Steel – the 4Rs

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1st R Reduce

Rider Steel is always looking to reducing the amount of material, energy and other resources used to create steel and reducing the weight of steel used in products.

Optimizing the weight of products is an integral part of a circular economy.

If we look at the past 50 years steel production has increased by almost 5 folds, while energy consumption was reduced by 60%.

New types of advanced and ultra-high strength steels emerged. These types have reduced the weight of many steel applications by up to 40%, although in West Africa such materials are still not widely in use, we are continuously working hard to introduce such materials to the market by educating the builders, manufacturer as well as the final consumers of such benefits.

When it comes to energy and power consumption steel recycling uses a large amount of electricity to melt scrap steel into new types of steel. Being in Africa we are making full use of the abundant sun ray and have installed 4MW of renewable solar energy to complement our requirement from the national grid. Unfortunately, due to the nature of renewables we are only able to take advantage of the 4MW during daytime, we are on the look for new technologies that will reduce our power consumption.

 

2nd R Reuse

When it comes to reuse, steel is king- after recycling steel scrap steel, the final product can be reused as its original purpose or can be redesign for a similar purpose.

Nowadays almost every “byproduct” formed during steel making is used in new products.

During production of steel 30% of the generated by product is SLAG;

• One of the most important by-products in the steelmaking process. The slags which are formed protect the liquid metal from oxygen and maintain the temperature of the molten metal by forming a lid. Once removed and cooled, slags are widely used in cement production, to road building. In Africa the use of steel slag as an aggregate is considered a standard practice with application in embankments and hot mix asphalt pavement.

• Process Gases generated by scrap melting are captured by our gas-to-gas heat exchange unit placed on the stack of the furnace that preheats incoming air with exhaust gas.