Abstract
Environmental aspects and the sustainable manufacturing of steels require producers to pay more and more attention to the efficient utilization of materials and waste products during steelmaking. This study is focused on the evaluation of possibilities for the recovery of metals (such as Fe, Ni and Cr) from waste products used for slag foaming in the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) process. Two types of industrial briquettes were produced by mixing mill-scale from the hot rolling of stainless steels with anthracite and pet-coke, respectively. Thereafter, an assessment of the metal reduction processes in briquettes at high temperatures (1500 °C) was made by using laboratory thermo-gravimetric reduction experiments in an argon atmosphere. The amounts of metal, slag and gas obtained from the briquettes were estimated. In addition, the velocity and time for the removal of metal droplets from the liquid slag depending on the size of the metal droplets was estimated. It was found that up to 97% of metal droplets can be removed from the slag during the first 30 min. Moreover, results showed that most of the Cr, Ni and Fe (up to 93–100%) can be reduced from oxides of these metals in briquettes at 1500 °C. Moreover, the anthracite and pet-coke in the investigated briquettes have similar reduction capabilities. It was found that up to 330 kg of Fe, 28 kg of Ni and 66 kg of Cr per ton of added briquettes can be recovered from waste products by the industrial application of those briquettes for slag foaming in EAF.
Highlights
Today, the effective application of energy and recycling of waste products in the steel industry is becoming more and more important for the sustainable development of the steelmaking industry.The production of stainless steels includes many energy consuming stages such as scrap melting in the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), melt decarburization in the Argon Oxygen Decarburizer (AOD), melt refining in a ladle, casting, rolling, etc
66 kg of Cr per ton of added briquettes can be recovered from waste products by the industrial application of those briquettes for slag foaming in EAF
The recovery of Fe, Ni and Cr from oxides present in briquettes, which can be used for slag foaming in the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) during stainless steel production, was investigated in laboratory thermo-gravimetric reduction (TGR) experiments
Summary
The effective application of energy and recycling of waste products in the steel industry is becoming more and more important for the sustainable development of the steelmaking industry.The production of stainless steels includes many energy consuming stages such as scrap melting in the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), melt decarburization in the Argon Oxygen Decarburizer (AOD), melt refining in a ladle, casting, rolling, etc. An amount of 30 to 70 kg of mill-scale per ton of rolled products can be obtained just during a rolling operation, depending on the rolling process conditions [1] This means that the amount of waste mill-scale from only the rolling process corresponds to on average 5% of the total production of stainless steels. According to the annual world production of stainless steels [2], on average 1.2–2.1 Mton/year of mill-scale is formed during the production of 25–42 Mton/year of stainless steels. Utilization of such residues is of significant interest to the steel industry in Sweden.
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