Russia: The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) MISiS and Vtoraluminprodukt have launched a pilot installation of a bubbling reactor, using the gas flushing principle, in Mtsensk, Oryol Region on 18 December 2018. The concept is intended to fully process industrial waste, slags and sludge, as well as carbon-containing wastes, including municipal solid waste (MSW) and efficient and environmentally-friendly production of iron and concentrate non-ferrous metals. NUST MISiS says that the furnace is the world's only metallurgical furnace capable of processing iron-containing industrial waste as well as solid waste, simultaneously smelting up to 16,000t/yr of metal and producing electricity.

"The advantage of this technology is that it is non-waste and allows for simple, reliable and environmentally-friendly purification of the exhaust gases. And it also allows combining the processing of metallurgical waste, coal preparation factories and municipal waste of enterprises or settlements that are heated with coal. It is a sort of a universal technology," said Nikolay Shenchenko, member of the Expert Mining Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for industry and innovation and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Resmet.

Gennadiy Podgorodetskiy, team leader and director of the Innovative Metallurgical Technology Scientific and Educational Centre, said that the slag composition from the pilot furnace can be selected for further processing into slag stone products, thermal insulation slag or be used to make slag cement products.

Bangladesh: Shah Cement has inaugurated the world’s largest vertical roller mill (VRM), supplied by Denmark’s FLSmidth, at its Muktarpur plant in Munshiganj. The mill is designed to produce Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Pozzolana Portland Cement (PPC), Portland Slag Cement (PSC) and slag cement types. It is producing PPC at a capacity of 500t/hr at 3500 Blaine with 15% slag.

The FLSmidth OK 81-6 Mill has an 8.1m grinding table and six grinding rollers powered by two 5.8MW FLSmidth MAAG Max Drive gear systems. FLSmidth says that the mill is the largest VRM ever to be installed in a cement plant in terms of dimension, operating capacity and installed power. In addition to the OK Mill, FLSmidth supplied the process and layout engineering, along with site advisory. The supporting equipment included FLSmidth Pfister weigh feeders, FLSmidth Airtech process bag filters, process fans and auxiliary equipment from raw material hopper discharge to process bag filter discharge. It was put in operation in September 2018

Shah Cement Industries is the largest cement producing plant in Bangladesh, with a capacity of 8.0Mt/yr. The company is part of the Abul Khair Group, the largest business conglomerate in Bangladesh. It produces three main cement products including CEM II – Portland Composite Cement and CEM –III Blast Furnace Cement. Both products use slag.

Ireland: Ecocem says that its slag cement products have saved 10Mt of CO₂ emissions compared to regular cement since it started trading in 2002. It produces cement products from ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS). It says its GGBS cement has a carbon footprint of 32kg CO₂/t compared to 850 - 900kg CO₂/t for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The Irish company operates four plants in Europe with a production capacity of 2.4Mt/yr.

Italy: Finland’s Tapojärvi has signed a contract to supply slag handling and metal recovery services at ThyssenKrupp’s Acciai Speciali Terni steel mill. Tapojärvi Italia will build a slag-handling unit and then start to produce and develop slag-based products. The contract consists of two-year period of building the unit and 10 years of operating time with additional option for another 10 years of operations.

“We have innovative and cost efficient solutions to meet the challenges steel mills have around the world. We productise industrial by-products and develop new business opportunities around these materials all the time,” said Mari Pilventö, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Tapojärvi Oy.