Journal Pre-proof

Environmental benefit assessment of steel slag utilization and

carbonation: A systematic review

Lufan Li, Tung-Chai Ling, Shu-Yuan Pan

PII: S0048-9697(21)05357-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150280
Reference: STOTEN 150280

To appear in: Science of the Total Environment

Received date: 22 June 2021

Revised date: 28 August 2021
Accepted date: 7 September 2021

Please cite this article as: L. Li, T.-C. Ling and S.-Y. Pan, Environmental benefit
assessment of steel slag utilization and carbonation: A systematic review, Science of the
Total Environment (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150280

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© 2018 © 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V.

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Environmental Benefit Assessment of Steel Slag Utilization and

Carbonation: A Systematic Review

Lufan Li1, Tung-Chai Ling1,*, Shu-Yuan Pan2

1
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, 410082 Changsha, China.
2
Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei

10673, Taiwan (ROC).

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*Corresponding author email: tcling611@yahoo.com; tcling@hnu.edu.cn

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Abstract
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The rapid increase in steel slag generation globally highlights the urgent need to manage the
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disposal or utilization processes. In addition to conventional landfill disposal, researchers have

successfully reused steel slag in the construction, chemical, and agricultural fields. With the large
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portions of alkaline silicate mineral content, steel slag can also be used as a suitable material for

carbon capture to mitigate global warming. This article comprehensively reviews the environmental
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performance of steel slag utilization, especially emphasizing quantitative evaluation using life cycle
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assessment. This paper first illustrates the production processes, properties, and applications of steel

slag, and then summarizes the key findings of the environmental benefits for steel slag utilization

using life cycle assessment from the reviewed literature. This paper also identifies the limitations of

quantifying the environmental benefits using life cycle assessment. The results indicate steel slag is

largely utilized in pavement concrete and/or block as a substitution for natural aggregates. The

associated environmental benefits are mostly attributed to the avoidance of the large amount of

cement utilized. The environmental benefits for the substitution of traditional energy-intensive

material and carbonation treatment are further discussed in detail. Due to the presence of heavy
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metals, the potential risks to human and ecological health caused by the manufacturing process and

usage stage are examined. Finally, the current challenges and global social implications for steel slag

valorization are summarized.

Keywords: Steel slag; Life cycle assessment; Environmental assessment; Mineral carbonation;

Global warming potential; Construction material.

Word count: 9539

List of abbreviations

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ADP abiotic depletion potential

ALCA attributional life cycle assessment

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AP acidification potential
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BOF basic oxygen furnace
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C2 S dicalcium silicate

C3 S tricalcium silicate
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C4AF tetracalcium aluminoferrite

CLCA consequential life cycle assessment

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C-S-H calcium silica hydrates

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EAF electric arc furnace

ET ecotoxicity

f-CaO free calcium oxide

f-MgO free magnesium oxide

FU functional unit

GGBS ground granulated blast furnace slag

GHG greenhouse gas

GWP global warming potential

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HT human toxicity

ISO International Organization of Standards

LCA life cycle assessment

LCIA life cycle impact assessment

LF ladle furnace

NA natural aggregate

ODP ozone depletion potential

PCC precipitated calcium carbonate

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POCP photochemical oxidation creation potential

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SCM supplementary cementitious material
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SS steel slag
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SSS stainless steel slag

WoISS World of Iron & Steel slag ‘network’

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List of units
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kg CO2 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent

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eq.

kg/m3 kilograms per cubic meter

m2/g square meters per gram

mg/kg milligrams per kilogram

Mt million tonnes
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1 Introduction

According to the world steel association, global crude steel production in 2019 reached 1868.8

million tonnes (Mt), and gained a 55.2 Mt increase compared to 2018 (World Steel Association,

2020a). The global production of crude steel from 64 countries was approximately 156.4 Mt in

September 2020 (World Steel Association, 2020b). Even during the COVID-19 pandemic situation,

the amount of crude steel production in September 2020 still increased by 2.9%, compared to

September 2019 (World Steel Association, 2020b). As shown in Figure 1, China had the largest

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portion of the total crude steel production, accounting for more than 50% of the total amount, while

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India, the United States, and Russia also produced considerable amounts.
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Figure 1. Global crude steel production in the year 2020 in units of million tonnes. Data is extracted

from the literature (World Steel Association, 2020a).

Steel slag (SS), accounting for about 15-20% of the total steel amount, has been produced in

huge quantities worldwide (Han et al., 2015; Shi, 2004). Initially, SS was treated as a waste material
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and disposed of as landfill, which not only took up land resources but also severely impacted the

natural environment and human health due to the highly alkaline leachates (Birat, 2012). Nowadays,

approximately 77% of SS in Europe, for instance, is used as a substitutional material to produce

green cement or utilized as construction materials, such as blocks and aggregates (Jiang et al., 2018;

Ren, 2020). SS can also be used in other fields, such as soil amendments, metallic applications, and

materials in hydraulic engineering (World Steel Association, 2018; Yi et al., 2012). For SS

utilization, researchers also studied the feasibility of CO2 mineralization (namely carbonation

treatment, analogous to natural weathering processes) using SS, owing to the large percentage of

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alkaline silicate minerals contained in SS (Huijgen et al., 2005; Pan et al., 2020). In this manner, not

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only the volume stability issue caused by free calcium oxide (f-CaO) can be solved, but also a ‘net
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zero (or negative) carbon’ product can be produced (Ghouleh et al., 2017; Mahoutian et al., 2018).
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However, various energy intensive procedures are included during the utilization of SS, for example,

the crushing and grinding processes due to the high iron content (Khoo et al., 2011; Zapp et al.,
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2012), and maintaining the high temperature/ pressure for carbonation treatment. Therefore, whether
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the utilization of SS is environmentally friendly or not, depends on whether the environmental

benefit is not going to be offset by the corresponding environmental penalties (Polettini, 2016).
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Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a mature and well-recognized tool to evaluate the environmental
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burden as well as the benefits of a product (Klöpffer, 1997) or a process (Minunno et al., 2021)

during its determined life cycle. In the past few decades, a number of organizations, such as the

International Organization of Standards (ISO), have developed a methodology for conducting an

LCA study (Cleary, 2009). LCA standards, such as ISO 14040 and 14044, had been published to

standardize the procedures for conducting the LCA study (Finkbeiner et al., 2006). Through the use

of LCA, the detailed propensity of resource consumption and output emissions can be determined to

compare different products or scenarios and benefit the decision making of industries (Mladenovič et

al., 2015). The application of LCA in waste management system has been illustrated in incomputable
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studies and publications, especially in topics related to carbon capture and storage (Leung et al.,

2014). Most published LCA studies on SS focused on comparing the differences in environmental

impact between traditional construction materials (e.g., cement block, natural aggregates (NA)) and

steel slag-based construction materials (e.g., SS block, SS aggregates, etc.) (Evangelista et al., 2018;

Mladenovič et al., 2015), or between different processing techniques (e.g., direct carbonation,

indirect carbonation) (Xiao et al., 2014).

