More expansion work at our plant.

The crew is finished laying the brick hearths. The top was poured today.
Still a ways to go before start-up.

 

This is a better view of a completed deck...
#5 calciner rebuild is now complete. Burners were lit Saturday, we should start a little feed clay on it tomorrow.
#8 calciner build site is still coming along slowly. Got a lot of ground anchors done, adding another section now.

 

They start out with burners on low to cure the mortar and slowly bring things up to temp?

 

Yep, I don't know how low they were over the weekend, but Monday it sat at 1200° for 24 hrs, they put the clay bed in, basically 4.5 tons is slowly added and allowed to make a floor. We put a ramp in today to slowly bring it up to operating temps...50°\hr...then hold there until things get hot throughly

 

Had a few issues with some gas valves yesterday, got those fixed.
Put feed on unit this morning...
We have product flowing through the system...

 

T.Jeff Veal What is the operating temp for those units?

 

Hottest deck is 1850°F

 

Better view of product flow at night...

 

Seeing a little progress on #8 calciner build. Looks like some concrete will be poured soon
Some types of expansion aren't good. Got to work Wednesday evening and one silo decided to leak a bit...lol...
The band between tank bottom and Shaker must have come loose with 30-40 tons of clay in it...
The other side of the pile...
And behind the silo where the door is...
All had to be trashed for possible contamination