Xore will contribute to the research project Innovative Quality assured products based on fayalite slag (“IQ Slag”) by investigating possibilities to use Boxray analyzers for online measurements of slag content.
Luleå University of Technology (LTU), the northernmost university of technology in Scandinavia, has initiated the research project IQ Slag together with Boliden Rönnskär smelter, Xore, Nordkalk, producer of limestone based products, and Peab, a construction and civil engineering company.
Topics of the project are:
- Modification of slag chemistry
- Slag cooling methods
- Properties of the solidified slag; environmental, technical, economical
- Implementing new measurement techniques for improved quality assurance
- Effect of aging
- New applications of the slag
The project centers around a PhD student at LTU who will present a Licentiate thesis on the subject.
“Slag handling is an application where we see a potential to implement online analysis” says Mikael Normark, CEO of Xore. “With continuous measurements of slag composition the producer will have a tight feedback on how the process is doing and they can adjust process parameters to achieve the desired composition. We also see benefits from a corporate social responsibility point of view, the slag producer will have a digital record of the slag properties” he continues.
“If this project shows a success for our methods, we see the potential to apply the same technology to not only copper smelters but also aluminium and iron smelters. So the market potential is huge.” says Normark.
The Boliden Rönnskär smelter has two Boxray Compact analyzers in operation. One in the electrolytic refinery and one in the process water treatment plant (more info: Boliden Rönnskär case story). The analyzers have been in operation for more than 15 years. Because of the analyzers good results and high uptime it was natural to ask Xore to participate in the IQ Slag project when online analysis was discussed in the projects startup period.
More info:
Fayalite slag from Boliden Rönnskär smelter (in Swedish): http://jarnsand.boliden.com
Luleå University of Technology: http://www.ltu.se/?l=en
Nordkalk: http://www.nordkalk.com
Peab: http://www.peab.com