You saying something is not true, doesn't make it not true.
The steel production, and cement production is heavily dependent on coal. Sure, heat can be generated also by natural gas, which is easier to transport and burn, but technology for consistent combustion is not there yet.
The steel and cement production require higher radiative heat transfer that coal provides. Natural gas simply doesn't have that because of sharper burning characteristics and also lacks dissipation of heat.
I do automation and process control, and I've been involved with numerous projects of setting out automotive ovens, air supply houses, steel heat treatment processes, with experience that got me to one of four test projects (that are offered and I know of) in attempts to convert coal to natural gas. None of them proved consistent trend in production and wend back to design table.
But hey, what do I know, you... the expert, are saying it's not true.
How hot is needed for cement again? 30K degrees?
I am not chemistry guy, I am an engineer.
Our goal was to provide heat consistency on 3000 deg Celsius, but I think kiln require to be heated to about half of that.
I just read 2700, but I think they go to 3000 here, makes it stronger.
Thats about right, 3000 C is around 5400 F, take half from it...
The hotter the kiln, the stronger the bond.
I'm sure there are variations of cement with different ingredients used for various purposes. But that's chemistry, and not my field.
My job was process control that require consistency and burning natural gas is intrinsically unstable. To be honest, I didn't even know at first what those burners would be used on, my job was to maintain given temperature profiles while obtaining certain burning conditions. Along with control, there were others working on solutions for lowest energy consumption possible for certain temps, and staying within constraints of regulations for amount of air in the exhaust gasses, emissions etc.
None of the tests at the time I was involved proved consistency and that natural gas could replace coal completely. The company I was involved with is working on hybrids with other alternative fuels, so I heard.
Now I need JoeB131 to tell me it's not true, and that he knows better.
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