Slag-to-sand unit developed at JSW

Hubballi: Jindal Steel Works (JSW) Steel has set up a ‘steel-slag sand’ plant in its premises in Vijayanagar.
Highlighting the various JSW initiatives in solid and liquid waste management that the conglomerate has taken up at Vijayanagar, PK Murugan, president, JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works, told TOI that this steel slag sand will be an economically viable and environmentally acceptable alternative material for replacing river sand and manufactured sand used in road and civil constructions.
“The commissioned unit of 0.3 Mtpa capacity (821 tonnes / day) is equipped with value-added technology which will not only mitigate the slag disposal problem but also provides low-cost eco-friendly sand for construction purposes,” he added.
Dhiren Panda, head, R&D-JSW Steel and Coated Products, said his team has developed a sustainable process for converting steel making slag into sand that is syuitable for civil construction. “This patented process circuit treats crushed slag through a vertical shaft impactor and a classifier after metallic separation. This technology is expected to address issues related to the sand shortage in Karnataka,” he said.
He claimed that the use of slag as aggregate reduces the need for virgin material, energy and polluting emissions generated during the mining/crushing, processing and transportation of that material. “Effective utilization of this material will have a tremendous economic impact, conservation of natural resources and gainful recycling of process by-products,” he added.