Disposal of High-Temperature Slags: A Review of Integration of Heat Recovery and Material Recycling

Abstract

Nowadays with the continuous urbanization in China, the carbon emission and resource shortage have been serious issues, for which the disposal of blast furnace slags (BFS) and steel slags (SS) discharged from the metallurgical industry make up a significant strategy. The output of crude steel reached 823 Mt in China in 2014 and the thermal heat in these slags was equivalent to ~18 Mt of standard coal. Herein, the recent advances were systemically reviewed and analyzed, mainly from two respects, i.e., integration of heat recovery and material recycling and crystallization control of the slags. It was first found that for the heat recovery from BFS, the most intensively investigated physical method and chemical method were centrifugal granulation and gasification reaction, respectively. Furthermore, a two-step approach could contribute to a promising strategy for the treatment of slags, i.e., the liquid slags were first granulated into small particles, and then other further treatment was performed such as gasification reaction. With regard to SS, the effective disposal could be achieved using a selective crystallization and phase separation (SCPS) method, and moreover, the solid solution of 2CaO·SiO2 and the target phases could act as a promising enriched phase to extract the valuable elements.