DOHA: In an environmentally-responsible move, Qatar Steel has eventually decided to recycle a key residue for reuse which is produced during steelmaking and heaps of which have been piling up for quite sometime as waste posing threats to ecology.
The Qatari steelmaker has inked a deal with a local company to recycle at least a million tonnes of 'steel slag' -- often called a steel waste -- which is one of the main byproducts obtained during steelmaking.
A Qatar Steel press statement issued yesterday said the company, a subsidiary of the listed giant Industries Qatar (IQ), will be selling a million tonnes of steel slag for recycling to Slag Aggregate Producer (SAP).
The 'sale and recycling' contract was signed by Ali bin Hassan Al Murakhi, general manager of Qatar Steel (QS), and Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, CEO of SAP.
SAP will be recycling at least 100,000 tonnes of slag a month and recovering the scrap and returning it to QS for reuse in its plants. The processed material (called aggregate in the steel industry) will be used in construction and infrastructure development works--understandably, mainly in road construction.
The aggregates also find use in rail ballasts and structural fills, industry sources point out.
Asked if the recycling plant would be located within the precincts of QS, a company source replying in the negative said it will be situated outside of the steel plant's facilities.
Qatar Steel's press statement said its slag recycling move is part of 'its persistent efforts to protect the environment and recycle industrial wastes'.
Steel slag is one of the major residues of steelmaking along with dust, sludge and mill scale and is a key environmental issue, say experts, lauding QS for its recycling effort.
Steel slag is produced during the separation of molten steel from impurities in steelmaking furnaces and it comes as a molten liquid and solidifies rapidly on cooling. Steel slag is often discarded in landfills at huge costs.
Al Murakhi said in the statement that the recycling and processing of slag has several environmental advantages such as minimising the solid wastes of slag produced in steel industry. It also has economic benefits such as reducing the cost of safe disposal, aside from minimising the space occupied by slag and better space management at the plant.
Sheikh Khaled said that the slag will be processed to make aggregates and steel scrap which will be used as raw materials in different construction applications as such methods are in use in Europe, Americas and even some neighbouring GCC states.
© The Peninsula 2012
