Circular economy means recycling and reusing materials and products that have been used before. This reduces the need for natural resources and conserves landfill space.
What does this mean for our company?
After each furnace and ladle journey, the refractory materials (bricks and mixtures) in the respective vessel have to be renewed. Excavators are used to break out and deposit the worn-out materials. To avoid this landfilling, numerous preliminary analysis and market surveys were carried out. After some successful processing trials, we were able to make deliveries to refractory manufacturers.
Turns out this so-called waste is a valuable resource, and we were able to enter into an annual contract with RHI-Magnesita in Wartberg.
RHI produces new refractory bricks from the materials supplied by us. These recycled bricks can also be found in our units, in low-wear zones.
Refractory material from the EAF
The used refractory bricks are pulled out of the interchangeable vessel with a screening bucket and additionally poured into a container through a special sieve. This container is shipped to RHI in Wartberg every 14 days. As a result, more than 20 tons of material are delivered from the EAF per month.
Refractory material from the ladles
The rest of the refractory lining is collected and presorted in a storage box on our premises. The material on site is processed with a mobile screening plant four times a year. The coarse fraction > 50 mm is again delivered to RHI in Wartberg. We use the fine fraction < 50 mm as a slag conditioner in the EAF to generate a certain basicity of the slag. This chemical intervention reduces the wear on the refractory lining.
As a result of this circular economy, we avoid approx. 600 tons of “waste” per year.
