Germany: Loesche says it is continuing its research and development of a process to create a steel slag suitable for cement production following a legal dispute.

The engineering company has worked with the FA Finger-Institut für Baustoffkunde (FIB) at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar on the thermally reductive modification of steel slags for recycling iron and manufacturing ‘steelworks clinker.’ It has developed two procedures for thermally reductive conditioning of BOF (Basic Oxygen Furnace) slag that have been registered for a patent, which largely differ in the respective cooling process for the remaining molten metal. The individual stages of the procedure have already been tried and tested on an industrial scale. Loesche’s partner for the entire procedure is Primetals Technologies based in Linz, Austria, which has industrial-scale plants for reduction and fast cooling based on patented procedures in its product range. The remaining iron (approximately 8 - 10%) that is still in the ‘steelwork clinker’ can then be separated in a Loesche mill. The separation procedure for this, which has also been patented by Loesche, has been in operation for approximately six years to recycle stainless steel from stainless steel slags in a recycling plant in Belgium.

However, following smelting trials conducted with the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) in 2011, Loesche faced a lawsuit regarding the patents for its procedures. The legal uncertainty that this created led to the suspension of further development and implementation of the two procedures for more than three years. The legal dispute was resolved in December 2017. The second conditioning procedure – the fast cooling – was assigned as the sole property of Loesche. A third of the ownership of the first conditioning procedure - slow cooling – was conceded to the BAM, represented by the German government.

Loesche now plans to implement the second procedure into industrial practice.

France: Ecocem France has inaugurated its 0.75Mt/yr slag cement grinding plant in Dunkirk. The unit, located near ArcelorMittal’s Dunkirk steel plant, started commercial production in May 2018. The site has plans to expand production to 1.4Mt/yr at a later date. It has created 26 jobs.

The plant is located in the Port of Dunkirk. It includes a vertical mill, a mixer and silos. The site is intended to target markets in northern France, the UK and Northern Europe. Plans to export 0.25Mt/yr of ground slag to the UK via terminals in London and Liverpool and 50,000t to Sweden have already started.

Ecocem France is a joint venture between Ireland’s Ecocem and ArcelorMittal. Ecocem invested Euro37m in the project in Dunkirk. It follows Ecocem France’s opening of its 0.7Mt/yr grinding plant at Fos-sur-Mer, also near to an ArcelorMittal plant

Japan: Steel slag production fell by 2.1% year-on-year to 36.7Mt in the financial year that ended in March 2018, according to Japan Metal Daily. This was attributed to increasing levels of slag recycling rates with nearly all of the blast furnace slag being reused.

UK: HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Hanson is supplying its Regen GGBS (ground granulated blastfurnace slag) cement replacement for a project to build a new tidal barrier across the New Cut River in Ipswich. The Euro24m project is being managed by the Environment Agency to protect properties at risk of flooding.

The work is being carried out by VBA, a joint venture between VolkerStevin, Boskalis Westminster and Atkins, and is due to be fully operational by September 2018.