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This is a good example where Steel and other materials are salvaged as in a ocean Oil rig in Norway. The will to reuse material is noteworthy.

Trueturning

Diamond
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
Hello everyone. I noticed this article where for a decommissioned off shore oil rig is being torn down no the steel and other materials are being salvaged. It is impressive the commitment behind this kind of effort. I believe the U.S. has at times focused on repurposing steel (really good steel) especially during WW2 when old steel was collected and used for the war effort. Just something which effects manufacturing and through steel production being less as this steel is reused. I thought interesting connections can be made US and Europe and given current trends it can be enlightening. They are committed to doing this with determination all disagreements aside of course. It is interesting to hear views from our European members and American (USA) members. Best regards.

 

standardparts

Diamond
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Hello everyone. I noticed this article where for a decommissioned off shore oil rig is being torn down no the steel and other materials are being salvaged. It is impressive the commitment behind this kind of effort. I believe the U.S. has at times focused on repurposing steel (really good steel) especially during WW2 when old steel was collected and used for the war effort. Just something which effects manufacturing and through steel production being less as this steel is reused. I thought interesting connections can be made US and Europe and given current trends it can be enlightening. They are committed to doing this with determination all disagreements aside of course. It is interesting to hear views from our European members and American (USA) members. Best regards.


Not too many scrapping opportunities the size of those oil rigs but I'd bet if you left it with a 'free for taking' sign in many areas of the U.S. it would get hauled off piece by piece in short order. Believe I read where almost 70% of steel in the U.S. is re-cycled. The two yards near me have a steady stream of scrappers all day long.

Am sure those oil rigs were pretty costly to deal with considering recovery, handling, and environmental considerations so scrap value must be very high for that material.
 

Trueturning

Diamond
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
It turns out that this is the understanding on why this is beneficial. From the article… “According to various estimates, one kilo (2.2 pounds) of recycled steel generates 58-70 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than a kilo of new steel.”
 

triumph406

Titanium
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Location
ca
Not too many scrapping opportunities the size of those oil rigs but I'd bet if you left it with a 'free for taking' sign in many areas of the U.S. it would get hauled off piece by piece in short order. Believe I read where almost 70% of steel in the U.S. is re-cycled. The two yards near me have a steady stream of scrappers all day long.

Am sure those oil rigs were pretty costly to deal with considering recovery, handling, and environmental considerations so scrap value must be very high for that material.

Not any more, I can leave barrels of scrap clean aluminum outside the shop these days and the tweakers do not take them. There was a time a few years ago if it wasn't bolted down it was gone overnight.

Either the price of scrap doesn't make it worthwhile for the tweakers to bother, or their in jail, or they've found another income source.
 

dalmatiangirl61

Diamond
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Location
BFE Nevada/San Marcos Tx
Not any more, I can leave barrels of scrap clean aluminum outside the shop these days and the tweakers do not take them. There was a time a few years ago if it wasn't bolted down it was gone overnight.

Either the price of scrap doesn't make it worthwhile for the tweakers to bother, or their in jail, or they've found another income source.
Catalytic converters pay better!
 

Bill D

Diamond
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Location
Modesto, CA USA
I bet many would prefer the rigs stay in the ocean as habitat for sea life.
Dalmatian Girl I thought much of Nevada still had old scrap abandoned in the middle of nowhere too expensive to haul to the scrap yards on the coast?
Bill D
 

dalmatiangirl61

Diamond
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Location
BFE Nevada/San Marcos Tx
I bet many would prefer the rigs stay in the ocean as habitat for sea life.
Dalmatian Girl I thought much of Nevada still had old scrap abandoned in the middle of nowhere too expensive to haul to the scrap yards on the coast?
Bill D
Define "old scrap", yes plenty of scrap at old mine sites, pretty sure most falls under the "Antiquities Act", but the cooler pieces are disappearing. Modern scrap, mainly cars, is in abundance, 2 yards south of me opened last year, and are getting full. The county charges local businesses to deposit metals at the landfill, a few months back they waived the fees in hopes some of them would clean up their yards, it didn't work. They don't bury the steel at the landfill, its collected in a pile, scrap yard out of SLC gets it on a no-bid contract for 2K per year. Once a year they bring out a crusher, cube it, and haul it. I cleaned up my yard in the spring, random steel that had been accumulating for 20 years, roughly 6 tons worth, hauled it to landfill as it would have required 3 trips to get it to SLC or LV.
 

Ries

Diamond
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Location
Edison Washington USA
80% of scrap steel in the USA is recycled now. Nucor alone has 23 mills in the US, most remelting at least a million tons a year, and they are the largest steelmaker in the country.
 

Trueturning

Diamond
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
Interesting. It is very worthwhile as Nucor has done well. It is a good effort as far as carbon emissions are concerned and it supports the manufacturing sector.
Furthermore this mentioned that it can be reused forever.

”Steel is the most recycled material in the world and can be recycled forever. 60 percent of steel is recycled but because more steel is produced than scrapped, recycled steel makes up about 40 percent of the total amount of steel produced.”
 

Trueturning

Diamond
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
Old scrap does depend on some kind of definition sure. Not a big problem. During the 2nd World war there was a lot of scrap gathered and there was rationing of gasoline too.

