New use for scrap tyres: steel manufacture

ERJ staff report (DS)

Sydney, Australia -- After cement manufacture, we can now look forward to seeing tyres burned in blast furnaces.

A project at the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) of the University of new South Wales has resulted in a patented process and succesful trial to use scrap tyres in the steel manufacturing process.

Known as polymer injection technology, the process substitutes some of the coke used in steelmaking with other carbon-rich materials. Professor Veena Sahajwalla earlier showed that waste plastics could be diverted from landfill dumps and used in this way as well.

Local steel maker OneSteel, has licensed the patented technology and has developed it in partnership with Professor Sahajwalla. The company has now successfully trialled the new process at both its Sydney and Melbourne-based electric arc furnace facilities.

At both mills, trials demonstrated that the process makes steelmaking cheaper, uses fewer natural resources and less electrical energy, and reduces emissions of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.

"We have seen an improvement in our cost efficiency while making a positive impact on the environment," says Mr David Knights, OneSteel's General Manager, EAF and Casting. "This technology is a win for steelmakers and a win for the environment."

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Press release from UNSW