Despite extensive review articles related to SS in the past few years, they mainly focused on the

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material properties, treatment of SS, or the corresponding industrial applications (Jiang et al., 2018;

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Teo et al., 2020). Some of them briefly summarized the CO2 uptake using different carbonation

treatments (Humbert and Castro-Gomes, 2019; Zhao et al., 2020). To the best of our knowledge,
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little-to-no studies concerning the life-cycle environmental impacts throughout the SS utilization
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processes have been published yet. Therefore, this paper critically reviews the environmental
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benefits of the application of SS from the life cycle perspective. Herein not only expounds on the

methodologies and key findings, but also sorts out the disagreements of LCA studies from 2011 to
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2020. In addition, this paper outlines the gaps and limitations of the existing studies, and provides
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possible improvements for future research. Apart from environmental benefit assessments, a general

overview from the social perspective is provided. This review would benefit LCA practitioners and
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open new possibilities and challenges for the application of SS valorization.

2 The Facts of Steel Slag

2.1 Production of steel slag

Steel slag is the by-product during the separation of molten steel from impurities in the steel-

making furnace. The basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag, electric arc furnace (EAF) slag, and ladle

furnace (LF) slag are three major types of SS produced in the steelmaking processes. As drawn in
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Figure 1, BOF slag and EAF slag are both produced during the first refinement of steel (Humbert and

Castro-Gomes, 2019). BOF slag is produced by adding scrap metal, pig iron, and fluxes into the

furnace, and then using pure oxygen to initiate the oxidation reaction at a high temperature of around

1600°C (Yildirim and Prezzi, 2011). Unlike the gaseous fuels used in BOF slag, the EAF furnace is

equipped with three graphite electrodes connected to an electric arc transformer used to heat the steel.

LF slag is the by-product after further refining the molten steel from BOF and EAF, which goes

through a secondary metallurgy process when the steel is desulfurized in the ladle (Rađenović et al.,

2013). A ladle furnace is similar to an EAF furnace, but smaller in size. In addition, the bottom of the

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ladle furnace is equipped with a pipeline where the argon gases are injected to stir the liquid steel,

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and the alloy hopper to produce different grades of steel with desired alloys (e.g., copper (Cu), zinc
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(Zn), and nickel (Ni)) (Harvey, 2021).
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Figure 1. Schematic representation of the production of three types of steel slag.

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2.2 Properties of steel slag

2.2.1 Chemical compositions of steel slag

The detailed proportions of each chemical composition are highly variable, depending on the

properties of the steel scraps. Due to the similarities in the production processes, BOF slag and EAF

slag exhibit similar chemical compositions, rich in calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), and silica (Si) oxides.

Generally, the components associated with calcium oxide (CaO) are dominant in most BOF slags,

ranging between 36-60% (Waligora et al., 2010). Depending on the efficiency of the furnace, the

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iron oxide content can also reach 38% (Shen et al., 2009). For EAF slag, both CaO and ferrous oxide

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(FeO) comprise a large proportion, where the CaO content ranges between 22-60% and the FeO

content can go up to 40% (Yildirim and Prezzi, 2011). Note, the FeO content of EAF slags from
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stainless steel production is relatively low (e.g., 2%) (Shen et al., 2004). During the second
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refinement process, different alloys are added to produce the desired types of steel; therefore, these
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highly influence the chemical compositions of the LD slags. Usually, LD slag has a much lower FeO

content of less than 10%, a relatively higher SiO2 content of 20%, as well as a typically higher CaO
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content ranging between 42-57% (Setién et al., 2009).

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2.2.2 Mineral compositions of steel slag

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Steel slags are usually present in different mineral phases, but they all possess some basic

mineral phases, such as tricalcium silicate (C3S), dicalcium silicate (e.g., β-C2S, α-C2S, and γ-C2S),

dicalcium ferrite (C2F), and the inert RO phase (MgO·xFeO). SS is usually composed of 30-60%

CaO, 10-30% SiO2, 10-30% Fe2O3, 1-10% Al2O3, depending on the production of upstream steel

(Jiang et al., 2018). BOF slag and EAF slag are dark and rock-shaped materials with angular surfaces

(Shen et al., 2004). Compared to other types of SS, the content of f-CaO in BOF slag is much higher

(up to 10%), which may cause volume expansion and induce instability issues in the long term (Jiang

et al., 2018; Mo et al., 2017). LF slag is also termed as ‘white slag’ due to its light appearance. β-C2S
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can barely exist because of the self-pulverization behavior during the cooling (Salman et al., 2015).

Apart from the primary mineral of γ-C2S in LF slag, other minerals including merwinite

(Ca3Mg(SiO4)2), bredigite (Ca7Mg(SiO4)4) and periclase (MgO) can also be found (Kriskova et al.,

2012).

2.2.3 Hydration and carbonation reactions of steel slag

Theoretically, SS endorses the potential of cementitious performance due to the existence of C2S,

C3S, and tetracalcium aluminoferrite (C4AF), but the hydration reactivity is significantly lower than

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cement because of the polymorphic transformation during the slow cooling process (Wang and Yan,

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2010). Moreover, SS contains a large proportion of inert compositions, such as Fe3O4 and RO phases

(Han et al., 2015). As a thermodynamically favored reaction, CO2 mineralization is considered to be

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an effective technology in the long term (Quader et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2020), and has been
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widely deployed in various materials containing alkaline minerals, such as concrete (Fang et al.,
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2021; Wang et al., 2020a, 2020b) and municipal solid waste incineration ash (Chen et al., 2021; Gu

et al., 2021). Considering the low efficiency of natural carbonation, accelerated carbonation is
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always applied to speed up the process. The alkaline silicate components can react rapidly with CO2
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to form stable calcium carbonates (CaCO3) and calcium silica hydrates (C-S-H) (Hou et al., 2021;

Song et al., 2021), as shown in the following equations (1) and (2). Note, the alkaline silicate
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components (such as β-C2S and C4AF) cannot be fully carbonated, even when the carbonation time

is lengthened, and some of them will still subsequently undergo hydration (Wang et al., 2019).

(
Ca3SiO6 + (3-x)CO2 + yH2O → xCaO·SiO2·yH2O[C–S–H] + (3-x)CaCO3
1)

(
Ca2SiO4 + (2-x)CO2 + yH2O → xCaO·SiO2·yH2O[C–S–H] + (2-x)CaCO3
2)
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Due to the carbonation product (e.g., calcite), a denser and compact structure can be observed in

the SS product, thereby, resulting in a higher mechanical strength (Wang et al., 2019). Accelerated

carbonation can not only improve the strength, but also solve the volume stability issue raised by f-

CaO and free magnesium oxide (f-MgO) (Ghouleh et al., 2015; Hou et al., 2021). For instance, the

content of f-CaO in BOF slag aggregate was found to decrease from 7% to 1 % (by weight) after 3

hours of carbonation treatment (Pan et al., 2012). Additionally, carbonation is recognized as an

effective method in reducing the pH and helping to control the leaching of heavy metals (e.g., Zn and

Mo) and further environmental impacts (Pan et al., 2013). On the contrary, carbonation can increase

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the release of Si, which is considered to be environmentally friendly because Si favors plant growth

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(Wang et al., 2019). -p
2.3 Applications of steel slag
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2.3.1 Construction materials

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Steel slag can replace cement as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM), or even be
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utilized alone as a pure binder material with the aid of carbonation treatment. In 2018, Mahoutian et

al. (2018) reported their outcome of a pilot block using SS as a binder and granite as an aggregate.
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Compared to the traditional cement masonry block, the carbonated SS block appeared to have better
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mechanical performance and durability properties. The average compressive strength of the block

could reach 23.1 MPa and can even sustain its integrity after heating at 1020 °C for 139 mins

(Mahoutian et al., 2018). However, for the case without carbonation treatment, the use of SS as SCM

will directly reduce the compressive strength of the concrete (Roslan, 2016). Special attention should

be paid to the early age strength, a 72% compressive strength reduction can be found at three days

when increasing the substitution level from 0% to 60% (Jiang et al., 2018).

