Heavy metal machines daily quests3/2/2023 ![]() Shigenori Inoue works at the Water and Environment Research and Development Department I, and he is involved along with Hosho in development of the metal recovery equipment at the Shin-yodogawa Environmental Plant Center. We started with a tour of the processes to see how metals are extracted from slag. There, we were welcomed with a smile by Fumiki Hosho, the leader of the project team. These experiments are taking place at the Shin-yodogawa Environmental Plant Center, located near the Yodo River in Osaka. Kubota, which has been developing melting furnaces for many years, is currently conducting experiments on practical use of a device that can extract valuable metals from slag. ![]() This means the treasures within do not end up seeing the light of day. However, slag is currently used as a base material for roads, as a raw material for secondary concrete products, or as a covering material for final disposal sites. They prove that so-called “urban mines” are not only found within people's mobile phones and computers. What is more, the slag they produce contains useful metals. Melting furnaces melt wastes at high temperatures, so they generate almost no dioxins. For these reasons, melting furnaces are attracting attention for their superior properties in reducing volume, detoxifying, and recycling waste. However, these present issues such as the approaching limit in the remaining years of use for landfills, and the environmental impact when toxic substances begin to dissolve. Japan has a limited amount of space for landfills, so incinerators were the main method of use for many years. The Manual Work Before Machine Sorting is Like “Panning for Gold”įor the disposal of household garbage and other waste, the methods include incinerators, which burn the waste, and melting furnaces, which melt the incinerator ashes at high temperatures.
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