LIME: Innovative development throughout the centuries!
Did you know that even in the Stone Age lime was already commonly used? Lime products and applications have continuously been developed continuously through time ever since.
Every European citizen uses approximately 150 g of lime daily. This means 55 kg per year on average and shows clearly the importance of the material LIME in our daily lives.
Lime is a natural product and is incomparable - no other chemical compound can do what lime can: cleaning waste water, preparing our drinking water and absorbing the pollutants from the air.
Lime enhances soil quality and is therefore extensively used in agriculture, ensuring a richer harvest. Lime is also used for disinfection in animal husbandry, preventing the outbreak of diseases.
Iron and steel? Unimaginable without lime! Just as are roads, houses, buildings. Nothing can be built without lime.
Every European citizen uses approximately 150 g of lime daily. This means 55 kg per year on average and shows clearly the importance of the material LIME in our daily lives.
Lime is a natural product and is incomparable - no other chemical compound can do what lime can: cleaning waste water, preparing our drinking water and absorbing the pollutants from the air.
Lime enhances soil quality and is therefore extensively used in agriculture, ensuring a richer harvest. Lime is also used for disinfection in animal husbandry, preventing the outbreak of diseases.
Iron and steel? Unimaginable without lime! Just as are roads, houses, buildings. Nothing can be built without lime.
Lime is essential for the production of glass, paper, plastics and paint, as well as for the production of cosmetics, rubber or food.
No Day without Lime!
No Day without Lime!
We would like to thank the German Lime Association "Bundesverband der Deutschen Kalkindustrie e.V."and the British Lime Association for providing comprehensive material to create this website.
European Lime Association (EuLA)
The European Lime Association represents:
- About 95% of the European lime production
- 23 national associations
- 100 companies
- 210 production sites
- 600 lime kilns
- 11.000 employees
- 28,4 million tons total lime and dolime production (EU 27 in 2007)
- Around € 2,5 billion contribution to Europe’s GDP
Membership to EuLA is open to national associations representing the lime industry.
As the voice of the European lime sector, its activities and mission centre on:
As the voice of the European lime sector, its activities and mission centre on:
- Promoting the interests of the European lime industry on all issues of common concern, such as sustainable development, product legislation, energy, environmental protection, health and safety, communication & image enhancement.
- Providing the members with a single voice and competent assistance to address the complex legislative framework on scientifically and technically-sound dossiers.
- Ensuring that the lime industry at large benefits from the sharing of non-sensitive information and play a supporting role in the promotion of best practices.
Further reading: EuLA Info Sheet
Lime Glossary
| Term | Description |
| AAC | Aerated Autoclave Concrete, also commonly called cellular concrete or "Aircrete" |
| Acidification | Reduction of the pH of soil, waterways and lakes. |
| Aggregates | A granular material used in construction. The most common natural aggregates of mineral origin are sand, gravel and crushed rock. (< 95% CaCO3) |
| Agricultural lime | Lime and dolomite products that are used in agriculture to neutralize the soil acidity |
| Air Lime | Calcic or dolomitic limes are called air limes because they combine and harden with the carbon dioxide present in the air |
| Building lime | May be a quick or hydrated lime, whose physical characteristics make it suitable for structural purposes. Usually used as binder for building mortar. |
| Calcination | Heating material to release volatile constituents or change the crystal structure. |
| Calcite | Crystalline mineral consisting of calcium carbonates. |
| calcium hydroxide | Is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or 'slaked' with water. Also called slaked lime, Ca(OH)2." |
| calcium magnesium oxide | Burnt dolomite (CaO-MgO) |
| calcium oxide | Quick lime (CaO), produced by calcination of limestone and/or dlomitic rock. |
| CEN | European Committee for Standardisation. See www.cen.eu |
| Chemical lime | A quick or hydrated lime that is used for one or more of the many chemical and industrial applications. Usually it possesses relatively high chemical purity. |
| Coating pigment | Pigment for coating paper, usually supplied as slurry. Mixture of very bright, clean particles, such as pulverized limestone or kaolin. |
| Dead burnt lime | Sinterized quicklime which does not slake readily under normal conditions. |
| Dead burnt dolomite | A highly sintered form of dolomitic quicklime which is used primarily as a basic refractory. |
| Dolomitic limestone | Limestone that includes small amounts of the mineral dolomite. |
