Displaying items by tag: government

US: Building materials producer Edwin C. Levy has applied for a permit to build and operate its planned Delray slag cement grinding plant in Detroit, Michigan. The company says that the plant will produce green alternative cement using granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supplied by local refinery operator Cleveland-Cliffs Steel.

Local press has reported that Edwin C. Levy director Reuben Maxbauer said “This facility is going to be something the community will be proud of.”

India: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has been using steel slag as part of construction activity near its border with China. BRO Director General Lt General Rajeev Chaudhry made the comments as part of an inspection tour, according to the Press Trust of India. The BRO and other government agencies have increased activity near the border since 2020. Chaudhry said that around 300 BRO projects worth over US$950m had been completed in recent years. This included 295 road projects, bridges, tunnels and airfields. One notable achievement has been the construction of a vehicle-quality road at Demchok with an altitude of over 5750m, higher than the base camps for Mount Everest.

UK: SteelPhalt, a subsidiary of US-based Harsco Environmental, has been awarded a research grant through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF). The grant is part of a government effort to distribute funding to help energy-intensive industries cut their carbon emissions and energy costs. The grant funds will enable the company to conduct a feasibility study on energy-efficient solutions for asphalt production. The research will seek to identify ways to capture the waste heat in the exhaust gases and transform it into electrical power, with the objective of reducing the energy demand and carbon impact of the process. The company uses steel slag as a main component of its asphalt products.

Finland: VTT Technical Research Centre subsidiary Carbonaide has concluded its seed funding round, having raised funds worth Euro1.8m. Lakan Betoni, which produces precast and ready-mix concrete, led the funding, along with utilities provider Vantaa Energy. Carbonaide will use the funds to build an industrial pilot plant for its carbon neutral precast concrete product at an existing precast concrete plant in Hollola. The plant will bind captured CO₂ in the product at atmospheric pressure. The process generates 50% lower CO₂ emissions than precast concrete production using ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Suitable raw materials include ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), green liquor dregs and bio-ash. In trial production, the use of GGBFS gave Carbonaide's concrete a negative carbon footprint of -60kg/m³.

Other sources of loans and in-kind contributions included Finnish state innovation fund Business Finland.

UK: The UK government has committed to investments worth Euro22.8bn in early deployments of carbon capture technology. It will announce a shortlist of new projects for deployment later in March 2022.

The government said "This unprecedented level of funding for the sector will unlock private investment and job creation across the UK, particularly on the east coast and in the North West of England and North Wales. It will also kick-start the delivery of subsequent phases of this new sustainable industry in the UK."

Ireland-based Ecocem responded to the budget with a call for funding for more short-term areas besides carbon capture. It said these will be essential in order for the UK cement and concrete industry to reach its 45% decarbonisation target by 2030. The slag-based cement products company called for funding for low-clinker technologies which have already been developed and can be rolled out at scale before 2030, until carbon capture becomes a 'scalable, viable option.'

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.