Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia: BlueScope has approved a US$735m reline and upgrade project at its No 6 Blast Furnace (6BF) at the Port Kembla Steelworks. The project will include the installation of a new slag granulation system. The overall scope of work includes a traditional reline plus a significant upgrade of parts of the facility and supporting infrastructure, including investment in environmental improvements. It is intended to support future adoptions of low emissions steel production technology. The transition to the relined 6BF is expected to take place in mid-to-late-2026.

Australia: Australian Steel Mill Services (ASMS) and the University of Wollongong have launched an investigation into the possible industrial uses of steel furnace slag (SFS) at the Steel Research Hub in Wollongong, New South Wales. ASMS says that SFS has historically had a lower recyclability than ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) because of its behaviour when hydrated, which potentially includes expanding. The research team believes that SFS might be a possible ingredient for construction materials, including paving slabs. Tests will involve mixtures of SFS with cement, lime, lignosulphonate, coal wash and plastics.

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."

Australia: Adbri subsidiary Cockburn Cement has approved a US$152m upgrade to its Kwinana grinding plant in Western Australia that includes a slag feed system. It says the investment will consolidate the cement operations at its Kwinana site. At present clinker is transported by truck from the Kwinana Bulk Terminal to cement mills at both the Kwinana grinding plant and the company’s integrated plant at Munster. It will increase its production capacity to 1.5Mt/yr from 1.1Mt/yr at present. The project is expected to save the company US$15m/yr due to better energy, transport and maintenance efficiency when the plant is commissioned by mid-2023. The producer will fund the investment through existing debt facilities.

The upgrade project includes: a bulk materials conveyor linking the Kwinana Bulk Terminal (KBT) facility to a new 110,000t clinker storage shed, incorporating an automated reclaim system, to eliminate road transport and minimise clinker handling using mobile equipment; a slag feed system that will handle granulated blast furnace slag and additives such as gypsum and limestone; a ball mill circuit with the installation of two new cement mills capable of grinding slag and clinker; and a new 21,000t finished product storage, truck loading and weighbridge infrastructure for storage and despatch.

Australia: Boral Australia has launched Innovo, an asphalt system product that uses steel slag as a raw material amongst other recyclables. Recycled materials that can be used in the mix include steel slag, recycled plastics, tyres, recycled crushed glass, recycled asphalt pavement and printer toner. The product has been used in various projects in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

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.”

Australia: BIS, the production services provider, will be the sole materials handler for the Australian steel and mining giant GFG Alliance. The contract includes slag processing and handling, with conveyance to cement industry buyers across South Australia.

Australia: Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRCLCL) are testing a geopolymer concrete made from fly ash and blast furnace slag on a road in Sydney. A 30m stretch of road is being trialled with 15m of traditional concrete and 15m of a geopolymer concrete. Nine sensors have been positioned under the concrete to monitor and compare how the geopolymer concrete performs. The results from the trial will be used to create the first set of industry guidelines for geopolymer concrete.

“While we’ll monitor the road performance for up to five years, a lot of the data collected in the first three to 12 months of this world-first trial will be used to confirm our models and strengthen our predictions,” said Professor Stephen Foster, Head of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW and the CRCLCL project lead.

Australia: The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has fined Port Kembla Milling’s cement and slag grinding plant US$23,000 for allegedly storing raw materials in the open, in breach of its licence conditions. Raw materials, including gypsum and limestone, were allegedly stored in the open at the subsidiary of Cement Australia on at least five occasions since January 2016 in breach of the site’s planning approval and licence conditions. Such materials should be stored in an enclosed location to prevent dust emissions.

“The requirement to store materials in an enclosed building is a key way to ensure dust emissions from bulk materials are prevented. A measure that is very important given the residential areas near Port Kembla port,” said EPA Regional Director Metropolitan Giselle Howard.

In addition to the fines, the EPA has also required Port Kembla Milling to complete an independent raw materials handling audit to confirm appropriate storage and management systems are put in place. The company has made some initial steps to respond to this request, and the EPA will continue to work with the licensee to ensure full compliance.

Australia: Carbine Resources and Cement Australia intend to start a trial testing the suitability of the use of Mount Morgan slag for cement manufacturing by Cement Australia in Gladstone. Following initial tests the companies have agreed to a trial of 1000t to validate the test work. The site has over 6.5Mt of slag of which 2.9Mt will be mined as waste sitting above the Red Oxide tailings which will be mined and processed.