Global Slag News

India: Finland-based Betolar introduced its AI-based service for production of reduced-CO₂ concrete using its Geoprime additive at World of Concrete India 2023 on 18 October 2023. Betolar designs recipes and provides a liquid chemical dosing system and post-production services to Geoprime users. Dow Jones Institutional News reports that Betolar has concluded strategic tie-ups in South and West India, and is ‘actively planning’ further expansion.

Managing director Abhishek Bhattacharya said "Interest in our solution is growing fast in India and we have successfully demonstrated that the twin goal of sustainability and performance can be achieved remarkably faster with Betolar’s Geoprime solution.”

EU/UK: EUROSLAG says that the use of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) in cement production in the EU and UK between 2000 and 2022 has generated a cumulative reduction in CO₂ emissions of 408Mt. GGBFS replaced 716Mt-worth of raw materials over the period.

EUROSLAG Chair Thomas Reiche said "Resource conservation through secondary raw materials, especially in the construction sector, and lower emissions of climate-damaging CO₂, are of outstanding ecological and economic importance. The use of ferrous slags makes an important contribution to this. EUROSLAG is working multilaterally to master the enormous challenges in the coming years, above all the transformation of the steel industry, through research and adjustments to national and European regulations.”

Sweden: Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has launched a new slag handling bucket intended for use with vehicles such as wheel loaders. It has designed the slag bucket specifically for this application unlike previously, where a rock bucket was used as the base for its steel mill buckets.

The new bucket has a floor made from thick plate with a protruding design to protect the integrity of the side plate welds. Welded to this is an 80mm single piece cutting edge. The side cutters are two parts, with the lower half made from thicker steel, while at the top there is a reinforced spill guard. The bucket uses a reinforced interface to protect the connection of the bucket to the loader. It uses a lower-than-standard digging depth, which takes into account the fitment of protective tire chains. The company offers the slag buckets as part of its standard attachments but they can be customised via Volvo CE’s Customer-Built Attachments program.

Volvo CE sells a range of wheel loaders marketed for the slag handling market including the L150H, L180H, L220H, L260H and L350H models. These vehicles feature additional thermal protection, including heat resistant fuel and oil lines, fire protecting materials throughout, as well as additional guarding against slag explosions, falling objects and air blown debris. They also include bullet proof glass, a cab air filtration system that circulates 90% of cab air through the main filter and an emergency limp home function. The slag handlers form part of Volvo CE’s wider application-specific wheel loader configurations, which also include agriculture, rehandling and rock, block, log and waste handlers.

India: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has been using steel slag as part of construction activity near its border with China. BRO Director General Lt General Rajeev Chaudhry made the comments as part of an inspection tour, according to the Press Trust of India. The BRO and other government agencies have increased activity near the border since 2020. Chaudhry said that around 300 BRO projects worth over US$950m had been completed in recent years. This included 295 road projects, bridges, tunnels and airfields. One notable achievement has been the construction of a vehicle-quality road at Demchok with an altitude of over 5750m, higher than the base camps for Mount Everest.

Germany: The FEhS Building Materials Institute recorded total German granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) production of 7Mt in 2022. The institute said that cumulative German GBFS production over the 70 years up to 2022 was 227Mt. It said that, if used in cement production, this would be able to replace 398Mt of limestone and eliminate 227Mt of CO₂ emissions.