The harbour land fill in Halmstad has been described in the news as one of the most polluted areas in Halland County based on the a survey from the Swedish environmental protection agency. In order to identify the extent and severity of the situation several environmental investigations have been performed in this area. This report is based on available data from investigations and environmental reports from WSP, Höganäs AB, HEM and Halmstad municipality. This investigation focus on an “Area C” within the land fill where the main land fill material is i.a. slag from a steel work, construction waste, dredge spoil, waste from glass production and a casting shop. Of these material the focus have been on the metal rich slag from the steel work and its possible environmental impact. The environmental exposure of Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, Zn, Ni, Mo and V have been calculated as an annual load from Area C. Unfortunately the data available for this investigation has not been complete, e.g. slag concentration data with corresponding leachate data was only obtained for one year. The groundwater data and land fill metal concentrations have been measured only once. This made it impossible to investigate e.g. annual variations like ageing effects of the material or weather variations, variation in the properties of the deposed slag material and statistical significance in differences could not be calculated. Further characterisation of the land fill would be worthwhile in order to be able to draw some conclusions. Calculations of the environmental load has been performed based on concentration in the slag, the land fill, the leachate data of the slag and groundwater concentrations. A model has been developed to calculate the weighted land fill metal concentration. The partitioning coefficient, Kd; between soil and liquid has been calculated and used to estimate the environmental load. It was assumed that the groundwater data was the most reliable data, which indicated that the exposure may be higher than from common soil, especially for Pb and Mo. Relating the environmental exposure values with guideline values based on MKM (less sensitive land use)-land using HQ (hazard quotient) indicates a decreasing risk in the order Pb>V>Mo. However, the exposure is well below that from MKM soil which could be assumed, according to Swedish environmental protection agency guideline values, to be an acceptable exposure.

Phosphorus (P) in stormwater runoff has detrimental effects on water quality and ecosystem health when it reaches surface waters and promotes algal blooms. Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been utilized to combat this problem by containing stormwater and removing excess nutrients. Including filter materials in the design of CWs has shown promise for increasing their capacity for nutrient removal. This mesocosm scale study was conducted outdoors over a 12-month period to evaluate the effectiveness of three filter materials in their ability to adsorb phosphorus, retain water, and support plant life. The filter materials examined were electric arc furnace (EAF) slag, engineered biochar, and sand. All treatments demonstrated positive plant response and the ability to retain water. The EAF slag and biochar removed significant amounts of P from effluent and appear to be suitable materials for integrating into CW design. Sand was found to be ineffective as a P filter.

In this work, feasibility of utilizing municipal incinerator fly ash (MIFA) of different sources as a substitute of raw materials for steel-making in a mini-mill was studied. Also studied included the efficacy of this mode of melting treatment and recycling. Under the condition of adding 1 wt% MIFA to scrap iron/scrap steel for partial replacement of lime, the L9 orthogonal arrays of Taguchi methods were utilized to investigate the effects of MIFA melting treatment of different sources by an electric arc furnace (EAF). Four experimental factors (i.e., scrap iron mass, lime mass, coke mass, and MIFA mass) were selected to study their effects on Pb leaching of EAF dust and slag. Test results for MIFA obtained from Plants K1, K2, and K3 show that EAF dust remains hazardous as it is originally a listed waste. On the other hand, slag so generated remains nonhazardous based on the TCLP results. The experimental results of EAF dust and slag were further subjected to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regular analysis. Using this process, the optimal operating conditions with respect to the leached Pb concentration would be as follows: (1) Plant K1(injection mode operation)--87 tons of scrap iron, 1.4 tons of lime, 0.4 ton of coke, and 0.9 ton of MIFA; (2) Plant K2(injection mode operation)--90 tons of scrap iron, 1.4 tons of lime, 0.7 ton of coke, and 1.1 tons of MIFA; (3) Plant K2(one-time-charge mode operation)--90 tons of scrap iron, 1.4 tons of lime, 0.9 ton of coke, and 0.7 ton of MIFA; (4) Plant K3(injection mode operation)--85 tons of scrap iron, 1.4 tons of lime, 0.7 ton of coke, and 0.9 ton of MIFA; and (5) Plant K3(one-time-charge mode operation)--87 tons of scrap iron, 1.5 tons of lime, 0.4 ton of coke, and 0.7 ton of MIFA. In this study, using MIFA from Plant K2 as an example, it was found that it required 29-35 kg of lime per ton of steel billets produced when MIFA was added. Under a normal operation of EAF steel-making, however, it required 35-45 kg of lime per ton of steel billets produced based on the past experience. In average, when MIFA is added, it needs only 32 kg of lime per ton of steel billets produced as compared to 40 kg of lime for regular steel-making. In other words, it would result in a reduction of 8 kg of lime per ton of steel billets produced by using this novel process. Based on an average monthly production of 20,973 tons of steel billets and a unit cost of 2,200 NT$ per ton of lime, a monthly saving of lime cost would be 369,125 NT$. Namely, about 4.4 million NT$ per year. In addition, it was also found that using this novel process to melt MIFA would not deteriorate the quality of steel billets and bars produced.

