Oxygen-assisted zinc recovery from electric arc furnace dust using magnesium chloride

Electric arc furnace(EAF)dust is an important secondary resource containing metals,such as zinc(Zn)and iron(Fe).Recover-ing Zn from EAF dust can contribute to resource recycling and reduce environmental impacts.However,the high chemical stability of ZnFe_(2)O_(4)in EAF dust poses challenges to Zn recovery.To address this issue,a facile approach that involves oxygen-assisted chlorination using molten MgCl_(2)is proposed.This work focused on elucidating the role of O2 in the reaction between ZnFe_(2)O_(4)and molten MgCl_(2).The results demonstrate that MgCl_(2)effectively broke down the ZnFe_(2)O_(4)structure,and the high O2 atmosphere considerably promoted the sep-aration of Zn from other components in the form of ZnCl_(2).The presence of O2 facilitated the formation of MgFe_(2)O_(4),which stabilized Fe and prevented its chlorination.Furthermore,the excessive use of MgCl_(2)resulted in increased evaporation loss,and high temperatures pro-moted the rapid separation of Zn.Building on these findings,we successfully extracted ZnCl_(2)-enriched volatiles from practical EAF dust through oxygen-assisted chlorination.Under optimized conditions,this method achieved exceptional Zn chlorination percentage of over 97%within a short period,while Fe chlorination remained below 1%.The resulting volatiles contained 85wt%of ZnCl_(2),which can be further processed to produce metallic Zn.The findings offer guidance for the selective recovery of valuable metals,particularly from solid wastes such as EAF dust.

Extraction of Zinc from Electric Arc Furnace Dust by Alkaline Leaching Followed by Fusion of the Leaching Residue with Caustic Soda

Extractability of zinc from two types of electric arc furnace (EAF) dusts containing 24.8% and 16.8% of zinc respectively (denoted as Sample A and Sample B) were tested using direct alkaline leaching followed by fusion of the resulting leaching residues with caustic soda. The experimental results show that the extraction of zinc is heavily dependent on the contents of iron in the dusts. The higher iron content, the lower extraction of zinc is obtained. 53% and 38% of zinc can be extracted when both dusts were directly contacted with 5mol·L^-1 NaOH solution for 42h. The remaining zinc left in the leaching residues, which supposed to be present as zinc ferrites, can be further leached when the residues were fused with caustic soda. Quantitative extraction of zinc can be obtained from the leaching residue of Sample A while only 85% from Sample B. The extractability of zinc from dusts wit hvarious contents of iron is compared. The production flowsheet for zinc from the dusts using the process proposed is discussed.

Mass Balance Modeling for Electric Arc Furnace and Ladle Furnace System in Steelmaking Facility in Turkey

In the electric arc furnace （EAF） steel production processes, scrap steel is principally used as a raw material instead of iron ore. In the steelmaking process with EAF, scrap is first melted in the furnace and then the desired chemical composition of the steel can be obtained in a special furnace such as ladle furnace （LF）. This kind of furnace process is used for the secondary refining of alloy steel. LF furnace offers strong heating fluxes and enables precise temperature control, thereby allowing for the addition of desired amounts of various alloying elements. It also provides outstanding desulfurization at high-temperature treatment by reducing molten steel fluxes and removing deoxidation products. Elemental analysis with mass balance modeling is important to know the precise amount of required alloys for the LF input with respect to scrap composition. In present study, chemical reactions with mass conservation law in EAF and LF were modeled altogether as a whole system and chemical compositions of the final steel alloy output can be obtained precisely according to different scrap compositions, alloying elements ratios, and other input amounts. Besides, it was found that the mass efficiency for iron element in the system is 95.93%. These efficiencies are calculated for all input elements as 8. 45% for C, 30.31% for Si, 46.36% for Mn, 30.64% for P, 41.96% for S, and 69.79% for Cr, etc. These efficiencies provide valuable ideas about the amount of the input materials that are vanished or combusted for 100 kg of each of the input materials in the EAF and LF system.

Modeling of electrode system for three-phase electric arc furnace

To simulate the process of electrode operation, a dynamic model describing the electrode system of three-phase electric arc furnace was developed. This new model can be divided into three submodels in terms of the practical situation. They are the power supply system model the electric arc model and the hydraulic actuator system model. According to the basic circuit theory, the power supply system model where the high voltage transmission circuit and mutual inductances were considered, was set up. The electric arc model, which was novel for the electrode control, served as the electrical load and was connected to the power supply system model. The hydraulic actuator system model consists of the proportional valve part that is modeled to capture the dead-zone nonlinear characteristics and the hydraulic cylinder part where the impact of the load force is taken into account. By comparing simulation data and actual data, the results show that the electrode system model is proved to be accurate.

Fluid Flow Modeling of Arc Plasma and Bath Circulation in DC Electric Arc Furnace

A mathematical model describing the flow field, heat transfer and the electromagnetic phenomenon in a DC electric arc furnace has been developed. First the governing equations in the arc plasma region are solved and the calculated results of heat transfer, current density and shear stresses on the anode surface are used as boundary conditions in a model of molten bath. Then a two-dimensional time-dependent model is used to describe the flow field and electromagnetic phenomenon in the molten bath. Moreover, the effect of bottom electrode diameter on the circulation of molten bath is studied.