Instead of acting as a binder material, SS can be used as a replacement for traditional aggregates

because of its high density, roughness, and resistance to fragmentation (Anastasiou et al., 2017;
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Gencel et al., 2021). Compared to BOF slag, EAF slag is more suitable for use because of a strong

bonding with cement paste, which can enhance the mechanical strengths (Arribas et al., 2014;

Pellegrino and Gaddo, 2009). However, concrete containing SS aggregates was always found to have

workability issues, resulting from the angular shape of SS (Pang, 2015; Wang et al., 2015). Moreover,

a more rapid slump loss and faster setting time were also observed, strongly affecting the

transportation of concrete (Wang et al., 2015).

Apart from the direct application, artificial SS aggregates can be manufactured using SS powder

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with a wet granulation technique (Jiang and Ling, 2020; Li et al., 2021). It has been proved the

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accelerated carbonation can effectively alter the microstructure of the artificial aggregate and

increase the crushing strength to 5.24 MPa. Additionally, crushed stone can be produced by crushing
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carbonated SS compact, and then go through a secondary carbonation treatment to further absorb
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CO2 by reacting with the unexposed surfaces. This double carbonation treatment can achieve a
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maximum compressive strength of 26.7 MPa after 28 days (Ghouleh et al., 2017).

2.3.2 Agriculture and other fields

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Except for application in the construction industry, SS is widely used in the agricultural field.
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Due to its alkaline property, it can be used to elevate the pH of soil and remedy soil acidity by
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neutralizing Al3+ toxicity (Cristina Fernandes Deus et al., 2019). This application is similar to the use

of limestone but can achieve better performance. Since the solubility of calcium silicate is much

higher in water (~6.8 times higher than lime), SS can be a potential material for rapidly correcting

acidity (Alcarde and Rodella, 2003). Moreover, it helps increase nutrient content because it enriches

the fertilizer components such as CaO, silica oxide (SiO2), and magnesium oxide (MgO) (Mäkelä et

al., 2012). These advantages all help crop production. Despite all the benefits, the leaching of heavy

metals of SS is worth noting. The chemical compositions of SS highly depend on the origins of steel,

especially the addition of different heavy metals for producing stainless steel (Pellegrino and Gaddo,
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2009; Zhang and Hong, 2011). The leaching of heavy metals (e.g., Pb and Cr) would become toxic in

agricultural activities when SS is used at a high content level (Zha et al., 2021).

Considering the high calcium content in SS, pure and marketable CaCO3 can be produced by

selectively extracting the calcium component using ammonium salt solutions (Eloneva, S., 2009). On

the one hand, the production process can safely store CO2, on the other hand, it can replace part of

the synthetic CaCO3 in industry. The optimum calcium conversion rate could go up to 70%. CaCO3

precipitated in the form of rhombohedral calcite with a purity of 99.8% (Eloneva, S., 2009). It was

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calculated that one tonne of CO2 can be stored using 4.7 tonnes of SS, while 2.3 tonnes of CaCO3

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products can be produced. Recently, Lee et al. (2020) used the sodium chloride (NaCl) electrolysis

technique to produce nano-CaCO3 from SS rather than limestone. Compared to the traditional nano
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CaCO3 production method, the new process was advantageous from both the environmental and
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economic perspectives. Nonetheless, unlike the mature industrial applications in the construction
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field, the mass production of CaCO3 still requires further investigation.

Moreover, SS can be used as a modifying agent (Li, 2011), for flue gas desulfurization (Zhou et
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al., 2011), or for water pollution control (Drizo et al., 2006). However, current research progress is
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still limited, and thus further details are not provided in this review.
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3 Life Cycle Assessment of Steel Slag

3.1 Selection of literature concerning the LCAs of steel slag

LCA is a scientific methodology to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the potential

environmental impact of the product or process throughout its life cycles (Van den Heede and De

Belie, 2012). Despite it being more commonly undertaken by industrial, consulting, governmental, or

non-governmental agencies, this review only adopts research articles from peer-reviewed publishers.

Web of Science and Google Scholar are used for searching relevant publications, which cover both
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journal articles, conference proceedings, and books. Some were selected through the references of

published LCA studies of SS. Two keywords, namely ‘life cycle assessment’ and ‘steel slag’ (both

full name and abbreviation) are selected as search terms. Additionally, ‘steelmaking slags’ is also

related to the research topic, and often authors will only use ‘environmental assessment’ to represent

the LCA study. Thus, these two keywords are also chosen to find relevant publications.

This review not only emphasizes the LCA studies related to the application of SS in construction

products (e.g., SS aggregate, SS block, and SS concrete), but also other industrial applications, such

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as precipitated CaCO3. This screening process results in a total of 16 LCA studies for final in-depth

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review, from the year of 2011 to 2020. In addition, there are some other environmental issues related

to the application of SS that are overlooked in the selected LCA studies, which will be further
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discussed in Section 4.
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3.2 A common basis for LCAs

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A number of topics are reviewed in this review study, including: (1) software and databases; (2)
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goals of LCAs; (3) functional units; (4) system boundaries; (5) system expansion and allocation; (6)

environmental impacts; (7) sensitivity analysis. Generally, these topics are significant and widely
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adopted by LCA practitioners. However, a few topics are absent in some reviewed LCA (e.g.,
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allocation and sensitivity analysis). This review will emphasize incorporating these topics into their

LCAs.

Most of the topics (2-6) are raised and required according to the standard ISO 14040 LCA

principles and framework and ISO 14044 LCA requirements and guidelines (ISO, 2006a, 2006b).

According to these two standards, a full LCA consists of four distinct phases, which are (1) goal and

scope definition; (2) life cycle inventory analysis; (3) life cycle impact analysis; and (4)

interpretation. Some topics (7, 8) are selected because they are the most commonly mentioned in

current peer-reviewed articles addressing LCA.

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3.3 Software and databases

There is a lot of commercially available software that helps collect, organize, and analyze data,

such as SimaPro, Umberto, Gabi, and openLCA. Some studies do not specify the LCA model

software, and others may use simple Microsoft Excel sheets for simple LCA calculations. The use of

LCA software is not mandatory, but the use of LCA calculation software is more time-saving for

complicated and lengthy calculations. Researchers made a comparative assessment of the two most

widely used software (SimaPro and Gabi), and proved the LCA results were identical in most cases,

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but some errors/differences in impact assessment method might influence the results or even change

the final LCA decisions (Herrmann and Moltesen, 2015).

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For most reviewed LCA studies, the impact assessment methods CML 2001 or IMPACT 2002+
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were used. For the IMPACT 2002+ method, new concepts have been developed for human toxicity
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and ecotoxicity categories, while others categories still adopted Eco-indicator 99 (Goedkoop and
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Spriensma, 2001) and CML 2002 (Guinée, 2002).