The landfilling of slag obtained from the high alloyed Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steel making process, constitutes an environmental treat for society as well as an economical problem for the companies producing it, due to the costs related to waste management practices. Conventional methods of slag recycling are abundantly used among the steelmaking business, but due to their particular physical properties, high- alloyed EAF slags cannot be properly valorized. Moreover, the pickling process that high-alloyed EAF steels undergo to, generates acidic wastewaters, that need to be collected and neutralized, before they can be recirculated into the natural water streams. For such a task, steel mills currently utilize slaked lime (a Ca rich mineral) to raise the pH and to remove any metal particles dissolved into the wastewaters. Slag contains high amount of Ca; therefore, it has already been tested as a slaked lime replacement. In fact, previous studies conducted at the Material Science and Engineering department at KTH Royal Institute of Technology showed, on a laboratory scale, that slag has the potential to replace lime for the neutralization and purification of the acidic wastewaters. This Master’s thesis project aims at upscaling the volumes of wastewaters to be tested, about 70 to 90 folds of the one from previous research, bridging the gap between laboratory tests and the industrial scale. The thesis is divided into three tranches, a first part where a water-salt solution conductivity trials were carried out, to model the behavior or slag dispersion in the acidic wastewaters. After the results obtained from the conductivity trials, neutralization trials with slag and the lime product currently in use by the company, were carried out at the neutralization plant in Outokumpu Stainless, Avesta (Sweden). The neutralization trials were carried out with 70 and 90 liters of acidic wastewaters and in order to perform the trials on site, the slag sample was dried and later sieved to a particle size of less than 350μm. Moreover, data was analyzed and compared to previous studies in order to have a clearer understanding regarding the neutralization efficiency of the slag, especially whether or not the technology would had worked on upscaled volumes. Additionally, the project checked if it was possible to find a generalized relationship between the mass of slag and volume of wastewaters required for the neutralization process. Slag demonstrated to be able to buffer the pH to the target values of 9, while also showing an almost linear trend compared to previous studies. The reaction progress between slag, lime, and the acidic wastewaters was also analyzed. / Deponering av slagg som erhållits från den höglegerade ljusbågsugn (EAF) stålframställningsprocessen utgör en miljömässig behandling för samhället och ettekonomiskt problem för de företag som producerar den på grund av kostnaderna för avfallshantering. Konventionella metoder för återvinning av slagg används i storutsträckning bland stålindustrin, men på grund av deras speciella fysiska egenskaper kan höglegerade EAF-slaggen inte värderas ordentligt. Dessutom produceras sura avloppsvatten av betningsprocessen som höglegerade EAF-stål genomgår som sedan måste samlas in och neutraliseras innan de kan återcirkuleras i det naturliga vattnet. För en sådan uppgift använder stålfabriker för närvarande släckt kalk (ett Ca-rikt mineral) för att höja pH-värdet och för att avlägsna alla metallpartiklar som löses upp i avloppsvattnet. Slaggen innehåller hög mängd Ca och därför har den testats som en ersättning till släckt kalk. Tidigare studier utförda vid avdelningen materialvetenskap och teknik vid Kungliga Tekniska Högskola visade på laboratorieskala att slagg har potential att ersätta kalk för neutralisering och rening av sura avloppsvatten. Detta examensarbete syftar till att skala upp volymerna av avloppsvattnet som ska testas till cirka 70–90 gånger av den från tidigare forskning, och därav fylla ut bryggan mellan laboratorietester och industriell skala. Avhandlingen är uppdelad i tre delar, Första delen innehåller försök på ledningsförmåga i en vatten-saltlösning som genomfördes för att modellera beteende eller slaggspridning i sura avloppsvatten. Efter de resultat som erhållits från konduktivitetsmätningarna genomfördes neutraliseringsförsök med slagg och kalk som för närvarande används av företaget vid neutraliseringsanläggningen i Outokumpu Stainless, Avesta (Sverige). Neutraliseringsförsöken genomfördes med 70 och 90 liter sura avloppsvatten och för att utföra experimenten på plats torkades slagg provet och siktades senare till en partikelstorlek på mindre än 350 μm. Dessutom analyserades data och jämfördes med tidigare studier för att få en tydligare förståelse för slaggens neutraliseringseffektivitet, särskilt huruvida tekniken skulle ha fungerat på större volymer, och även om det också var möjligt att hitta ett generaliserat samband mellan mängden slagg och volym avloppsvatten som krävs för neutraliseringsprocessen. Slagget visade sig kunna buffra pH till målvärdena 9, samtidigt som den visade en nästan linjär trend jämfört med tidigare studier. Reaktionsförloppet mellan slaggkalk och de sura avloppsvattnen analyserades också.