone enters from the material inlet, and hot air is blown in from the bottom, causing the material to suspend and form a fluid-like state. The material comes into full contact with the hot air, the moisture evaporates, and then the dried powder is discharged from the discharge outlet.

2. Applicable materials

In a rotary drum dryer, limestone tumbles and dries in hot air as the drum rotates. This tumbling action ensures uniform drying, making the rotary dryer suitable for limestone of various particle sizes, especially lump or granular limestone with a particle size from 5 to 50mm. However, fluidized bed dryers require ensuring that the material is suspended by hot air, so it must be small particle size, typically limestone powder with a particle size less than 3mm.

3. Processing capacity

Rotary dryers are suitable for drying limestone in large and medium-sized industrial production, there are many models to choose from, the processing capacities ranging from 5 to 200 tons per hour. Fluidized bed dryers are mainly used for small and medium-sized industrial production, with a processing capacity of 1-20 tons per hour.

4. Application fields

Rotary limestone dryers are widely used in heavy industries such as the cement industry, quicklime production, construction industry, mining industry, and steel industry for drying block or granular limestone. Fluidized bed limestone dryers are primarily used in the chemical industry, environmental and metallurgical industries, where high uniformity of drying is required, and are not suitable for block limestone.

Conclusion

For limestone drying, rotary drum dryers exhibit stronger material adaptability, a wider processing capacity range, and more application fields, making them the mainstream in the drying market. Fluidized bed dryers are suitable for fields that focus more on fine drying.. If you are interested in limestone drying processes, please feel free to contact us.