Steel ‘waste’ sent to BRO to build border road in Arunachal
- November 3, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Steel ‘waste’ sent to BRO to build border road in Arunachal
Subject : Science
Context-
- Science and Technology Minister Dr Jitendra Singh flagged off the dispatch of a 1,600-metric tonne processed steel slag railway rack from Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur plant to the Border Road Organisation’s (BRO) ‘Project Arunank’ in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.
About Project Arunank-
- Project Arunank is responsible for the construction and maintenance of approximately 1113 Kms of roads in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
- The project was carved out from one of the oldest projects of BRO Project Vartak.
- Project Arunank is named after the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
- The project is being carried out by CSIR-CRRI along with Tata Steel and BRO.
- In this project the processed steel slag aggregate — a by-product of steel manufacturing — will be used in the construction of steel slag road stretches in strategic areas.
- This project is a perfect example of ‘waste to wealth’.
Steel production in India-
- India is currently the world’s second-largest producer of crude steel, producing over 118 million tonnes of crude steel.
- Of this, around 20% of steel slag is generated as solid waste and its disposal is a big challenge to steel industries.
- India is the 2nd largest consumer of finished steel in 2021 (106.23 MT), preceded by China.
- The National Steel Policy, 2017 envisage 300 million tonnes of production capacity by 2030-31.
- The per capita consumption of steel has increased from 57.6 kgs to 74.1 kgs during the last five years.
- Major steel-producing states in India- Odisha, Chhattishgarh, Jharkhand and Karnataka.
Steel slag-
- It is a by-product of steelmaking and is produced during the separation of the molten steel from impurities in steel-making furnaces.
- It comes out during the manufacturing of steel through three processes, namely basic oxygen furnace (BOF) route, electric arc furnace (EAF) and induction furnace (IF).
- The slag occurs as a molten liquid melt and is a complex solution of silicates and oxides that solidifies upon cooling.
- There are several different types of steel slag produced during the steel-making process namely- furnace or tap slag, raker slag, synthetic or ladle slags, and pit or cleanout slag.
Uses of steel slag-
- It can be used as a granular base or as an aggregate material in construction applications
- Slag is used in asphalt paving on Highways and road construction
- Carbon dioxide sequestration using steel slag
- Recently a six-lane highway in Surat made of steel slag — a first in India is being inaugurated.
Benefits of using steel slag in road construction-
- The use of such material in road construction increases its durability.
- It helps in reducing the cost of construction as slag-based materials have better properties than natural aggregates.
- The use of steel slag in road construction will also address the shortage of natural aggregates in the country.