Steel Slag Used in Landfill Covers

The project is carried out at Waste Science and Technology (LTU) in co-operation with Uddeholms AB and Hagfors municipality.

Recent EU legislation suggests stricter rules for landfilling. Many landfills in Europe will not meet the requirements and will thus be closed in the near future. To cover them, big amounts of material are needed. At the same time, steel industry in Europe produces steel slag that might be an economical and virgin material saving alternative as construction material.

In this project, electric arc furnace slag and ladle slag are tested on their applicability in landfill cover constructions. As ladle slag is a fine grained material exhibiting cementitious properties, it has a low permeability and is tested as liner material. Electric arc furnace slag might be used in the drainage layer, possibly in the protective layer and also – as admixture- in the liner. The liner construction should be stable in the long run, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency aims at a thousand years perspective. Long term stability is determined by the mineral composition of the slag. Changes in mineral composition of the slags under landfill conditions are tested in the laboratory. A large-scale field test on Hagfors municipal landfill investigates the performance of the material with regard to permeability (hydraulic conductivity) as well as chemical and mechanical stability.

Publications

Report 1: Material investigation on laboratory scale (in Swedish)

Report 2: Construction report (in Swedish)

Report 3: Material investigation on laboratory scale & field experiment (in Swedish)

Use of Secondary Construction material in Landfill Cover Liners

Licentiate Thesis, Inga Herrmann, 2006

Mineral phases of steel industry slags used in a landfill cover construction

Master's Thesis, Silvia Diener, 2006

Physical Properties of Steel Slag to be reused in a Landfill Cover

Conference paper, L. Andreas, I. Herrmann, M. Lidström-Larsson, A. Lagerkvist, 2005

Mineral Transformations in Steel Slag used as Landfill Cover Liner Material

Conference Paper, S. Diener, L. Andreas, I. Herrmann, A. Lagerkvist, 2007

Recommendations for the use of slag in landfill constructions

Steel slags in a landfill top cover – Experiences from a full-scale experiment

Accelerated carbonation of steel slags in a landfill cover construction

Ageing behaviour of steel slags in landfill liners

Lale Andreas