| Dolomite stone | Type of rock which consists mainly of the mineral dolomite (10-50%), commonly called dolomite. (CaCO3-MgCO3) |
| FGD | Flue Gas Desulfurisation. The processes employed for the removal of gaseous sulfur dioxide from boiler exhaust gas at coal-fired electricity generating plants. |
| Filler | Fine ground limestone or dolomite stone. Used as a filler in asphalt, plastics, paint and paper, for example. |
| Flocculant | Flocculation is a process where a solute comes out of solution in the form of floc or flakes. Flocculation and sedimentation are widely employed in the purification of drinking water as well as sewage treatment and treatment of other industrial wastewater streams. |
| Fluxing lime | is lump or pebble quicklime used for fluxing in steel manufacture, or the term may be applied more broadly to include fluxing of nonferrous metals and glass. It is a type of chemical lime. |
| GCC | Ground Calcium Carbonate |
| Gypsum | The common name for the mineral consisting primarily of fully hydrated calcium sulfate, CaSO4 x 2H2O or calcium sulfate dihydrate. Gypsum occurs naturally in many areas, and is produced by some wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) processes |
| Hydrated lime | Slaked lime, calcium hydroxide - Ca(OH)2 |
| Hydraulic lime | A chemically impure form of lime with hydraulic properties of varying extent, that possesses appreciable amounts of silica,alumina and usually some iron, chemically combined with much of the lime. Usually used as binder for plaster and mortar. |
| Lake liming | Spreading of pulverized limestone used to combat acidification in lakes. |
| Lime-burned dolomite | Calcinated dolomite stone with a carbon content similar to that of normal roast limestone. |
| Limestone | Sedimentary rock composed of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate or CaCO3) |
| Lump quicklime | Usually refers to products with a top size above 2.5 cm. |
| Magnesian limestone | "A limestone containing apprciable amounts of magnesium, at least 90% calcite, and no more than 10% dolomite |
| Micronised limestone | Also called ground limestone, with a top size < 300µ |
| Milk of lime | A suspension of calcium hydroxide particles in water. These particles give it the milky aspect. |
| Mortar | A mix of one or more inorganic or organic binders, aggregates, fillers, additives and/or admixtures. |
| Neutralisation | Elimination of excess H+ (or OH-) ions by adding base (or acid). |
| PCC | Precipitated Calcium Carbonate, also known as purified, refined or synthetic calcium carbonate. |
| Pebble quicklime | Usually refers to screened products with a top size in the range of 1,5 to 6cm. |
| Pozzolanic | Used to describe materials, which contain reactive silica, and which, when mixed with quicklime and water, set to a hard mass. |
| Pulverized lime | Lime with a top size < 3mm |
| Lime putty (or putty lime) | A mixture of lime (calcium hydroxide) in water which is used for the production of lime plasters, renders, mortars, ... |
| Quicklime | Lime product consisting mainly of CaO. Produced from limestone from which carbon dioxide has been removed by heating. |
| Reactivity of quicklime | Measure of the rate at which it reacts with water. 'Moderate', 'medium', and 'low' reactivity are used as broad classifications for quicklimes. " |
| Rendering mortar | Durable coating of lime and aggregate, which provides a protective covering to the walls of a building. |
| Sandlime bricks | Calcium silicate bricks produced by autoclaving a mixture of sand and lime |
| Scrubber | Any of several forms of chemical/physical devices that remove sulfur compounds formed during coal combustion and especially from coal-fired power plants. |
| Sinterized lime | Dead burnt lime |
| Slag | Refers to the solid or liquid impurities removed from molten metal in the metallurgical processing. |
| Slaked lime | Hydrated lime |
| Sludge | Any solid or semisolid or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility (wet scrubbers) or any other such waste having similar characteristics and effect. |
| Slurry | Particles in suspension in water. |
| Soft burned lime | A quicklime calcined at relatively low temperature. It is characterised by its high porosity and chemical reactivity. |
| Sorbent | The term applied in some combustion systems, to the chemical compounds that are added to the gas side of the steam generator to reduce (sorb) emissions. For example, limestone is used in fluidized-bed steam generators to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. |
| Stucco | Form of plaster for coating walls. |
| Sulphur absorber | It binds Sulphur in flue gases to form solid phases that can be removed. |
| Tadelakt | A bright, nearly waterproof lime plaster which can be used on the inside of buildings and on the outside. |
| Type S hydrated lime | Also called special hydrated lime, is an ASTM designation to distinguish a structural hydrated from a normal hydrated lime. |
| Type N hydrated lime | Normal hydrated lime. |
| Whitewash | Synonymous with milk of lime, a dilute lime hydrate suspension. |
