Mineralogical Transformations of H2-DRI-EAF Slag by Carbonation Treatment Improves the Performance of the Slag as Supplementary Cementitious Material
Gouda, Srujana; Nguyen, Hoang; Ponomar, Vitalii; Adesanya, Elijah; Yliniemi, Juho; Kilpimaa, Katja (2026-01-23)
Springer
23.01.2026
Gouda, S., Nguyen, H., Ponomar, V. et al. Mineralogical Transformations of H2-DRI-EAF Slag by Carbonation Treatment Improves the Performance of the Slag as Supplementary Cementitious Material. J. Sustain. Metall. 12, 1648–1666 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-026-01409-y
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© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202602131765
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202602131765
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Steel slag is an emerging supplementary cementitious material (SCM) that can reduce the carbon footprint of cement. This study reports the use of an electric arc furnace (EAF) slag from new steelmaking process i.e. direct hydrogen-assisted iron reduction (i.e., H2-DRI-EAF route) as an SCM. Further analysis was conducted to examine the effects of carbonation methods including semi-dry and aqueous carbonation on the hydration of slag in blended cements. The results indicate that the carbonation of the slag led to the formation of amorphous silica, crystalline and amorphous CaCO3 which contributed to the hydration reactions in blended cement. The pozzolanic activity and hydration behavior of carbonated slag were further assessed using R3 test and isothermal calorimetry while SEM–EDS, XRD, and TGA were used to analyze the phase transformations after carbonation. Between the two carbonation methods, the aqueous carbonation led to a higher CO2 uptake (9.5 g/100 g slag) and better reactivity. This is due to the formation of more reactive phases such as amorphous silica and calcium carbonates which linked to diverse hydration product formation such as C-(A)-S–H, AFt and hydrotalcite. The compressive strength showed an increase of 53 and 7% at 7 and 28 days of hydration in slag-blended samples compared to limestone-based blend. The findings reveal that the EAF slag from this novel steelmaking process is suitable for carbonation and utilization as SCM.
Steel slag is an emerging supplementary cementitious material (SCM) that can reduce the carbon footprint of cement. This study reports the use of an electric arc furnace (EAF) slag from new steelmaking process i.e. direct hydrogen-assisted iron reduction (i.e., H2-DRI-EAF route) as an SCM. Further analysis was conducted to examine the effects of carbonation methods including semi-dry and aqueous carbonation on the hydration of slag in blended cements. The results indicate that the carbonation of the slag led to the formation of amorphous silica, crystalline and amorphous CaCO3 which contributed to the hydration reactions in blended cement. The pozzolanic activity and hydration behavior of carbonated slag were further assessed using R3 test and isothermal calorimetry while SEM–EDS, XRD, and TGA were used to analyze the phase transformations after carbonation. Between the two carbonation methods, the aqueous carbonation led to a higher CO2 uptake (9.5 g/100 g slag) and better reactivity. This is due to the formation of more reactive phases such as amorphous silica and calcium carbonates which linked to diverse hydration product formation such as C-(A)-S–H, AFt and hydrotalcite. The compressive strength showed an increase of 53 and 7% at 7 and 28 days of hydration in slag-blended samples compared to limestone-based blend. The findings reveal that the EAF slag from this novel steelmaking process is suitable for carbonation and utilization as SCM.
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