The effect of slag variability in the attempted manufacture of AYF (alite-ye'elimite-ferrite) cement clinker at both laboratory and pilot scale

The production of AYF (alite-ye'elimite-ferrite) clinker was tested at laboratory and semi-industrial scale using by-products from the metallurgical industry: AOD slag; ladle slag; and fayalitic slag. Alite could be produced with ye'elimite using fluorine originating from AOD (argon oxygen decarburisation) slag as a mineraliser. After a successful laboratory demonstration, the clinker production was scaled to a semi-industrial trial. It was discovered that the reason for the absence of alite formation in a semi-industrial demonstration was that the AOD slag from the specific batch did not perform the designed mineralisation effect for alite formation. This study demonstrates that alite-ye'elimite can be produced at 1260 °C at laboratory scale by using fluorine mineralisation originating from an industrial by-product – in this case, AOD slag. However, the utilisation of by-products for delicate reactions requires detailed determination of the properties of the slag, as the variability from the same source yields different clinker chemistries and mineral phases.