Australian technology is being trialled in China that will harvest blast furnace waste into a new product for cement manufacture.
The process, known as dry slag granulation (DSG), was developed by Australian research organisation CSIRO and is being trialled on a commercial basis by Beijing MCC Equipment Research & Design Coroporation (MCCE).
This technology is fitted to blast furnaces and includes a spinning disc and granulation chamber that separates molten slag into droplets under centrifugal forces, then uses air to quench and solidify the droplets, before extracting a granulated slag product as well as heated air.
A glassy product comes out that is ideal for cement manufacture, which also has lower associated greenhouse gas emissions than cement produced by conventional methods.
CSIRO director of the mineral resources flagship Jonathan Law said: “Our collaboration is an exciting step towards the uptake of an innovation with real prospects of transforming the productivity and environmental performance of global iron smelting.
“The benefits from wide uptake of DSG technology on blast furnaces will be profound in helping the global industry to reduce water and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while sustaining metal production.”
Around 60 billion litres of water, 800 petajoules of heat energy and 60 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions could be saved if the technology is adopted across global iron blast furnaces.
