ReSLAG: Turning waste from steel industry into a valuable low cost feedstock for energy intensive industry

 

Spring 2017


The RESLAG project is aligned with the challenges outlined in the call WASTE-1-2014: Moving towards a circular economy through industrial symbiosis of the European Horizon 2020 programme. In 2010, the European steel industry generated, as waste, about 21.8 Mt of steel slag. The 76 % of the slag was recycled in applications such as aggregates for construction or road materials, but these sectors were unable to absorb the total amount of produced slag. The remaining 24 % was landfilled (2.9 Mt) or self-stored (2.3 Mt).

The landfilled slag represents a severe environmental problem. The main aim of RESLAG is to prove that there are industrial sectors able to make an effective use of the 2.9Mt/y of landfilled slag, if properly supported by the right technologies. In making this prof, the RESLAG project will also prove that there are other very important environmental benefits coming from an active use of the slag in industrial processes, as CO2 saving (up to 970 kton/year from the renewable concentrated solar power (CSP) electricity production, at least 71 kg/ton of produced steel in the electric arc furnace steelmills provided an effective waste heat recovery based on the steel slag), and elimination of negative impacts associated with mining (from the recovery of valuable metals and from the production of ceramic materials). To achieve this ambitious goal, four large-scale demonstration pilot systems are consideredin the RESLAG project:

  1. High value and critical metal extraction from slag. The recovery of metallic raw materials, such as Cr, Mn and others is one of the European Commission priorities for better exploitation of the available resources.
  2. development of a slag-based cost effective heat recovery concept in extensive thermal energy demanding industries, such as the steel prouction activity.
  3. development of an economic and technically improved steel slag based heat storage concept for the renewable concentrated solar power (CSP) production.
  4. production of innovative refractory ceramic compounds. The inclusion of the steel slag as an aggregate in innovative refractory recipes will decrease the overall cost of the produced material without any interference on the required material performance.

All these demonstrations will be lead by a well balanced project consortium conformed by leading industries and also research centers and universities involved on the European material, energetic efficiency and technological scenario.

 


Contact details:
Project website links:
http://www.reslag.eu/
https://twitter.com/reslag_eu
https://www.linkedin.com/company/reslag

CIC Energigune - Project Coordinator
http://www.cicenergigune.com/