Displaying items by tag: government

UK: Teesside University is working with a number of partners, including Material Evolution, on developing a new type of concrete using steel slag. The ‘Mevocrete’ project has a total budget of Euro8.6m and it received around Euro3.5m funding from the Innovate UK scheme. It intends to build a full scale on-site unit for cement production using waste steel slag at the Teesworks industrial zone. Researchers from the university’s School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies will analyse the steel slag and its chemical composition and measure how efficient it is at sequestering carbon. The projects aims to manufacture a concrete that emits up to 85% less CO₂ compared to a traditional concrete made from Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC).

Material Evolution is the lead industrial partner on the project. Other partners include Celsa Manufacturing UK, LKAB Minerals, Nanomox, Enursan, Retaining UK, Geocast, Playfair Capital and ZTL Contracting.

Australia: Hallett Group plans to establish a slag cement grinding plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. Magnet News has reported the cost of the project as US$83.9m, towards which the producer has received US$13.4m in government funding. The plant will produce cement using South Australian ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) from Nyrstar’s Port Pirie and Liberty Primary Steel’s Whyalla steel refineries and fly ash from the site of the former Port Augusta power plant. Its operations will be 100% renewably powered. An accompanying new distribution facility at Port Adelaide will ship the cement to markets. The project will create 50 new jobs.

When the Port Augusta grinding plant becomes operational in 2023, its products will reduce regional CO₂ emissions by 300,000t/yr, subsequently rising to 1Mt/yr, according to the company’s expansion plans.

Hallett Group chief executive officer Kane Salisbury said "We're talking about 1% of the entire country's 2030 [CO₂ reduction] commitment, delivered through this project." Salisbury added "We're looking at turning South Australia into a global leader in manufacturing green cement."

India: The first steel slag road in India has been built in Surat, Gujarat. The 1.2km road is located at Hazira Port, according to the Times of India newspaper. It was constructed by using steel slag aggregate in place of natural aggregate. The higher strength of the material has also allowed for the thickness of the road to be reduced by 30%. Around 100,000t of steel slag was used. The joint project was a collaboration between the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Central Road Research Institute, the Union Ministry of Steel, government think-tank NITI Ayog and ArcelorMtttal-Nippon Steel.

US: Montana Environmental Trust Group says that it has awarded a contract for the haulage of 2Mt of zinc slag from the East Helena slagheap in Montanato New York-based Metallica Commodities Corporation. Montana Environmental Trust Group said that Metallica Commodities Corporation will convey 20,000t/month of slag by rail to Vancouver for export. The volume corresponds to 14% of a 14Mt supply contract with a South Korea-based zinc smelting company.

Vietnam: The government has encouraged cement producers to increase their uptake of waste products, including slag, in cement production. The Viet Nam News newspaper has reported that the government has asked the Ministry of Construction and related agencies to complete the formulation of technical standards, regulations and instructions in relation to the use of slag as well as researching new applications for it. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has also started inspecting storage sites to ensure that it doesn’t exceed two years worth of production. The government initiative has been made in response to rising stockpiles of slag, ash and gypsum.

US: The US Department of Energy has awarded a grant of US$1.5m to a combined industry and academic team led by Cornell University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The team will research uses of slag and other waste products from steel production. The study aims to investigate the overall material efficiency of steel production in order to reduce waste. It will explore several avenues, including the use of recovered silica for heavy metals capture at industrial plants and the synthesis of calcium carbonate from slag for use in steel production. Additionally, the team hopes to produce useable iron oxide from the by-products.

Assistant professor Greeshma Gadikota said, “This exciting project directly addresses our societal mission of meeting our resource needs in an environmentally sustainable manner. Iron and steel use is ubiquitous in our infrastructure.” She added that the study is “A unique opportunity to engage and train our students in developing innovative technologies that are central to our ability to live.” The study’s title is ‘Integrated reuse and co-utilisation of slag, sludge and dust with inherent heavy metal capture and nanoscale calcium carbonate production as an enhanced fluxing agent in steel plants.’

Russia: The Ministry of Energy has launched its roadmap for the use of slag and ash by the cement industry and in road building. Soyuztsement has reported that the roadmap lists pilot projects for the products’ use. Currently, 5 – 7% of ash and slag waste (ASW) is used. Under its Comprehensive Plan to Increase the Utilisation of Solid Fuel Combustion Products bill, published in mid-2020, the ministry plans to increase the ASW utilisation rate across Russia to 50% by 2035. This amount could cut 6.2Mt/yr of the cement industry’s direct CO2 emissions, corresponding to under 1% of its emissions in 2020. Additionally, it would lead to the production of lighter and reduce the thermal conductivity of concrete.

The bill is due for submission before the Russian parliament in April 2021, followed by a second bill to provide for incentives to slag and ash producers in September 2021.

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.

Sri Lanka: Nandana Ekanayake, the chief executive officer (CEO) of INSEE Cement, has called for the regulations on blended cement to be relaxed. He said that some of the company’s Chinese contractors had asked for cements with 65% slag but that the current regulations do not allow it, according to Economy Next. The Sri Lanka Standards Institute has a limit of 20% slag content in cement. He added that there were no uniform international standard for slag in construction cement. He made the comments at the launch of the company’s first sustainability report.

China: The Chinese government is set to further restrict imports of metal by-products and scrap in July 2019. The latest rules will control imports of eight types of scrap metal, including copper, aluminium and steel scrap, according to Reuters. Companies that want to continue importing these items will need to apply to the environmental ministry to prove they are in compliance with environmental protection standards. Imports of iron and steel slag were banned at the end of 2018.