Articles on the slag industry from Global Slag
Slag product applications
Written by Nick Jones
Thursday 27 October 2011
Applications of iron and steelmaking slag products - by MPA Slag
Blast Furnace Slag (Iron Making Slag)
Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GBS)
Granulated Blast Furnace Slag can be used in its raw/unprocessed form as a slow setting binder in hydraulically bound road construction materials. It generally requires an alkali activator such as hydrated lime or steel slag to be added to the product for this purpose.
Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS)
Granulated blastfurnace slag is highly cementitious and after drying and grinding to a fine powder, it can be used as a replacement for conventional cement. The first commercially available Blastfurnace cement (a blend of Portland cement and GGBS) was produced in Germany in 1865 and currently over 200 million tonnes/annum of Blastfurnace slag cement are used worldwide.
In the UK, GGBS is normally supplied as a separate material, conforming to EN 15167-1 ‘Ground granulated blastfurnace slag for use in concrete, mortar and grout’. GGBS is blended with cement at the concrete mixer and its major use is in ready-mixed concrete. Typically the replacement level is about 50% but in some applications, GGBS can replace over 80% of the Portland cement. Specifiers of concrete are well aware of the many benefits of GGBS (e.g. it increases the durability of concrete and greatly reduces its carbon footprint) and about a third of all UK ‘ready-mix’ deliveries contain GGBS. It is also used in site-batched and precast concrete and for the in-situ stabilisation of soils.
Basics of slag production
Written by Written by Lewis Juckes
Thursday 27 October 2011
Slags from the Iron and Steel Industry
Background
With world steel production now well over a billion tonnes per year, the slag that arises from some of the processes involved is a major resource. Traditionally it has been used mainly as an aggregate but for some types there are other applications, such as a raw material for cement or as a fertiliser.
Slag, as the term will be used here, is any siliceous melt that arises in significant quantity from the various processes used in the production of iron and steel, and more particularly the solid materials that forms when such melts cool. Slag from the production of ferrochrome is also included here; this material is produced in substantial tonnages and the main use of ferrochrome is in the steel industry.
Slags also arise from other processes, particularly the smelting of non-ferrous metals, but these materials can be very different and each needs to be studied individually. Moreover, in colloquial English an even wider range of materials such as clinker, ash and even colliery waste is sometimes referred to as “slag”. Such materials are not covered here.
Efficient and reliable handling of GBFS and GGBFS at grinding plants and cement works
Written by Barry Woodbine Aumund Group
Monday 03 March 2008
In this paper Aumund, recent winner of the Global Slag Equipment Innovation Award 2007, showcases its broad range of GBFS and GGBFS handling, conveying and storage options.
During recent years the cement industry has suffered significant increases in operating costs driven in particular by spiralling energy prices plus pressure from environmental lobbies to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions overall. Considering that the production of a ton of conventional Portland cement generates almost a ton of CO2, and in terms of total greenhouse gas emissions for all industries worldwide, this places cement second only to the power industry in the scale of global polluters.
These factors have generated an increased awareness of alternative fuel possibilities for kiln firing and substitute raw material options for cement production, also reflecting an increased demand for blended cements particularly including ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). This last point is particularly important; for every ton of GGBFS included in the final blended cement the total CO2 production is reduced by around 1t.
Read more: Efficient and reliable handling of GBFS and GGBFS at grinding plants and cement works
Evaluation of the technical and economical aspects of using type CEM III cements in concrete
Written by Oktay Kutlu, Meriç Demiriz OYAK Group Adana Cement Industry, İskenderun Plant
Monday 03 March 2008
Researchers at Adana Çimento in Turkey have undertaken a thorough investigation into the relative strengths of concretes made with normal Portland cement (CEM I) compares to those derived from GGBFS-based cements (CEM III). The results of this investigation are presented in this paper, with the central conclusion being that concretes made with cements containing up to 65% by weight of GGBFS, have improved strength, lower unit costs and a more benign environmental footprint compared with concretes made from CEM I cements.
Borate stabilisation of air-cooled slags
Written by Dirk Durinck, Sander Arnout, Dr Peter T Jones, Prof Bart Blanpain, Prof Patrick Wollants Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Monday 03 March 2008
Air-cooled slags can exhibit a peculiar volume instability upon cooling and disintegrate into a fine powder. The outcomes of this are severe dust issues in the surroundings of the meltshop and forced landfilling, since a powdery slag cannot be applied as an aggregate for construction applications. In this article, the causes of this disintegration is discussed, in addition to an evaluation of the dusting behaviour of a particular slag based on the overall slag composition, and how borates can be used to stabilise the slags.
Certain types of slag disintegrate on cooling, (see Figure 1. It is well known that this particular kind of volume instability is caused by the presence of dicalcium silicate, 2CaO•SiO2, (C2S) in the slag structure. This mineral undergoes several phase transformations during the cooling of hot slag. The last transformation from the β to the γ polymorph at approximately 400°C is accompanied by a 12% volume expansion, which causes high internal stresses in the slag and, subsequently, the disintegration into a fine powder. The resulting particle sizes are typically not larger than 100µm.
Over time, this volume instability has been observed with various slag types, ranging from blast furnace slags to steelmaking slags. At present, however, the problematic disintegration is primarily encountered in two areas. Firstly, in stainless steelmaking, decarburisation slags are known to heavily disintegrate during cooling. EAF slags also display this behaviour, but to a lesser extent. Secondly, aluminium-killed ladle refining slags in steelmaking may disintegrate as well.
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