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3.4 Goals of the reviewed LCAs

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The first step in the LCA study is to define the goal and scope of the LCA study, including

whether the results are going to be used for comparative selections (ISO, 2006b). Ten of the
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reviewed LCA evaluated the environmental performance between traditional construction products

and SS products, providing quantitative results to make selections. Their objectives vary from the

material performance perspective (e.g., better durability, mechanical performance), to the

environmental perspective (e.g., lower energy consumption, higher CO2 uptake). There are also some,

such as Chebbi et al. (2015) and Chen et al. (2011), emphasizing the different recycling options of

SS rather than the assessment of SS products. Other studies, such as Bodénan et al. (2014), used a

specific case study to examine the practicability of LCA. Among the 16 LCA studies, EAF slag and

BOF slags are the two most common research targets. Only Di Maria et al. (2018) examined the new
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construction material made by stainless SS. Table 1 summarizes the details of the reviewed LCA

studies in the literature.

3.5 Functional units

The functional unit (FU) is a quantified description to provide a reference to which the input and

output data can be related. As listed in Table 1, the two most commonly used FU are ‘1 m3 of

concrete product’ and ‘1 of m2 pavement blocks’, but some researchers focus more on energy

consumption; therefore, ‘1 MWh of electricity’ is also selected to be an alternative FU. Since SS has

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multiple functions, currently there is no universally defined FU when assessing the environmental

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impact. However, the selection of functional units could tremendously influence the LCA results for
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the same products or systems, thus, a suitable FU is a fair basis to ensure the comparability and
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reliability of the results (Hischier and Reichart, 2003; Kim and Dale, 2006). Especially when SS is

used as a substitution of traditional construction materials, the selection of FU should be even stricter.
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Zhang et al. (2019) reviewed the FUs in the published articles related to the application of recycled
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aggregate concrete, and stated a simple volume based FU (e.g., 1 m3 concrete) was generally

considered to be flawed. Similar to the condition of utilizing SS, the replacement of NA with
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recycled aggregate would potentially affect the mechanical strength of the concrete. In addition to
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mechanical performance, the durability should also be involved because SS may cause potential

volume instability problems; thus, it will encounter extra rehabilitation actions. Although most

reviewed LCA studies only clarified a single volume-based FU, the researchers attempted to keep the

mechanical and durability performances as consistent as possible (e.g., compressive strength and

abrasion resistance). Hence, as the most fundamental criteria in the LCA study, it is necessary to

propose a suitable benchmark method when defining the FU, to avoid the differences caused by the

selection of FU between LCA studies, and benefit the comparisons between each set of LCA results.
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Table 1. Summary of the reviewed LCA studies.

No. Authors Slag Software and Methods Functional units Scenarios

types Database

1 O. Yazoghli- EAF Ecorcem, -a 400,000 tonnes of EAF

o f EAF aggregate

o
Marzouk et al. OpenLCA

(2017)
p r
2 F. Faleschini et al. EAF - CML 2002
e -
1 tonne of aggregates 1. EAF aggregate

(2014)
P r 2. NAb

3 H.W. Kua (Kua, EAF Ecoinvent -

a l 1 kg of aggregates 1. EAF aggregate

2015)

u rn 2. NA (sand)

4 B. L. Evangelista et EAF

al. (2018)
SimaPro,

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Ecoinvent
o IMPACT 2002 1 tonne of aggregates 1. EAF aggregate

2. NA

1 m2 of paving blocks 1. Use 50% EAF aggregate and 50% NA

2. Use 100% NA

5 E.K. Anastasiou et EAF SimaPro - 1 m3 of industrial pavement 1. Use 100% EAF aggregate
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al. (2017) concrete 2. Use 100% NA

1 m3 of heavyweight 1. Use 100% EAF aggregate

concrete 2. Use 100% Barite aggregate

1 m2 of pervious paving 1. Use 100% EAF as aggregate

blocks
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2. Use 100% NA

6 R. Palod et al. BOF GaBi CML 2001 1 m3 of mortar

p ro 19 groups in total:

(2019)

e - 1. Control mortar

P r 2. Ternary blended mortar with different BOF

a l powder content

7 A. Di Maria et al. SSSc GaBi,

n
CML, Recipe

r
1 m2 of SSS-blocks with 1 1. Alkali-activated block with SSS powder

(2018) Ecoinvent

o u m2 of OPC concrete 2. Slow-carbonated block with SSS powder

J 3. Fast-carbonated block with SSS powder

4. OPC concrete

8 E.K. Anastasiou et - SimaPro IPCC 2007 1 km of a two-lane urban 1. Use cement as binder and NA

al. (2015) road with low traffic load 2. Use cement as binder and SS aggregates

using concrete (with a total 3. Use hydraulic road binder and NA

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width of 7.3 m) 4. Use hydraulic road binder and SS

aggregates

5. Use 50% cement, 50% fly ash as binder and

NA

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6. Use 50% cement, 50% fly ash as binder and

p ro SS aggregates

9 A. Mladenovič et EAF GaBi -

-
600 m surface course of a

e
1. Use 50% EAF aggregate and 50% NA

al. (2015)
r
road pavement (with a

P
2. Use 100% NA

a l thickness of 3 cm)

10 S. Ghasemi et al. BOF -

r n
CML 2001 1 MWh electricity produced 1. Use as landfill

(2017)

ou from a 10 MW natural gas 2. Use as limestone replacement or aggregates

11 F. Bodénan et al. - -
J -
plant

1 MWh of electricity with a 1. Direct aqueous carbonation

(2014) coal power plant 2. Direct aqueous carbonation with organic

ligands

3. Direct aqueous carbonation with mechanical

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exfoliation

12 L. Xiao et al. BOF Umberto, - 1 kg CO2 captured by Direct carbonation methods:

(2014) Ecoinvent carbonation process 1. Autoclave reactor

2. Slurry reactor

o f 3. RPB reactor

p ro Indirect carbonation methods:

e - 4. CH3COOH

P r 5. NH4Cl

a l 6. NH4NO3

13 W. Chebbi et al. EAF - -

r n 400,000 tonnes of EAF 1. Use water for 24 hours

(2016)

o u 2. Use acid for 2 hours

14 H.I. Gomes et al.

(2018)
-
J
OpenLCA,

ELCD,
ILCD 2011 1 m3 of treated leachate with

pH < 9
Active treatment by:

1. Acid dosing

Ecoinvent 2. Carbon dioxide dosing

3. Calcium chloride dosing

Passive treatment by:

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1. Cascade and reedbeds with pumping

2. Cascade and reedbeds in a gravity-driven

configuration

15 C. Bo et al. (2011) BOF SimaPro IPCC 2007 1 kg of crude steel 1. Hot splashing technology

o f2. Water quenching technology

p ro 3. Water quenching and wind quenching

16 H.P. Mattila et al. BOF SimaPro, IMPACT

e -
1 kg of PCCd Production of 1 kg of PCC

(2014) Ecoinvent, 2002+

P r
ELCD, etc

a l
n
a
-: not stated in the original article.
b
NA: natural aggregate.
u r
c

d
SSS: stainless steel slag.

