Could you make Portland cement with one component only, excluding the gypsum?
Yes. I worked before in a cement plant (at Tinaan, Naga, Cebu, Philippines). I was a shift control chemist and we fed only one component to the raw grinding process which we deposited to the slurry basin and subsequently mixed it homogeneously at the right proportions before burning in the rotary kiln to produce the clinker. Then in the finish grinding operation, we added the gypsum to control the setting time of the finished product, the cement, at approximately the proportion of 97% clinker and 3% gypsum to produce Type 1 Portland Cement. We were blessed with a very good limestone quarry that approximated almost 75% of Calcium Carbonate to crush and grind and burn to clinker and then grind it to produce cement. So almost everyday, we had only a single component to produce the cement. However, we also had in our feeders aside from the limestone, the marl feeder, the silica feeder and the pyrite cinder feeder to fine tune the raw mix, and especially when we are to produce another type of cement. A good day to you.
