Displaying items by tag: Electric Arc Furnace

UK: UK-based startup Cocoon has raised €4.9m in pre-seed funding to develop technology that repurposes byproducts from electrified steel furnaces into a ‘near-identical replacement’ for blast furnace slag, according to the company. The modular technology integrates into existing steel-making processes without disrupting operations or requiring high capital expenditure, reports UK Tech News. Cocoon targets a 50% replacement of cement in concrete, aiming to reduce emissions for producers. Initial tests are underway at a steel plant in northern England, followed by another in the US.

Cocoon CEO Eliot Brooks said "We’re turning a byproduct with little use into a valuable product that the market badly needs and can be easily integrated into existing supply chains. By repairing a broken link in the circular economy, Cocoon provides steel makers with a new revenue stream while meeting the low-carbon material needs of the concrete industry. For every 1t of Cocoon’s slag-based cementitious material used, 1t of CO₂ can be avoided."

Brooks hopes Cocoon's climate technology will be integrated into a pilot plant by late 2025.

UK: A steel and cement co-recycling process developed at the University of Cambridge has received US$2.9m in seed funding. Cambridge Electric Cement is utilising slag produced during the steelmaking process, which uses electric arc furnaces instead of blast furnaces, as clinker for cement. The researchers are conducting a US$8.4m trial called Cement 2 Zero to test the production process, aiming to produce 110t of recycled cement during the two-year program.

Germany: Building materials research institute FEhS-Institute says that cement producers used 7.9Mt of German ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) in cement production in 2022. This corresponds to 71% of the 11.1Mt of slag produced by the domestic iron and steel industries during the year. Other applications for the slag included aggregates production (3.1Mt - 28%) and internal recycling at the refinery (500,000t - 4.5%).

Managing director Thomas Reiche said "Unlike recycled materials, iron mill slags are already high-quality and climate-friendly secondary raw materials in their 'first life.' For decades they have made an important contribution to a sustainable recycling economy in Germany. To ensure that this can continue in the future after the transformation of the steel industry, we have been researching new slags together with our partners since 2013 - for example, with the Direct Reduction Of Iron Ore Electric Furnace Slag and Save CO2 projects to develop Blast Furnace Slag 2.0."

US: Research by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that local sales of iron and steel (ferrous) slags were 15Mt in 2022 with a value of around US$795m. This is a slight decrease from the 15.7Mt reported in 2021. 49% of the volume sold in 2022 was blast furnace slag and this accounted for the majority of the total value of the slag. Steel slag produced from basic oxygen and electric arc furnaces accounted for the remainder of sales. Around 2Mt of slag was imported for consumption.

The USGS said that slag was processed by 25 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 123 processing plants in 33 states, including facilities that import and grind unground slag to sell as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). It added that domestic GGBFS remained in limited supply in 2022 because granulation cooling was available at only two active US-based blast furnaces and only one local plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply. It noted that granulated blast furnace slag was only ground domestically by cement companies.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the US sold 17Mt of ferrous slags in 2021, a rise of 31% year-on-year from the estimate in 2020. Blast furnace slag represented about 49% of the volume sold and accounted for 87% of the total value ofslag, most of which was granulated. Steel slag produced from oxygen and electric arc furnaces accounted forthe remainder of sales. Slag was processed by 28 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 124 processing plants, including some iron and steel plants with more than one slag-processing facility, in 33 States, including facilities that import and grind unground slag to sell as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS).

A further 2.2Mt was imported, a slight decline from 2020. From 2017 to 2020 the USGS reports that 42% of imported slag came from Japan, 18% from Brazil, 11% from China and 10% from Italy.

The USGS noted that during 2021, domestic GGBFS remained in limited supply because granulation cooling was known to be available at only two active US blast furnaces while, elsewhere, only one domestic plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply. Grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only performed domestically by cement companies. However, following Covid-19 related decrease in availability in 2020, supply of steel slag increased in 2021.

UAE: Emirates Steel has signed a deal with Finland’s Ecofer for slag management services for 10 years from 2020. Ecofer will process slag from Emirates Steel's Abu Dhabi plant and sell it to the construction industry, according to the Khaleej Times newspaper. The steel producer has been recycling its Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) slag product since 2014, producing roughly 2.8Mt of EAF slag in this period.

"As one of the largest integrated manufacturers of finished steel products in the region, we produce 0.8Mt/yr of slag and we are committed to finding ways to mitigate our impact on the environment,” said Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Emirates Steel.

Ecofer arranged an agreement with Egypt’s Ezz Steel earlier in 2019. The latest deal with Emirates Steel continues its intent to build strategic partnerships in the Middle East.

Italy/UK: Ametek Land in the UK has collaborated with Italy’s Danieli on its automatic tapping system to increase operation safety and improve process control for steel plants. The Danieli Automatic Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) Tapping System product allows complete furnace tapping remotely from the main pulpit of a steel plant. The system starts furnace tilting in automatic mode, controlling the furnace position during the complete tapping process.

Embedded within the system are two thermal imaging systems from Ametek Land: its Slag Detection System (SDS-E), branded as Danieli’s Q-Slag, and a near-infrared (NIR) fixed thermal imager that is part of the Ladle Level Detection (LLD) system. The thermal imaging systems are used in conjunction with Danieli software to control steel flow in real time.

Q-Slag makes use of an SDS-E imager to detect the transition between steel and slag. It also quantifies the amount of slag that may pass into the ladle. That information is useful for fine-tuning alloys and lime additions for the secondary metallurgy. In parallel with Q-Slag, the LLD system controls when steel inside the teeming ladle has reached pre-set level positions. Back tilting can be done either in automatic mode (when the pre-conditions regarding steel level and weight are met) or by remote intervention of the EAF operator from the main pulpit.

Ametek Land says that its Slag Detection System can improve operator response times and steel consistency at the end of each tap. Those improvements typically result in up to a 25% reduction in slag depths, compared with traditional methods of stream monitoring.

Danieli designs plants and manufactures and installs machines for the metals industry covering the entire production cycle from raw ore to finished steel products. Ametek Land manufactures monitors and analysers for industrial infrared non-contact temperature measurement, combustion efficiency and environmental pollutant emissions.

Austria: Voestalpine has held the official ground breaking ceremony for its new steel plant in Kapfenberg. Once operational in 2021 the new Euro350m plant will produce around 205,000t/yr of steel for the aviation, automotive and oil and gas sectors. The site is intended to replace the existing Voestalpine Böhler Edelstahl plant in Kapfenberg. The plant will use an electric arc furnace to melt down scrap combined with various alloy metals into special steels. It will operate using electricity generated from renewables.