PCC: precipitated calcium carbonate

J o
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3.6 System boundaries

System boundaries can be generally considered as cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave, or cradle-to-

cradle, where cradle-to-gate is the most commonly adopted in the reviewed LCA studies. Here

‘cradle’ represents the raw material extraction or processing, and ‘gate’ represents the factory gate

before it is transported to consumers. Nearly all the studies omit the use phase and end-of-life phase,

as they assume:

(1) the impacts from these two phases are minimal and insignificant;

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(2) similar products have similar environmental impacts in these two phases;

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(3) there are many uncertainties in these two phases, making it difficult to determine.
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Although the stated assumptions (1) and (2) have been verified by laboratory tests and field
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experience (Mladenovič et al., 2015), Al-Qadi et al. (2017) still insisted the use phase should be
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considered because the release of heavy metals from SS could potentially affect the environment,

especially when SS was used as a pavement material. Beyond this, the future maintenance,
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rehabilitation, and fuel consumption resulting from the different pavement roughness, structure and

potential soundness problem (mainly caused by the existence of f-CaO), could also potentially affect
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the LCA results of the use phase (Santero et al., 2011).

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Another major factor affecting the environmental assessment results in these two phases is the

carbonation reaction, especially from the perspective of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Compared

to concrete, SS goes through a much slower natural weathering process (Huijgen et al., 2005).

Therefore, special attention should be paid when SS is used as a substitution material for cement or

other cementitious materials. A suggested system boundary of SS application in the construction

industry can be seen in Figure 2, where the major activities in each step have been listed.
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Figure 2. A generic system boundary of steel slag in construction application.

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3.7 System expansion and allocation

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System expansion and allocation usually correspond to two types of LCA methods, which are
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consequential LCA (CLCA) and attributional LCA (ALCA). As illustrated in Figure 3, CLCA is

used to estimate the environmental impact (including indirect avoided and extra emission) affected

by the production of a particular product. In this case, the use of waste is recognized as

‘environmentally friendly’ in a CLCA because it would avoid the negative impacts of activities like

landfilling. ALCA estimates the environmental impact caused by the direct production and use of

this product. There are three common allocation methods, which are no allocation, mass allocation

(allocated by mass ratio of by-products), and economic allocation (allocated by economic ratio of by-

products) (Chen et al., 2010). Depending on the allocation method, waste could possibly become
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more environmentally unfriendly in an ALCA because the environmental burdens from the parent

system are allocated to it.

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Figure 3. Conceptual Scope of consequential LCA (CLCA) and attributional LCA (ALCA)
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The ISO 14040 expresses a preference for system expansion rather than allocation (ISO, 2006a).
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Nonetheless, according to the recommendations from ISO 14041 and Waste Framework Directive

2008/98/EC (European Parliament, 2008; ISO, 2006b), allocation should be applied when the waste
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is considered a by-product, but not when it is treated as an unintended residue. Normally, the waste is
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considered to be a by-product if the following three conditions are satisfied (Di Maria et al., 2018):

(1) further application is certain and lawful.

(2) the waste is produced as an integral part.

(3) it can be used directly without any added processing.

As to the question of whether to use system expansion or allocation for SS, researchers hold

different points of view. As stated by Iacobescu et al. (2016), SS does not fulfill all three foregoing

requirements and should not be considered a by-product. However, the determination of waste not

only depends on the physiochemical properties, but should also consider the economic circumstances.
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SS can be considered as an unintended residue because it is disposed with additional costs

(Kronenberg and Winkler, 2009), and an allocation procedure is required. In this case, SS is expected

to be a useful by-product and will share the environmental impact of its parent system (the

production of steel).

Among all the reviewed 16 LCA studies, only one of them considered the system expansion of

SS, and another two of them considered the allocation of SS. Mattila et al. (2014) used system

expansion to include the recycling of waste water during the production of PCC (precipitated

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calcium carbonate) and found the recycling of waste water can counteract the environmental benefit

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gained by the Slag2PCC (converting SS to PCC) method. Kua et al. (2015) conducted both an

ALCA and CLCA study, and found using SS as the replacement of sand will increase the global
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warming potential (GWP) and embodied energy in the ALCA study. However, if all the improved
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process control technology is considered, as a consequence in the CLCA study, the GWP and EE
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will both decrease in the short-term and long-term perspectives. This mainly resulted from the

expansion of the system boundary and the potential changes in the trade of sand and SS. It was also
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found no allocation and economic allocation barely affect the LCA results when assessing short and
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mid-term changes in trade (Anastasiou et al., 2015; Kua, 2015). However, over the long term, the

economic based allocation will have a greater impact, considering the economic allocation parameter
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(15%) from steelmaking is much higher than mass allocation parameter (9%).

Currently, the investigations on system expansion and allocation are very limited, not only for

SS but also for other waste materials (e.g., fly ash and recycled concrete). There is still no regulation

to stipulate whether system expansion and allocation should be applied or which one is preferred,

moreover, it is difficult to clearly define because the economic or mass allocation parameters also

vary in different regions and situations.

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3.8 Environmental impact categories

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) uses different impact categories to quantitatively calculate

the environmental impact. As summarized in Figure 4, the most popular impact categories include

global warming potential (GWP), energy consumption, human toxicity (HT), ecotoxicity (ET),

photochemical oxidation creation potential (POCP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication

potential (EP), abiotic depletion potential (ADP), and ozone depletion potential (ODP).

16
PCC

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14 Carbonation treatment
Numbers of LCA studies

12 Recyling option
Construction material

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10
8 -p
6
4
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2
0
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GWP Energy HT ET POCP AP EP ADP ODP

Imapct categories
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Figure 4. Distribution of the impact categories in the reviewed LCA studies on steel slag.
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The selection of impact categories is quite subjective, depending on the goal and scope of the
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study. All 16 LCA studies adopted GWP as an impact category, revealing the urgent need for

remitting climate change. On the one hand, the carbonation of SS is a potential method of CO2

capture and storage. As reported by Pan et al. (2020), the CO2 mineralization of iron and SS can lead

to a direct CO2 reduction of 43.5%. On the other hand, the substitution of traditional construction

materials with SS further mitigates the impact caused by energy-intensive materials, particularly

considering the cement industry alone contributes 5-7% of total anthropogenic generated CO2

(Humphreys and Mahasenan, 2002).

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Ten of the reviewed LCA studies addressed both HT and ET. The toxicity impacts are more

popular in the long term when LCA studies focus on direct landfilling and pavement applications

(Ghasemi et al., 2017; Yazoghli-Marzouk et al., 2017), as well as some related to the recycling

methods or the leachate management of SS (Chebbi et al., 2016; Gomes et al., 2018). The toxic

compounds (especially Cr) coming from the production of alloy steel are the main contributor to this.

