Displaying items by tag: US

US: The Slag Cement Association (SCA) data shows that slag cement shipments rose by 10.8% year-on-year to 3.8Mt in 2019 from 3.5Mt in 2018. This is the fourth consecutive year that slag cement shipments have increased at a rate of 10% or greater. The SCA collects shipment data from its members.

“We have seen a substantial increase in slag cement use as concrete professionals become more and more familiar with the product” said Ed Griffith, president of the SCA.

US: Researchers from the University of Southern Florida (USF) testing the resistance to deterioration of cements containing between 30% and 70% of slags of various aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) and magnesium oxide (MgO) contents when exposed to sulphates have discovered a general decrease in resistance with increased Al₂O₃ content. Real Estate Weekly News has reported that increased MgO was found to increase resistance, especially at 30% slag replacement.

Australia: Harsco Environmental, the environmental division of US-based Harsco Corporation, has announced its partnership with numerous producers and consumers in a pan-industrial steel standards and certification initiative called Responsible Steel. The initiative ‘promotes responsible practice,’ with the aim of improving sustainability in emissions, water usage and community and employee relations. This will include developing circular economic practices, including slag deals with cement plants. Harsco Environmental vice president Cope Willis said, “This collaboration is another step in Harsco’s continuous efforts to lead the steel industry to a more sustainable future.”

Canada/US: Harsco’s Environmental division has invested US$2.3m in Carbicrete, a Canadian technology company developing concrete products made with steel slag for the construction industry. The investment will give Harsco Environmental a Board seat in Carbicrete and has been made in conjunction with a US$1.6m grant from the Government of Canada’s Sustainability Development Technology Canada Foundation and applications to further government grant programs. Harsco’s investment will aid the development of the technology through a demonstration program with support from a commercial concrete block manufacturer as part of a development consortium.

“This investment in innovation is aligned with Harsco’s on-going expansion into environmentally-focused products and services, and we are proud to support the development of this exciting technology,” said Harsco Environmental chief operating officer Russ Mitchell.

Carbicrete is developing a technology that allows the production of concrete without using cement by using steel slag instead. The concrete mix is poured into molds, like conventional concrete, and is then cured using CO₂. During curing, the gas becomes a solid, binding together the slag granules, and giving the concrete its strength. Carbicrete says the process can be implemented in any precast concrete manufacturing plant. It also says that the technology is ‘carbon negative’ because more CO₂ is consumed than emitted during the process.

Canada/US: TMS International’s sites in the US and Canada have received a total of 48 safety awards from the National Slag Association (NSA) for 2018. The NSA Safety Awards recognise superior performance as measured against occupational safety and health administration (OSHA) recordable injury rates. The awards were presented to the company during the NSA’s annual meeting in mid-September 2019.

US: Cemex USA has unveiled a new cement which uses blast furnace slag as a binder. The company has stated that the product, called CemSlag, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and extends the workability of concrete compared with normal cement.

US: Shawn M Garvin, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), has issued a Secretary’s Order granting an air quality construction permit for Walan Specialty Construction Products to build a slag grinding plant at Wilmington in Delaware. Walan, also known locally as Penn Mag, is required to use best available control technology (BACT) to control particulate emissions from the drying and grinding operations and to limit truck activity at the site to paved surfaces. The permit has approved a throughput limit of 150,000t/yr of slag, a reduction of 43% compared to the original application.

US: Vallejo Marine Terminal (VMT) has decided not to appeal against the Vallejo City Council’s decision in 2017 to deny it planning permission to build a marine terminal. VMT and Orcem Americas were planning to build a marine terminal and a slag cement grinding plant, according to the Vallejo Times Herald newspaper in Vallejo, California. Orcem Americas have not commented on the situation but the lack of an import terminal may make building a cement plant unviable, although the site does have rail and road links.

US: Councillors at the Vallejo City Council in California are preparing to make a decision on Orcem Americas’ slag cement plant project at the end of May 2019. The council has released a new draft Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR), according to the Vallejo Times-Herald newspaper. However, staff said the document is not ready to be presented to the council for certification and possible project approval under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) due to a lack of information and cooperation from the applicants for the draft status of the report. Planning permission for the slag grinding plant and marine terminal was refused in early 2017.

US: Harsco’s Metals & Minerals division has expanded an agreement with Egyptian Steel, a manufacturer of rebar and wire rods in the Middle East and North Africa. Under the terms of this expanded agreement, Harsco will provide scrap and slag management, material handling, and metal recovery services at Egyptian Steel’s Beni Suef plant. Harsco has provided similar services to Egyptian Steel’s Al Ain Al Sokhna site since late 2017.

“This contract further strengthens our market-leading role in the Africa and Middle East steel markets, where Harsco has been providing environmental services for well over two decades,” said Russ Mitchell, the Chief Operating Officer of Harsco Metals & Minerals.