Environmental Modeling of Blast Furnace Slag Aggregate Production: Fid-Bau Portal

Environmental Modeling of Blast Furnace Slag Aggregate Production

Nouvion, Sylvie / Jullien, Agnès / Sommier, Maud / Basuyau, Vincent

The study presented in this paper has mainly consisted of developing an environmental model of the aggregate production process. An environmental assessment of blast furnace slag aggregates was performed at a given quarry site, for two typical production scenarios, with each yielding several gradings. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of each grading was then determined for both scenarios. A considerable amount of production data could therefore be collected, and special attention was paid to calculating the energy consumed per ton of slag produced at the plant. These results have allowed comparing for the amount of aggregate produced: electric energy and fossil fuel consumption, the quantity of airborne emissions released, and solid waste production due to wear on quarry equipment parts. Both the production and grading scenarios are critical in terms of environmental assessment. The energy required to produce the smallest grading sizes (0/4, 4/6 and 6/10 mm) is actually about twice for one scenario over the other. As for coarser grading (10/14, 14/20 and 0/31.5 mm), energy consumption is 10 times less compared to the finer sizes. A small amount of waste is generated during slag processing. LCI fluxes will be discussed, given the scarcity of data available in the literature. Lastly, results reveal that a large amount of energy would be saved by using a more rational grading approach based on such environmental issues, along with the development of dedicated quarry models for local production optimization.