Utilization of Solid Wastes Generated From Steel Plant

Abstract

About 12 million tons of steel slag is produced a year, which is the by-product of iron and steel manufacture, is generated in India and the most of all the slag is reused for the materials, e.g. cement raw material, road base course material and civil engineering material, by effectively utilizing its characteristics such as chemical components and mechanical properties. Most of its purposes of uses are to replace the functions of the newly mined raw materials from nature and promoting the use of steel slag is an effort to contribute to environmental conservation in this regard. On the other hand, due to the changes in social situation, supply-demand structure in the steel slag market is changing and researchers are developing the technologies to create new features of steel slag and to utilize them, especially in the field of Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) slag. In this report, the current production and sales status, processing and reusing technologies of BOF steelmaking slag are mentioned. This work provides an overview of the different types of steel slag that are generated and their properties. In recent years, the need for maximum utilization and recycling of bye-products and recovered waste materials for economic and environmental reasons has led to rapid development of slag utilization. In some areas, mostly the iron and steel slags are being used, and zero waste concept are rapidly growing. The characteristics of the steel slag samples considered in this study are discussed in the context of a detailed view of steel slag properties. This study investigates the utilization of slag as alternative cementitious binder. Knowledge of the chemical, mineralogical, and morphological properties of steel slags is essential because their cementitious and mechanical properties, which play a key role in their utilization. As an example, the frictional properties of steel slag are influenced by its morphology and mineralogy. Similarly, the volumetric stability of steel slag is a function of its chemistry and mineralogy. The chemical, mineralogical, and morphological characteristics of steel slag are determined by the processes that generate this material. Therefore, knowledge of the different types of steelmaking and refining operations that produce steel slag as a bye-product is also required. This work provides an overview of steel slag generation and a detailed literature review on the chemical and mineralogical properties of steel slags are carried out. Moreover, the mineralogical and morphological characteristics of steel slag samples generated from two steel plants in India were evaluated through XRD analyses and SEM studies.