India: Gebr. Pfeiffer has announced that it has received an order for one MVR 6000 C-6 roller mill for Chettinand Cement Corp. Pvt. Ltd.’s upcoming 2.0Mt/yr Vishakapatnam granulated blast-furnace slag (GBFS) and slag cement
Grinding plant in Andhra Pradesh. Gebr. Pfeiffer said the mill will grind slag and cement to a fineness of between 3000 and 3800 blaine at a rate of between 235t/hr and 340t/hr. It says the mill improves plant availability by the active redundancy of the grinding rollers, enabling mill operation with reduced rollers in the event of maintenance work or a malfunction.

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.