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About Lhoist UK Ltd

Lime For Life

A world without lime would be an environment less safe, less clean and less pure. These cleansing and purifying characteristics have been known to man for centuries, but their importance has never been greater.

The versatility and simplicity of lime in its many forms have been utlised in industrial processes, in agriculture, in building materials and increasingly, in helping safeguard an environment ever more under pressure.

What is Lime?

Lime in the form of stone is the fifth most abundant element in the world's crust.

Limestone/chalk forms approximately 20% of the world's sedimentary rock. As early as the fourth millennium BC quicklime was used as building material and through history its range of uses has broadened.

Lime is a generic term that is used to refer to the processed products from burning limestone or chalk.

The burned limestone or chalk straight from the kiln has undergone a process known as calcining and is known as quicklime and when water is added, also known as slaking, the quicklime becomes hydrated lime or slaked lime.

Computer controlled production processes within the kilns and in the slaking and conditioning methods create a wide range of lime-based products with specific characteristics developed for particular applications.

Production

Limestone is blasted from the quarry face before being broken down in a usable size, washed and taken on a conveyor belt to the kilns.

The kilns are highly thermally efficient, using a process known as parallel regenerative flow to maximise energy conservation. The control of the kilns relies on sophisticated computer software.

Lime, also known as quicklime, is discharged from the kilns into hoppers from where it is then taken for further processing. The quicklime can be sized and sorted or conditioned for application in different markets or it is hydrated by the controlled addition of water to produce hydrated lime. The hydrated lime can also be sized and sorted or conditioned for application in different markets.

Uses for Lime

Today lime and its derivatives are used in a broad spectrum of applications which have a major impact on our daily lives, such as;
Acid neutralisation, Agriculture, Construction, Effluent Treatment, Foodstuffs, Flue Gas Treatment, Paint, Petrochemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Plastics, Salt, Soil Treatment, Waste Water Treatment, Sugar, Drinking Water, Glass and Paper, Winemaking, Leather Tanning and Iron and Steel Industry.

Lime and Limestone Buxton, Lime and Limestone Derbyshire