Six of the reviewed LCA studies assessed the AP and EP. Acidification is assessed as an

equivalent to SO2. The emission of acidic gases, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides

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(NOx) mainly come from the fossil fuel combustion process (e.g., transportation, power plants, and

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industry) (Dincer and Abu-Rayash, 2020). These lead to increased acidity in the rainwater, further

affecting the soil, water, and plant. Further, it is also related to the increased heavy metal in the solids,
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water, and plants, as the low pH environment encourages the solubility of heavy metals (Zhang et al.,
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2018). EP is represented by equivalent to PO4, which is mainly associated with the over-fertilization
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of water and soils, such and nitrogen and phosphorus, thereby leading to an increased number of

aquatic plants (Kim and Chae, 2016). Similar to AP, consumption of diesel fuel during transportation
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and the leaching of heavy metals also significantly impact EP. Few considered the ADP (4 out of 16)
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and ODP (3 out of 16) in their studies. ADP is the factor to measure the use of non-renewable

sources for energy production, while the chemical compound ODP is the relative amount of
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degradation it can cause to the ozone layer. Unfortunately, the reviewed LCA studies only generally

compare the calculated data. Very limited information was given on the factors affecting these two

impact categories. According to previous researchers, both ADP and ODP are closely related to

energy consumption (e.g., coal for electricity or power plants and diesel for transportation) (Cuéllar-

Franca and Azapagic, 2015). As the energy consumption is also the main contributor to GWP, the

pattern of ADP/ODP is almost the same as GWP. This could be the reason ADP and ODP are not

commonly investigated. However, ODP is also related to the alkaline solution generated during the

indirect carbonation method (the indirect carbonation method will be further introduced in Section
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4.2.2) (Apithanyasai et al., 2020). Hence, it is still necessary to calculate ODP if a large amount of

alkaline addictive/waste is involved.

3.9 Sensitivity analysis

Sensitivity analysis is usually performed to estimate and reduce the uncertainty caused by the

limitation and inaccuracy of data collection and model assumption (Björklund, 2002; Clavreul et al.,

2012). It had been pursued in 7 of 16 reviewed LCA studies where SS was considered as a

substitution for traditional construction materials. The sensitivity analysis is mainly evaluated from

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two perspectives, which are transport distance and energy consumption, including the energy source

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and energy efficiency. -p
One of the main focuses of a circular economy is to adopt as local as possible materials, to avoid
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extensive transport. Some researchers claimed their product was ‘carbon-negative’ (Ghouleh et al.,
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2017; Mahoutian et al., 2018), only for it to be revealed the emissions caused by transport were

actually not included. The transport distance should be carefully considered when a volume-based
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FU is selected (e.g., 1 m3 of concrete or 1 m2 of paving blocks), since the SS aggregates always have

a higher mass; therefore, it will increase the amount of diesel fuel consumption for transportation (Di
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Maria et al., 2018; Mladenovič et al., 2015). Normally, researchers deemed the transport distance to
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be insignificant when comparing the same weight of different construction products (e.g., 1 tonne of

aggregates or 1 tonne of concrete). However, the transportation of the treated residues will influence

the final results. Ghasemi et al. (2017) compared different carbonation methods and stated the wet

route carbonation method was more sensitive to the transport distance because more residues were

generated and needed to be transported for further treatment. To conclude, SS products are more

suitable to be used for a shorter distance. The increasing transport distance will negatively impact the

final LCA performance of the SS product, but normally this effect will not meaningfully influence

the final comparison results with traditional construction products.

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When evaluating energy efficiency, it is reported higher GWP was found when the electricity

was assumed to be produced by non-renewable energy (e.g., fossil fuel and natural gas), but can be

largely reduced when renewable energy (e.g., hydro power and wind power) was used instead

(Ghasemi et al., 2017). Pan et al. (2012) emphasized heating efficiency during various direct and

indirect carbonation processes, and adjusted the heating efficiency from 60% to 100% at an interval

of 10%. It was found the direct carbonation process was more sensitive than the indirect carbonation

method, and direct carbonation in the slurry reactor was the most optimal method because it

generated the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.

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4 Environmental Implications
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4.1 Environmental benefit by substituting energy intensive material
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As stated in the previous section, the initial intention of recycling and reusing SS was to replace
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and reduce the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources (Mladenovič et al., 2015). The

applications of SS in construction industry can be generally divided into:

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(1) direct use as a replacement of natural aggregates in blocks and concrete.

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(2) ground into powder to act as SCM to form a binder.

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Owing to a better abrasion resistance property of SS, the most common application is replacing

NA in paving blocks. The GWP was reduced because the production of NA is more energy intensive

than SS (Evangelista et al., 2018). The higher density of SS aggregates makes it a potential material

to replace the coarse and fine barite aggregates in heavyweight concrete, resulting in a 45% CO2

equivalent reduction per m3 of concrete (from 886 to 495 kg CO2 eq.) (Anastasiou et al., 2017). It

was also calculated when the SS aggregates were added to the asphalt wearing courses, large reduced

emissions can be found in EP, AP, POCP, but considerably less in GWP (Mladenovič et al., 2015).

This environmental benefit not only resulted from the substitution of aggregates, but also a lower
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amount of cement being added. Conversely, Faleschini et al.’s (2014) study showed questionable

opposite results for SS aggregate concrete. Considering the granulometries differences, an additional

20 kg/m3 cement was added to the SS mix to aid mechanical performance, with there being a 2.92%

and 4.71% increase in GWP and EP, respectively.

Apart from the direct application as aggregates, SS can be further ground into a powder form to

be used as SCM and mixed to form concrete or block. Palod et al. (2019) made a ternary blended

mortar using cement, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and SS with different

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proportions, and found a promising decrease of 38.9%, 44.4%, 36.6%, and 36.6% for GWP, ADP,

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AP, and POCP, respectively, compared to the conventional mix with pure cement. Regrettably, the

authors did not give a detailed emission output for each process, but it is speculated the huge
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reduction mainly resulted from the decreased amount of cement used (conventional mix: cement 500
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kg/m3, ternary blended mortar: cement 300 kg/m3, GGBS 100 kg/m3, SS 100 kg/m3).
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The production of 1 kg cement will emit 0.586 kg CO2 eq, while the production of 1 tonne NA

and SS aggregate only emit 8.47 and 3.09 kg CO2 eq (Faleschini et al., 2014). It is generally revealed
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the reduced emissions can be achieved when replacing NA with SS aggregates, but mostly limited to
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a small scale. Mitigating the greenhouse effect is more easily achieved with a reduced amount of
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cement or bitumen.

4.2 Environmental benefit by carbonation treatment

With the development of accelerating carbonation technology, SS can also be treated as a

potential carbon storage material (Di Maria et al., 2019). The detailed reaction mechanisms are

introduced in equations (1) and (2). As described in Section 2.3.1, blocks and artificial aggregates are

the two most developed products with the help of carbonation treatment. Mahoutian et al. (2018)

stated the maximum CO2 uptake of their SS block can reach 10.7% by weight and if all the steel

slags produced in the US and Canada could be used for producing masonry blocks, about 1.5 Mt of
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CO2 can be absorbed in total. The artificial aggregate produced from the granulation technique and

double carbonation technique can also achieve CO2 uptake of 16.0% and 17.0% by weight,

respectively (Ghouleh et al., 2017; Jiang and Ling, 2020). Theoretically, the maximum CO2 uptake is

directly related to the alkaline element composition, but the experimental CO2 uptake is usually

much lower than the theoretical value and highly depends on the carbonation factors and carbonation

methods, which will be further discussed in the following sections.

4.2.1 Factors affecting the carbonation rate

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The carbonation efficiency and carbonation degree are influenced by different variables. Some of

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them will cause huge differences both in energy consumption and CO2 uptake, thus leading to an

elusive environmental assessment result. The most significant factor among all is the carbonation
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temperature, but it has two opposite effects on the carbonation rate. The increasing temperature will
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promote the leaching of Ca2+ ions in the matrix, but an excessive elevated temperature will limit the
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solubility of CO2 and reduce the carbonation efficiency (Baciocchi et al., 2009; Jiang and Ling, 2021;

Zhong et al., 2021). Huijgen et al. (2005) found the carbonation degree increased as the temperature
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increased from 25 to 175 °C, and started to decrease when the temperature exceeded 200 °C.
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However, Ukwattage et al. (2017) stated the carbonation rate started to decrease right after 50 °C.