DG has a good point as she mentioned that they (the oil rigs) make good cover for fish like a reef only the steel rigs are artificial/man-made. Sunken ships also serve well As artificial reefs.

The steel can be used to make wind mills or new rigs. Too the machines which cut the steel apart for recycling seem to be unique to the task yet I did not find much detail about them or any videos or pictures of them.

On edit I found this video which may shed light on the cutting and decommission process.

Video of Norway breaking them down. They use specialized machines to cut it up.


Very informative article about the feasibility and good business sense found in recycling various things like even Aluminum. It actually pays off big in that less carbon is produced doing this. It actually has a high ROI.


https://www.nationalmaterial.com/steel-and-recycling-fun-facts/
https://www.nationalmaterial.com/steel-and-recycling-fun-facts/;
 
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standardparts

Diamond
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Not any more, I can leave barrels of scrap clean aluminum outside the shop these days and the tweakers do not take them. There was a time a few years ago if it wasn't bolted down it was gone overnight.

Either the price of scrap doesn't make it worthwhile for the tweakers to bother, or their in jail, or they've found another income source.
Maybe the social services safety net is better, or dope, lawyers, and bail is cheaper in Cali.

On the drive in to the shop still seeing the scrappers with truck, or on bicycle (same guy almost every day) or grocery cart loaded and headed to get cashed out.

Might make an interesting study about regarding drug use and scrapping. Used to supervise some people doing expense paid multi-year vacations who took scrapping to extreme levels to fund their lifestyles.

And...Notice one of the tenants in the building ordered a scrap container and tumbled some machine tools ino it.....scrap price wise...a day late and gonna be a few dollars short.
 
Last edited:

triumph406

Titanium
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Location
ca
Maybe the social services safety net is better, or dope, lawyers, and bail is cheaper in Cali.

On the drive in to the shop still seeing the scrappers with truck, or on bicycle (same guy almost every day) or grocery cart loaded and headed to get cashed out.

Might make an interesting study about regarding drug use and scrapping. Used to supervise some people doing expense paid multi-year vacations who took scrapping to extreme levels to fund their lifestyles.

And...Notice one of the tenants in the building ordered a scrap container and tumbled some machine tools ino it.....scrap price wise...a day late and gonna be a few dollars short.
Nope, scrap prices just don't seem to make it worthwhile. They've all graduated to catylictic converters around here
 

standardparts

Diamond
Joined
Mar 26, 2019
Nope, scrap prices just don't seem to make it worthwhile. They've all graduated to catylictic converters around here
Political solution would be to ban anything with a catalytic converter and force replacement with an EV......Oh wait....

On a serious note:
The following article list the vehicles with the highest cat theft rates along with the most expensive to replace.

 

adammil1

Titanium
Joined
Mar 12, 2001
Location
New Haven, CT
Old scrap does depend on some kind of definition sure. Not a big problem. During the 2nd World war there was a lot of scrap gathered and there was rationing of gasoline too.

DG has a good point as she mentioned that they (the oil rigs) make good cover for fish like a reef only the steel rigs are artificial/man-made. Sunken ships also serve well As artificial reefs.

The steel can be used to make wind mills or new rigs. Too the machines which cut the steel apart for recycling seem to be unique to the task yet I did not find much detail about them or any videos or pictures of them.

On edit I found this video which may shed light on the cutting and decommission process.

Video of Norway breaking them down. They use specialized machines to cut it up.


Very informative article about the feasibility and good business sense found in recycling various things like even Aluminum. It actually pays off big in that less carbon is produced doing this. It actually has a high ROI.


https://www.nationalmaterial.com/steel-and-recycling-fun-facts/
https://www.nationalmaterial.com/steel-and-recycling-fun-facts/;
We got some really cool machines here too to handle scraping! Years back I was at a power plant I believe in Pennsylvania that was replacing a baghouse with a scrubber. They brought in one of these machines with a shear attachment and were just munching off chunks of steel 80-90ft in the air as they fell to the ground to be picked up from time to time and carted off to the scrap yards. https://www.sennebogen.com/en/products/demolition-machine/sennebogen-870-demolition

It was a lot of fun to watch. Elsewhere on the same job site a monster Liebherr hydraulic crane brand new with shipping tags still on it in places was effortlessly and almost silently hosting massive superheater platens probably at least 10 stories up and into the top of the boiler house. Pretty awesome machinery out there!
 

Trueturning

Diamond
Joined
Jul 2, 2019
We got some really cool machines here too to handle scraping! Years back I was at a power plant I believe in Pennsylvania that was replacing a baghouse with a scrubber. They brought in one of these machines with a shear attachment and were just munching off chunks of steel 80-90ft in the air as they fell to the ground to be picked up from time to time and carted off to the scrap yards. https://www.sennebogen.com/en/products/demolition-machine/sennebogen-870-demolition

It was a lot of fun to watch. Elsewhere on the same job site a monster Liebherr hydraulic crane brand new with shipping tags still on it in places was effortlessly and almost silently hosting massive superheater platens probably at least 10 stories up and into the top of the boiler house. Pretty awesome machinery out there!
That is awesome can you post a video? Watching the way these oil rigs were reprocessed was amazing showing the machines they used to recycle steel. I liked what I saw very much and am very pleased to see similar in the US. Thanks for the info—- very much so.
 








 
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