CANBERRA, March 16-- A new Australian technology that converts blast furnace waste into an ingredient for cement is being trialed for commercialization in China.

Dry Slag Granulation (DSG) reduces water use and greenhouse gas emissions and is the focus of a partnership announced on Monday between the Australia's chief science body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and Beijing MCC Equipment Research & Design Corporation (MCCE).

Moving the DSG technology to an industrial scale is a landmark for the Australia-China research collaboration and environmentally friendly metal production, according to the CSIRO director of the mineral resources flagship, Jonathan Law.

"Our collaboration is an exciting step towards the uptake of an innovation with real prospects of transforming the productivity and environmental performance of global iron smelting," Law said.

"The benefits from wide uptake of DSG technology on blast furnaces will be profound in helping the global industry to reduce water and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while sustaining metal production."

The DSG technology that is fitted to blast furnaces includes a spinning disc and granulation chamber that separates molten slag into droplets under centrifugal forces, uses air to quench and solidify the droplets, and extracts a granulated slag product as well as heated air.

The 'glassy' substance produced is ideal for cement manufacture, but has significantly lower associated greenhouse gas emissions than cement produced by conventional methods.

Air at 500-600 degrees Celsius extracted from the DSG process can be used onsite for drying, preheating or steam generation.

"DSG is just one of the CSIRO innovations in sustainable steel production and one of many solutions we have found for national and global challenges in the minerals industry," Law said.

Law said the CSIRO looked forward to working closely with MCCE to bring DSG technology to full fruition.