Theoretically, similar to the natural weathering process, the carbonation rate will gradually increase
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with the carbonation duration (Ghouleh et al., 2015; Mo et al., 2016), whereas the relationship

between the carbonation rate and carbonation duration is not linear. As the carbonation reaction

progressed, the produced calcium carbonate would cover the SS particles and hinder the CO 2

diffusion for carbonation (Zhong et al., 2021). As stated by Jiang and Ling (2021) and Li et al.

(2021), the carbonation rate tends to be gentle after a certain amount of time. There is no determined

optimum carbonation condition, as it also depends on the characteristics of SS. Considering the high

energy consumption and low CO2 uptake, an excessive carbonation temperature and duration might
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not be the most energy efficient, therefore, an optimal carbonation condition should be examined

with a preliminary experiment.

Apart from the carbonation condition, the particle size of SS is also one of the most important

factors in the carbonation reaction rate. As proved by the LCA studies (Faleschini et al., 2014;

Ghasemi et al., 2017), one of the most energy intensive procedures is the crushing and grinding of SS

because of the high iron content. Generally, a surface area within 400-500 m2/g is recognized to be

suitable for carbonation reaction (Wang et al., 2013). The Ca conversion increases from 24% to 74%

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when the particle size of slags reduces from 2 mm to 38 µm (Huijgen et al., 2005). Li et al. (2021)

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examined the current grinding machine on the market, including different ball mill, roller mill, and

cylindrical mill. They found all of them can fulfill the target surface area but the energy consumption
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varies between 38 to 100 kWh/ton. The relationship between the particle size, CO2 uptake, and
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energy consumption are worth further investigations.
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Until now, there has been no published LCA article related to the comparisons of environmental

benefits between different carbonation conditions; therefore, limited information can be found to
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make direct comparisons. The energy consumption also varies with different equipment, especially
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the current accelerated carbonation technology is mostly examined under a small scale with a
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laboratory sized curing tank, and it is always assumed the curing tank is running at full powder mode,

which may further overestimate the energy consumptions. It is critical to incorporate comprehensive

factors (i.e., carbonation temperature, carbonation duration, and particle size) to evaluate the overall

environmental impacts of carbonated steel slag-based products. Otherwise, additional emissions

might override the benefit of carbonation.

4.2.2 Influence of different carbonation methods

The carbonation method can be basically divided into direct carbonation and indirect

carbonation. Direct carbonation usually occurs in a single step while indirect carbonation first
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requires chemical agents to extract the alkaline component from the mineral matrix and is then

followed by carbonation treatment. Ghasemi et al. (2017) compared two different direct carbonation

methods, the wet route and slurry route. The environmental benefit assessment between different

direct methods is more straightforward because the main difference is caused by the energy

consumptions. Compression and grinding are two common energy intensive processes, but the

heating of the carbonation reactor step in the wet route alone consumes more energy than the entire

slurry route process.

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For indirect carbonation methods, acid solutions (e.g., CH3COOH, NH4Cl, and NH4NO3) are

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used to extract the alkaline ions from slags (Xiao et al., 2014). It has been concluded the carbonation

degree for direct carbonation methods (Ca conversion: 60.0-93.5%) are considerably higher than that
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for indirect carbonation methods (Ca conversion: 25.5-59.0%), but also cause more environmental
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damage from a higher reaction temperature. The GWP caused by the addition of chemical additives
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is less than 10%. However, when dealing with the indirect carbonation method, the production of

chemical reagents and the disposal of waste water should also be carefully examined. Otherwise, it
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may adversely impact the human health and ecosystem.

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4.2.3 CO2 reduction using flue gas carbonation

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In addition to the energy consumption caused by the carbonation process, the production of pure

CO2 is also energy intensive. Although researchers have improved technologies to capture CO2 (Tian

et al., 2018), common industrial production still causes large emissions. Considering the CO2 can

either be pure CO2 or other CO2-rich gases (Jiang et al., 2009), flue gas can be used as a substitution

of pure CO2 source. Direct flowing flue gas can be used instead of the traditional electricity-based

carbonation curing chamber to further reduce the emissions raised by carbonation curing. Tian et al.

(2013) examined the direct gas–solid carbonation mechanism and proved the feasibility of flue gas

carbonation. Compared to pure CO2 curing, the decreased CO2 concentration in the flue gas will
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definitely influence the direct gas–solid carbonation degree, but the presence of SO2 in flue gas

system will enhance the carbonation degree of SS. It was inferred SO2 activates the surface of SS

particles as acidic activator and promotes the further diffusion of CO2, but still no strong evidence

was provided to support this inference. In the optimum condition, the maximum in-situ 88.5 kg CO2

can be sequestrated with one tonne of SS (Tian et al., 2013). However, in this research, the

carbonation temperature was set above 300 °C to facilitate the carbonation reaction, making it

questionable whether flue gas carbonation is environmentally beneficial. A more comprehensive and

quantitative calculation is needed.

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4.3 Leaching of heavy metals
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The release of heavy metals (e.g., chromium (Cr), barium (Ba), Ni, lead (Pb), vanadium (V),
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molybdenum (Mo) and Zn) may cause heavy ecological problems such as soil pollution and water

pollution, and further influence human health (Ma and Garbers-Craig, 2006; Shen et al., 2004; Zhang
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and Hong, 2011). The leaching behavior of heavy metals differs depending on the origins and types
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of SS, and is far beyond the limit for some raw SS; thus, cannot be treated as an inert and non-

hazardous material (Chebbi et al., 2016). The leaching behavior of heavy metals is closely related to
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the pH. The basicity of SS can be efficiently reduced by carbonation in three ways:
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(1) the conversion silicates and free oxides to corresponding carbonates (e.g., CaO and MgO),

which cause a change in pH values.

(2) the conversion of other heavy metal oxides to corresponding carbonates (e.g., barium oxide

(BaO) and lead oxide (PbO)) (Fernandezbertos et al., 2004).

