Numerical investigation into the restoration of ocean environments using steelmaking slag

Steelmaking slag has been utilized in shore protection and to improve ocean environments of sea bottom sediments in semi-enclosed areas and coastal regions. This is achieved by reducing dissolved sulphide concentration. In this study, a numerical model is proposed and developed using a Eulerian-Lagrangian model coupled with an ocean circulation model to compute advection-diffusion of dissolved sulphides and fluid-particle interactions between ocean circulation and steelmaking slag. We applied the model to the Fukuyama inner harbour in the Seto Inland Sea and Tokyo Bay and compared our results with field data. The numerical results show good agreement with the field results. We demonstrate that steelmaking slag can control advection-diffusion with regard to concentration of hydrogen sulphide. The steelmaking slag could be a useful material in restoration of ocean environments at enclosed sea areas.