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.

Turkey: Tosyali Harsco has signed a 10-year contract with an estimated revenue of US$210m to provide services at Tosyali Holding’s new steel plant at Sariseki near Iskenderun. Tosyali Harsco is a joint venture between US-based Harsco and Tosyali Holding. Tosyali Harsco's scope of work at the new plant will include the treatment of all scraps via sorting, shearing, lancing and cleaning processes, scrap handling and logistics to the melt shop, underfurnace cleaning, ladle slag handling and slag processing.

Initial plant commissioning at the plant in Sariseki is schedule to start in March 2023. The US$2.5bn project will have a production capacity of 4Mt/yr. It includes two Quantum-type electric arc furnaces manufactured by Primetals, slab and billet casting machines, a hot rolling mill and long and flat product finishing lines.

Austria/Germany: Austria-based Porr says it has used a new annular gap mortar bound with granulated slag, instead of cement, on the Filder Tunnel stage of a project for Deutsche Bahn near Stuttgart. The engineering company reports that the pilot project was a success and the ‘practically cement-free construction material’ has already been patented. Porr is now looking for further cooperation partners.

“The nature of the soil means that a cement-based construction material would not have been suitable,” said Porr’s chief executive officer Karl-Heinz Strauss. “This gave us the opportunity to use this brand new construction material”. He added, “Apart from allowing us to contribute to reducing CO², this construction material has two fundamental advantages. It is less sensitive to environmental factors than concrete containing cement. And it can be transported for long periods without any problems before it is processed as it needs an activator to fully harden”.

Image copyright: Arnim Kilgus

New Zealand: Holcim New Zealand says that it has received a mill for use in its upcoming Auckland cement replacement products import and distribution facility. The company opted for a Christian Pfeiffer ball mill for the project.

Holcim New Zealand says that alternative materials imported via the Auckland facility will eliminate 100,000t/yr of cement from New Zealand's 1.6Mt/yr consumption. The company expects that this will cut 78,000t/yr of CO₂ emissions.