Where does the steel slag go?
——Wu'an Xinfeng Company explores the road of circular economy transformation
On February 27, Wu'an Xinfeng Circular Economy Industry Investment and Development Staff used forklifts to transport unburned bricks. Photo by Hebei ** reporter Chen Zheng.
On February 27, in the industrial solid waste disposal plant invested in the development of Wu'an Xinfeng circular economy industry, large trucks full of steel slag lined up to enter.
These trucks came from Hebei Taihang Iron and Steel Group, ten kilometers away, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. that day, and more than 4,000 tons of steel slag were transported in just one day.
Extending the time to one year, including Taihang Iron and Steel, steel slag from more than 10 steel mills in Wu'an City and surrounding areas has been transported here.
Steel slag is a by-product of the steelmaking process. How to dispose of steel slag is one of the most headaches for steel enterprises.
Through scientific and technological innovation, we have excavated the 'gold point' hidden in the steel slag and found a new way out for the disposal of steel slag. Tian Haikui, chairman of Wu'an Xinfeng Company, said.
At present, Wu'an steel enterprises have an annual output of 4.45 million tons of steel slag, of which 2.5 million tons are used by Wu'an Xinfeng Company, accounting for more than half.
How is this done?
On February 27, Wu'an Xinfeng Circular Economy Industry Investment and Development Staff inspected the equipment in the production workshop. Photo by Hebei ** reporter Chen Zheng.
Walking into the No. 2 raw material greenhouse of Wu'an Xinfeng Company's industrial solid waste disposal plant, black and gray steel slag piled up into a mountain. The large reclaimer wields a robotic arm to continuously "roll" the steel slag onto the belt.
Along the belt, these steel slags pass through facilities such as batching stations and are sent to a diameter of 63 meters inside the 5633 mill. After crushing, grinding and other processes, the steel slag becomes steel slag powder.
The reporter noticed that the entire steel slag disposal process is fully enclosed and does not produce secondary pollution.
Subsequently, these steel slag powders were used as raw materials for the production of the company's cement, permeable bricks, artificial stone, low-carbon cementitious materials and other products, becoming a new growth point for the company's transformation and development.
There's an old saying in the field of environmental protection: "Waste is a misplaced resource." ”
However, this is easier said than done.
In 2021, when the steel slag disposal production line of Wu'an Xinfeng Company was first put into operation, it faced a problem - the market consumption of steel slag powder was too small.
The production line can comprehensively process 10 million tons of steel slag per year. However, due to its own performance, steel slag powder can only be mixed in a small amount in cement production, and the annual consumption is only a few hundred thousand tons.
In the same way, the amount of steel slag powder on permeable bricks and artificial stone is also limited.
Seeing that a large amount of production capacity of the production line was idle, Tian Haikui, who was anxious, found the scientific research team of the University of Science and Technology Beijing to study countermeasures.
After symptomatic analysis, they put the breakthrough on the development of low-carbon cementitious materials with a higher proportion of steel slag powder doping.
Low-carbon cementitious material is a new type of building material, which can replace cement for concrete production, and has a broad market application.
After repeated tests, the low-carbon cementitious materials they developed are not only low-carbon and environmentally friendly, but also improve the performance of concrete, so that concrete has the advantages of superior impermeability, low heat of hydration, and chemical erosion resistance.
On February 27, the staff of Wu'an Xinfeng Circular Economy Industry Investment and Development paid close attention to the operation of the production line in the central control room. Photo by Hebei ** reporter Chen Zheng.
With the hot sale of low-carbon cementitious materials, the "food volume" of steel slag of Wu'an Xinfeng Company has increased significantly.
The circular economy is the general direction of transformation. Tian Haikui said that Wu'an Xinfeng Company first started with cement, and in recent years, they have shifted the focus of transformation from products to functions, and realized the transformation from traditional manufacturing enterprises to social service enterprises.
Not only steel slag, but also construction waste, urban and rural domestic waste, cinder, hazardous waste, etc. are all treasures in their eyes.
The company cooperates with Tsinghua University and other universities to carry out integrated disposal of urban and rural waste in Wu'an, and creates a waste treatment model of "farmer classification, rural collection, unified transfer, centralized treatment, and recycling", making Wu'an the first county-level city in the country with 100% harmless disposal of urban and rural domestic waste and municipal sludge.
The company invested 7185060,000 yuan to implement the hazardous waste disposal project, the annual disposal of various hazardous wastes 100,000 tons, including 60,000 tons of solid hazardous waste, semi-solid hazardous waste 250,000 tons, liquid hazardous waste 150,000 tons. Investment 2700 million yuan to implement the comprehensive utilization of construction waste project, which can comprehensively dispose of 2 million tons of waste construction waste every year and promote the construction of Wu'an "zero-waste city".
New Year, New Weather. On February 28, the groundbreaking ceremony of Wu'an Xinfeng Company's "Steel Slag, Tailings, Coal Gangue Preparation Ecological Wall and Floor Tile Project" was held.
With a total investment of 6.6 billion yuan, the project uses steel slag, tailings, coal gangue and other raw materials to build 40 imitation stone production lines, wall and floor tile production lines, landscape brick production lines and public and auxiliary facilities, which is another breakthrough in the company's development of circular economy.
With the construction of a "zero-waste city" as the starting point, Wu'an City promotes the mutual supply of raw materials and resource sharing of enterprises in different industries, and establishes a characteristic industrial chain of circular economy.
In the future, we will use innovative thinking to develop more low-carbon environmental protection projects to exhaust the waste in Wu'an and even Handan. Tian Haikui said. (Hebei ** reporter Gong Xianyun, Liu Jianying, Chen Zheng).
On February 27, Wu'an Xinfeng Circular Economy Industry Investment and Development Staff inspected the equipment in the production workshop. Photo by Hebei ** reporter Chen Zheng.
Short comment
New quality productivity is itself green productivity
When the reporter was interviewed in Wu'an Xinfeng Company, he just caught up with the representatives of Tangshan City and enterprises to come to learn and exchange. What to learn?
Tian Haikui told reporters that more than 10 years ago, the company took the road of green transformation for the first time, which was the implementation of the Wu'an urban and rural domestic waste integrated disposal project. After screening and treatment, part of the urban and rural domestic waste is used as raw materials for cement production.
At that time, the locals were puzzled: the project investment is so large, the return cycle is long, what is the picture?
But Tian Haikui was unmoved by outsiders and insisted on continuing the green transformation. After the project was really put into operation, it was praised as the "Wu'an sample" of urban and rural domestic waste treatment. The dissent finally died down.
Later, when Wu'an Xinfeng Company was rated as an A-level enterprise in environmental protection performance in the cement industry and enjoyed various preferential treatments, many local enterprises took the initiative to come to the door and learn from experience.
Green development is the background color of high-quality development, and new quality productivity itself is green productivity.
Tian Haikui's experience tells us that traditional industries must carry out green transformation to the end, coordinate the relationship between development and emission reduction, overall and partial, short-term and medium-term and long-term, scientifically formulate carbon peak goals and carbon emission reduction paths, further optimize energy and product structure, and help build a circular economy industrial chain. Only by planting a green background for high-quality development can we continue to enhance the potential and stamina of development. (Gong Xianyun).