(3) the formation of the carbonate layer hinders the solubility of inner alkaline minerals. It was

proved the reduced basicity appears to be approximately linearly related with the CO2

uptake.
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The detailed elementary analysis showed carbonation process could reduce or at least keep a

constant leaching of heavy metals such as Ba, Ni, Pb, and Zn (Baciocchi et al., 2010; Bodor et al.,

2016; Mahoutian et al., 2018; Santos et al., 2013), which further benefit the geochemical properties

for fulfilling a safer disposal or other utilization requirements. However, an increasing from 0.06

mg/kg to 9.17 mg/kg leaching of V was reported by Bodor et al. (2016). Similar findings have been

proven by other researchers (Baciocchi et al., 2015; Salman et al., 2014). Questionable results occur

with Cr. When SS is applied in ceramic building materials at a weight percentage of 10%, the

leaching of Cr at 850 ֯C slightly exceeds the standards (10 mg/kg) established by the European

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council, but was found to sharply increase to 33.5 mg/kg when added at 30% by weight (Galán-

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Arboledas et al., 2017). Salman et al. (2014) noticed a decreased leaching of Cr under a carbonation
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duration less than 15 hours, but a continuous increase with longer carbonation duration, higher
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carbonation pressure, or higher carbonation temperature. For Mo, varying results were obtained

because it depended on the speciation (Cornelis et al., 2008) and the pH (Baciocchi et al., 2015).
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To make a more comprehensive environmental assessment, the leaching of heavy metals of SS

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during the long usage period should be considered. Based on the sorted system boundaries of
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reviewed LCA studies, the majority of them did not consider the long-term application and disposal

stages. Even more, only a few applied accelerated carbonation methods, whereas the others directly
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use SS as an aggregate or SCM in concrete. For safety considerations, the application of SS in

construction materials at extreme conditions should be carefully examined. A trustworthy leaching

test report and proper carbonation treatment are suggested to secure the recycling and reutilization of

SS.
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5 Perspectives and Prospects

5.1 Challenges for steel slag recycling and valorization

The research and investigation of SS can be traced far back, but it has not been fully and

standardized utilized until now, even though some countries had published related standards. For

example, China had published standard ‘GB13590-2006 Portland steel slag cement’ and UK had

published the ‘quality protocol guidance of aggregates made with waste steel slag’ in 2016.

However, the application of SS was still very limited due to:

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(1) Economic aspect. In the construction market, investors, contractors, and businessmen are

more sensitive to price and the price difference is the most crucial factor for decision making.
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Chiang (2013) investigated the price of SS from private contractors and found it to be five
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times higher than natural sand. Based on the Chinese market price in 2020, the price of river
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sand varies around 150 RMB (~23 USD) per tonne, while the price of SS ranges between

220-700 RMB (~34-107 USD) per tonne, based on the particle size and mineral compositions.
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(2) Engineering aspect. Considering the variations in the chemical compositions, it is difficult
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for local authorities and companies to control the quality of SS products.

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Even if the cost can decrease and the quality can be guaranteed, it might still not be easy for the

industry to accept. Apart from researchers and investigators, it is also the government, environmental

associations, and policy makers’ responsibility to encourage and promote further application of SS.

5.2 Social implications of steel slag

In the public policy paper published by the World Steel Association in 2020, it was called upon

that ‘legislation should encourage the sustainable use of steel industry co-products’. As one of the

steel-making co-products, blast furnace slag has gone through a deep investigation and been

successfully applied in construction industry as a replacement of clinker in the production of cement.

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Similarly, the development of technology has brought the remaining types of steelmaking slags much

closer to the goal of ‘zero waste’. Apart from World Steel Association, World of Iron & Steel slag

‘network’ (WoISS) was also established and started recruiting members all over the world, including

the Australasian (iron&steel) Slag Association (Australia), Canadian Slag Association (Canada), and

Euroslag (Europe). WoISS aims at stimulating the management and application of metallurgical slag

by coordinating appropriate regulations and codes, facilitating awareness from environmental,

economic, and engineering points of views, and sharing the latest experiences within member

regions.

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As a result, it was suggested the legislation first clarify differences between the co-product and

waste to eliminate the prejudice against SS. Further, special effort or preferential treatment should be
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paid rather than limiting the application by strict regulations. For example, in the bidding and
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tendering, SS utilization enterprises should be considered separately and preferred to be accepted as
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a green material. Subsidies can also be provided by government if SS is used as a replacement for

other traditional energy intensive material. Moreover, researchers are encouraged to study mineral
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carbon capture, storage, and utilization using SS with locally available SS and provide local
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guidelines or manufacturing standards. More importantly, a holistic and scientific approach should

be conducted when assessing the overall sustainability effect, for example, LCA.
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5.3 Future improvement of steel slag production and corresponding LCA studies

Figure 5 shows the SS value chain and potential environmental benefits, with special emphasis

on the construction application. Based on previous LCA results, some energy-intensive and heavy-

emission processes are labeled with red dots, and potential environmental benefit can be gained by

improving the manufacturing technology and energy efficiency. In addition, the CO2 sequestered

during the accelerated carbonation in the production stage and natural carbonation in usage and

disposal stage is also critical (as stated in yellow and green dots).
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Figure 5. Steel slag value chain and potential environment benefits.

Unlike other well investigated solid waste materials such as recycled concrete or municipal solid

waste incineration, the number of LCA studies on SS alone is still quite limited. Due to the
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differences in each LCA study, it is a pity those quantitative comparisons on life cycle impact

assessment results cannot be made. Especially considering the SS usually requires pre-treatment to

solve the volume stability problem, more papers should restrict their research focus to the CO2

uptake during the carbonation process. To conduct a more comprehensive LCA study, the following

recommendations for each step are summarized as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of recommendations for LCA studies concerning steel slag.

Item Research recommendations

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Functional unit  Consideration of both mechanical properties and also

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durability properties

System boundary  Inclusion of full life cycle components

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 Special attention for maintenance and fuel consumption
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caused by different abrasion resistance in road application
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 Special attention for carbonation in use and end-of-life

stages
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Data collection  Up-to-date data from the database should be adopted

 Pilot-scale data is preferred to laboratory scale data, as the

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laboratory-based LCA results may be overestimated

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System expansion  Calculation using consequential LCA for the avoided

and allocation impact by traditional materials

LCI and LCIA  Inclusion of more LCIA other than GWP or CO2 emissions

scope only

 Special attention for toxicity caused by leaching behaviour

in the long-term

Sensitivity analysis  Consideration of transportation, especially for construction

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applications

 Consideration of the choice of energy source and energy

efficiency

6 Conclusions

This paper aims to comprehensively review the environmental impact caused by the reutilization

of SS, particularly from the perspective of the life cycle assessment method, a systematic technique

to quantitatively evaluate environmental performance. Moreover, the environmental benefits and

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drawbacks caused by carbonation treatment and heavy metal leaching have been discussed in detail.

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The following conclusions can be drawn: -p
 Most LCA studies considered ‘cradle-to-gate’ as a system boundary, but factors in usage
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stage potentially influence the total emissions, such as maintenance, rehabilitation, and fuel
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consumption. Special attention should be paid to the investigation of system expansion and

the allocation method, since they significantly affect the rationality and accuracy of LCA
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results, not only for SS, but also other waste materials.


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Global warming is the most popular life cycle impact category and cement production is the

main contributor. Retaining the mechanical and durability properties while reducing the
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usage of cement is the top priority. Energy intensive activities such as long carbonation

duration and high carbonation temperature should be further optimized to avoid unnecessary

energy consumption and emission output during carbonation.

 The leaching of SS should be considered during LCA study but mostly ignored. Although the

leaching of most heavy metals can be reduced or kept constant after carbonation,

questionable results were obtained for Cr and Mo. A proper leaching test should be

performed to ensure the safety.

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 To further promote the application of SS, the cost and quality need to be controlled and

assured. The environmental impact should also be considered using a scientific approach

such as LCA.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [Grant

numbers: 52078202].

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Declaration of interests

☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

☐The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as
potential competing interests:

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Graphical abstract

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Highlights

 System expansion and allocation choices may lead to opposite interpretations.

 Environmental benefit caused by replacement of steel slag aggregate is limited.
 Mitigation of climate change is easy to be achieved by reducing cement addition.
 Carbonation method should be optimized to maximize the carbon capture benefit.

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