Ecological and Economical waste management of the ladle refractory bricks by implementing circular economy criteria

The main objective of the project was to show the different possibility of reuse/recycle the bricks both in steelworks and in other industrial sectors. The work carried out contributes towards the European policy objectives and strategies related to improving the sustainability and resource efficiency of the steel industry through the implementation of Circular Economy practices. The project proved to be successful in both extending the use of refractory bricks, by supporting heir reuse, and exploring new opportunities to valorise them in several applications inside and outside the steelmaking cycle. The decision support tools developed throughout the project helps technical personnel in their daily activities, and this is also inline with strategies targeting the application of digital solutions to support workers.

Ladle refractory material waste in the European Steelworks is currently mostly being dumped in landfills. This Circular Economy Project answers to this situation based on a 4 R´s model, combining a Reduction of the waste by means of monitoring and optimizing the ladle refractory consumption (via remaining brick thickness) with processes for Reusing/Remanufacturing and Recycling the ladle refractory brick wastes. The final optimized application will come from an expert decision tree and accompanied by the corresponding LCA studies. This innovative approach and knowledge would be totally transferable to other steel companies with both significant environmental and economic benefits.

The main aims of the “E-CO-LadleBrick” project were the following:
• To achieve an innovative ecological and economical waste management for the worn ladle bricks by implementing Circular Economy criteria based in environmental 4R model (Reduce, Reuse, Remanufacture and Recycle).
• To optimize remaining final thickness for the bricks used as ladle refractory (Reduce) by means of developing a 3D laser scanner technique (aiming to high accuracy measures, deviations under 10 mm), together with machine learning  models and regression analysis. This approach can be replicated and implemented in any other Steel Plant.
• To optimize the valorisation of the worn bricks after their use as ladle refractory (Reuse, Remanufacture and Recycle) by means of finding suitable applications as well as their benefits and restrictions and implementing a data-based decisión mechanism for best valorisation in either Reuse, Remanufacture or Recycle. This approach can be replicated and implemented in any other Steel Plant.