Combined Effect of Sulfur and Lithium on Intensification of Portland Cement Clinker Burning

Lithium significantly reduces the temperature of clinker melt formation and its viscosity, and sulfur promotes the formation of monoclinic alite modification M1, which guarantees higher mechanical strength of cement compared to cement with M3 modification. By a suitable combination of both dopants, it is possible to reduce the burning temperature of clinker by 100 – 150 ℃ and, as it was found, to increase the mechanical strength of the cement prepared from this clinker. The initial strengths of this cement show an increase of up to 100% compared to the conventional cement CEM I. Lowering the burning temperature of the clinker would lead to a reduction in the energy demand of the production of the main intermediate product for cement production. At the same time, it is also one of the possibilities to reduce CO2 emissions in cement production, which is one of the current priority goals. X-ray diffraction analysis, optical microscopy, electron microscopy and microanalysis were used for the research.