About Steel Slag Road Technology

• The SIR created the technology as part of a research initiative in partnership with:

  

  • Ministry of Steel
  • The Government of India
  • Four major steel manufacturing companies in the country
    • ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel
    • JSW Steel
    • Tata Steel
    • Rashtriya Ispat Nigam
• This technique allows:
  • The efficient disposal of around 19 million tonnes of steel slag generated in the nation
  • The large-scale use of waste steel slag in steel plants

The process

• A steel furnace’s byproduct, slag, is created while the furnace burns at 1,500–1,600 degrees Celsius.
• It is regarded as an impurity and takes the form of molten flux material.
• The molten material is put into slag pits to cool and then goes through a customised process to become stable steel slag aggregates. 

The advantages of steel slag roads

• Around 30% less expensive than traditional pavement
• More durable and resistant to erratic weather

Surat gets India’s first steel slag road

• The first road constructed using steel slag road interpretation technology in Surat, Gujarat, has gained national and international recognition for its technological brilliance.
• Its construction at the ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Hazira facility utilised about 1 lakh tonnes of steel slag aggregate.
• This road was built without the use of any natural ballast of any type.
• A kilometre-long section of the six-lane public road can be found at Hazira Industries, which also has the AM/NS facility.
• Steel slag aggregate was created by turning piles of steel trash onto the building site about a year ago.
• Early in March, the road’s sixth and last lane, which has a three-lane to-and-from carriageway on either side, was finished.
• Heavy-duty trucks from global corporations with locations in the industrial park on the outskirts of Surat are now using the road.
• Every day, more than 30 heavy-loaded vehicles utilise the road.
• To measure load-induced deformation, and stress and strain in the pavement areas, the steel slag road has been constructed using:
  • Instrumented test sections
  • Comprising strain gauges
  • Pressure cells
  • Displacement gauges
  • Thermocouples

 Cost-effective and environmentally friendly

• The use of processed steel slag in road building, according to Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) authorities, paves the door for sustainable waste management and lessens reliance on perishable natural materials.
• This procedure is consistent with India’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 9 for building resilient infrastructure through inclusive and sustainable industrialization and green technologies, which calls for reducing GHG emissions and carbon footprint in road construction activity.
• As a byproduct of the steel industry that is processed and transformed into aggregate material for use in construction, steel slag road doesn’t involve blasting, drilling, or crushing.
• When it comes to how these roads would affect automobiles, experts claimed that the effect on tyres will be minimal.

Scope for India

• The vast amount of steel slag produced as a byproduct of the steel industry in India offers a tremendous opportunity for the nation.
• India is the second-largest producer of steel in the world, and the nation now generates roughly 19 million tonnes of steel slag as solid waste, a number that is expected to rise to 60 million tonnes by the year 2030.
• Huge mounds of steel slag have accumulated around steel mills as a result of the lack of effective disposal procedures, which has led to increased levels of water, air, and land pollution.
• One tonne of steel manufacturing produces around 200 kilogrammes of steel slag.