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Critical review of applications of iron and steel slags for carbon sequestration and environmental remediation

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Abstract

One of the major concerns faced by the iron and steel industry, other than the abundant emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is the huge quantity of slag that is generated during the manufacturing of iron and steel. A comprehensive understanding of the iron and steel slag properties has diverted them away from stockpiling or landfilling to useful engineering applications. The similarity of these slags to natural minerals used in geologic carbon dioxide sequestration has made them sustainable alternative for industrial-scale carbon capture and storage. Further, they possess properties that are conducive for remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. This paper reviews the iron and steel slag characteristics suitable for engineering applications, describes several engineering application examples, and discusses challenges and opportunities to develop practical applications using iron and steel slags. This paper also discusses the on-going research which explores the use of steel slag along with the biochar-amended soil to develop a biogeochemical landfill cover to sequester fugitive gas emissions such as CH4, CO2 and H2S from MSW landfills and attain zero-emissions landfill.

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Source: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/full.html

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Abbreviations

AMD:

Acid mine drainage

AVS:

Acid volatile sulfide

AW:

Alkaline industrial wastes

BOD:

Biochemical oxygen demand

BF:

Blast furnace

BOF:

Basic oxygen furnace

CCS:

Carbon capture and storage

C&D:

Construction and demolition

DM:

Dredged material

EAF:

Electric arc furnace

ETS:

Emissions trade system

GCS:

Geological carbon sequestration

GDP:

Gross domestic product

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

GGBS:

Ground granulated blast furnace slag

IPCC:

Intergovernmental panel on climate change

LD:

Ladle slag

LFG:

Landfill gas

L/S:

Liquid to solid ratio

MSW:

Municipal solid waste

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

SPLP:

Synthetic precipitation leaching procedure

SSF:

Steel slag fines

SSS:

Stainless steel slag

TCE:

Trichloroethylene

TCLP:

Toxicity characteristics leaching procedure

TGA:

Thermogravimetric analysis

XEDS:

X-ray energy dispersive spectrometer

XRD:

X-ray diffraction

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Acknowledgements

This project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI # 1724773), which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Girish Kumar, Iziquiel Cecchin, Dennis Grubb for their guidance and assistance during this study.

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  1. Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Krishna R. Reddy, Archana Gopakumar & Jyoti K. Chetri

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  1. Krishna R. Reddy
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Correspondence to Krishna R. Reddy.

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Reddy, K.R., Gopakumar, A. & Chetri, J.K. Critical review of applications of iron and steel slags for carbon sequestration and environmental remediation. Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol 18, 127–152 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11157-018-09490-w

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