Speed up the promotion of comprehensive utilization of magnesium slag

On January 27th, eight departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Taxation, jointly issued the implementation Plan for accelerating the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources, defining the relevant objectives. By 2025, the intensity of industrial solid waste in key industries such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals and chemical industry will decline, the comprehensive utilization level of bulk industrial solid waste will be significantly improved, the renewable resources industry will develop continuously and healthily, and the comprehensive utilization efficiency of industrial resources will be significantly improved. The system of laws, regulations, policies and standards for the comprehensive utilization of industrial resources is becoming more and more perfect, the level of technology and equipment has been significantly improved, and the degree of industrial concentration and the ability of coordinated development have been greatly improved. efforts should be made to build an industrial ecology of comprehensive utilization of industrial resources driven by innovation in parallel with high-value, significantly enhanced industrial cycle links, and significantly stimulated by synergy and coupling vitality.

The program also identified three major projects and 17 key tasks for promoting the neutralization and utilization of industrial resources: the project to enhance the comprehensive utilization capacity of industrial resources, the project for efficient recycling of renewable resources, and the project to enhance the comprehensive utilization capacity of industrial resources. One of the key tasks is to improve the comprehensive utilization capacity of complex and difficult-to-use solid waste. In order to solve the problems of complex components, high content of harmful substances and unstable properties of some solid wastes, classified measures are adopted to steadily improve the ability of comprehensive utilization. The plan specifically mentions the need to speed up the promotion of comprehensive utilization of magnesium slag.

According to the author's understanding, the production of one ton of magnesium will produce 6 ~ 7 tons of reducing slag, 0.1 ~ 0.2 tons of refining slag and 0.2 ~ 0.5 tons of forging white waste slag. According to the current estimation of magnesium production, the magnesium smelting industry produces more than 6.5 million tons of smelting slag every year. However, the problem of comprehensive utilization of magnesium slag has existed for a long time, and a considerable number of enterprises do not have the objective conditions to use magnesium slag as cement raw materials, and lack advanced and applicable harmless treatment and resource utilization technology, so they can only occupy land for storage, which brings great hidden dangers to the environment and ecology. The latest edition of "magnesium Industry Standard conditions" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in February 2020 clearly requires that magnesium smelting enterprises are encouraged to actively develop comprehensive utilization technology of magnesium reduction slag, and use magnesium reduction slag to produce building materials products such as magnesium slag Portland cement. The comprehensive utilization rate of magnesium reduction slag should not be less than 70%, and the discharge of waste residue should be reduced.

However, according to the author's estimation, at present, the comprehensive utilization rate of magnesium slag in the magnesium smelting industry is only about 30%, and a considerable number of enterprises have not carried out comprehensive utilization or the utilization rate is very low. At present, the accumulated magnesium slag is at least 60 million tons, and it is still accumulating year by year. This point alone has become a threshold that restricts many magnesium smelting enterprises to declare that they meet the "normative conditions", increases the environmental protection pressure and operating costs of enterprises, and may become a major risk point for the magnesium market and supply chain at any time. Therefore, it is expected that during the 14th five-year Plan period, the magnesium smelting industry will be determined to increase investment with the support of the eight departments'"implementation Plan for accelerating the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources" and supporting policies and measures. there has been a great improvement in the treatment and comprehensive utilization of magnesium slag. The whole magnesium market should also bear the corresponding environmental costs.