Pyrometallurgical Technology for Extracting Iron and Zinc from Electric Arc Furnace Dust

Abstract

This study is aimed at developing a technology for processing electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) into granulated cast iron and a zinc-containing product. The study object was the dust from the EAF of PJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk region). It has been established that the dust contains valuable components in the form of ZnFe2O4 and ZnO. The processing of EAFD involves the reduction of Fe and Zn in a charge from their oxygen-containing forms with C and CO. The content of the charge components was calculated in % as follows: EAFD—17.44; scale—51.33; hard coal—20.61; quartz sand—4.71; lime—5.91. The experiments in the high-temperature LHT 08/17 furnace (Germany) allowed for defining the optimal temperature regime for reduction melting. As a result of laboratory tests, granulated pig iron samples were obtained, containing in wt%: Fe—95.27; C—4.4; S—0.07, and others. Captured zinc-containing product after calcination (to remove halogens) contained 90.21 wt% ZnO. The resulting granulated pig iron is recommended as one of the charge components in electrometallurgical steel production. The zinc-containing product is recommended as a raw material for Zn production and others.

Keywords

• electric arc furnace dust
• flux
• reduction
• pig iron
• distillation
• zinc sublimates