Utilization of steel mill slags in concrete coating for pipes. Circular economy in action

Corinth Pipeworks is committed to act in a sustainable manner and to assist the transition to a low carbon, circular economy. Our main goal is to optimize the use of natural resources in our operation wherever possible and to find synergies with other industries, making industrial symbiosis a reality.

A successful initiative that has been undertaken in conjunction with our partners Wasco Energy Group and AEIFOROS S.A., is the use of Electric arc furnace (EAF) slag, a by-product of carbon steel manufacturing used in road construction, in special concrete applications such as heavy concrete for the coating of pipes for offshore pipelines.
 
Concrete Weight Coating (CWC) is highly demanding requiring aggregates of stable quality regarding density and sizing. In addition to EAF slags, our local partner Wasco Coatings Europe B.V. has successfully managed to utilize ferronickel slags in the production process for the same application in coating of pipes.
 
Benefits are two-fold:
 
Use of valuable by-products, which in the past were stored on site, landfilled, or utilized in lower added value products.
 
Conserving natural resources which were traditionally used in this application like iron ore and heavy minerals. 
 
AEIFOROS S.A. is an industrial by-products- and wastes recycling company, exclusively supplying Corinth Pipeworks with Electric arc furnace (EAF) slag for use in our pipeline coating operations. EAF slag aggregates, as an industrially recovered and processed material, comply with all standards used in pipeline projects meeting raw material specifications for the coating mixture. When compared to natural aggregates, these waste products have a higher density, thus leading to the overall substitution of the iron ore or other natural minerals.
 
The transition to a Circular Economy requires, among other actions, the recycling of existing materials that have completed their life cycle and can now be utilized in other applications, maintaining their added value as much as possible, while at the same time reducing the need for waste disposal.
 
With this initiative we become part of the effort to create a circular future by utilizing wastes or by-products such as EAF and ferronickel slags and generating industrial value-added products.
More information on the above action is showcased in BusinessEurope, and you can read more at http://www.circulary.eu/project/aeiforos/.