A new environment-friendly technology developed by a scientist at University fo South Wales is expected to partially reduce the use of coal
and coke in electric arc furnace steel making. The technology was developed by Veena Harbhagwan Sahajwalla, Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales (NSW) and head head of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology in the UNSW Science Faculty.
The University’s commercialisation arm, NSi, has signed an agreement with Australia’s largest manufacturer of steel long products, OneSteel, to allow the sublicensing of this unique technology. It has been the subject of numerous invited/keynote addresses including the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, according to University of New South Wales.
A successful trial was conducted at OneSteel’s Sydney and Melbourne plants. The invention has the potential to divert 300,000 car tires from landfills.
The carbon in the tires combines with iron to make steel, while the steel cord in the tires melts into the new steel being created in the furnace. There is no mention of the impact of sulphur on the steel.
The Australian company said it has made steelmaking cheaper and more efficient by slashing its power use by millions of kilowatts per year, and cutting its use of coking coal by 12 to 16 percent. The technology could massively cut power use and carbon emissions by the world’s 300 electric-arc furnace steelmaking plants, which account for 30 percent of crude-steel output globally.
The project won the category of environmental project and was the overall winner in the University’s Inventor of the Year awards for 2011
Source : www.scrapmonster.com