Metal-doped(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 from integral utilization of toxic Zn-containing electric arc furnace dust: An environment-friendly heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst

Pure metal-doped(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 was synthesized from Zn-containing electric arc furnace dust(EAFD)by solid-state reaction using copper salt as additive.The effects of pretreated EAFD-to-Cu2(OH)2CO3·6H2O mass ratio,calcination time,and calcination temperature on the structure and catalytic ability were systematically studied.Under the optimum conditions,the decolorization efficiency and total organic carbon(TOC)removal efficiency of the as-prepared ferrite for treating a Rhodamine B solution were approximately 90.0%and 45.0%,respectively,and the decolorization efficiency remained 83.0%after five recycles,suggesting that the as-prepared(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 was an efficient heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst with high stability.The high catalytic activity mainly depended on the synergistic effect of iron and copper ions occupying octahedral positions.More importantly,the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure(TCLP)analysis illustrated that the toxic Zncontaining EAFD was transformed into harmless(Cu,Zn)Fe2O4 and that the concentrations of toxic ions in the degraded solution were all lower than the national emission standard(GB/31574-2015),further confirming that the as obtained sample is an environment-friendly heterogeneous Fenton-like catalyst.

Zinc leaching from electric arc furnace dust in alkaline medium

Physical and chemical properties of electric arc furnace （EAF） dust from Tianjin seamless Pipe Company were measured and analyzed. The zinc leaching tests in alkaline medium were carried out under variation of leaching agent concentration, leaching temperature, leaching cumulative time and solid-to-liquid ratio. The thermodynamics and kinetics of the zinc leaching process were also analyzed. The results show that the EAF dust contains 10% （mass fraction） zinc and the median particle size is 0.69 μm. The zinc recovery of 73.4% is obtained tinder the condition of 90 ℃, 6 mol/L NaOH, and 60 min leaching time. With the increase of concentration of NaOH and the cumulative time, zinc leaching will be significantly increased. The kinetics study demonstrates that the leaching reaction is chemically controlled and the reaction activation energy is 15.73 kJ/mol.

Recovery of zinc from electric arc furnace dust by alkaline pressure leaching using iron as a reductant

To recover zinc from electric arc furnace(EAF)dust,a process of primary normal pressure leaching and secondary alkaline pressure leaching is proposed.First,under the alkaline pressure leaching system,the experiment of pure zinc ferrite being reduced by iron powder was carried out.Under the optimal reduction conditions(i.e.,temperature of 260℃,NaOH concentration of 6 mol/L,liquid-to-solid ratio of 50 mL/g,and a 5-fold excess of iron powder),89%of zinc was extracted.The iron in the reduced residue exists as a magnetite phase.Subsequently,the normal pressure leaching experiment was carried out with EAF dust as raw material,and 66%zinc was leached.The main phase of zinc in normal leaching residue was determined to be zinc ferrite.Then,the normal leaching residue was reduced by iron powder under the alkaline pressure leaching system,and 66.5%of zinc was extracted.After the two-stage leaching process,the leaching rate of zinc in EAF dust can achieve 88.7%.The alkaline pressure leaching solution can be returned as the normal pressure leaching solution,and the magnetite in the alkaline pressure leaching residue can be recovered by magnetic separation.

3D Numerical Analysis of the Arc Plasma Behavior in a Submerged DC Electric Arc Furnace for the Production of Fused MgO

A three dimensional steady-state magnetohydrodynamic model is developed for the arc plasma in a DC submerged electric arc furnace for the production of fused MgO. The arc is generated in a small semi-enclosed space formed by the graphite electrode, the molten bath and unmelted raw materials. The model is first used to solve a similar problem in a steel making furnace, and the calculated results are found to be in good agreement with the published measurements. The behavior of arcs with different arc lengths is also studied in the furnace for MgO production. From the distribution of the arc pressure on the bath surface it is shown that the arc plasma impingement is large enough to cause a crater-like depression on the surface of the MgO bath. The circulation of the high temperature air under the electrode may enhance the arc efficiency, especially for a shorter arc.

A novel hydrothermal method for zinc extraction and separation from zinc ferrite and electric arc furnace dust

A novel hydrothermal process was developed to extract zinc from pure zinc ferrite（ZnFe2O4） nanopowder and zinc-containing electric arc furnace（EAF） dust using hexahydrated ferric chloride（FeCl3-6H2O） as a decomposing agent.The effects of solid FeCl3-6H2O to ZnFe2O4 ratio by mass（RF/Z）,hydrothermal reaction temperature,and time on zinc extraction were systematically investigated.In the results,when the hydrothermal reaction is conducted at 150℃ for 2 h with RF/Z of 15：20,the efficiency of zinc extraction from ZnFe2O4 reaches97.2%,and the concentration of ferric ions（Fe^3＋） in the leaching solution is nearly zero,indicating a high selectivity for zinc.In addition,the zinc extraction efficiency from the EAF dust reaches 94.5%in the case of the hydrothermal reaction performed at 200℃ for 10 h with the solid FeCl3-6H2O to EAF dust ratio by mass（RF/EAF dust） of 15：10.Zinc and iron separation is achieved by adjusting the pH value of the leaching solution according to the different precipitation pH values of metal hydroxides.

Application of Extended Kalman Filter to the Modeling of Electric Arc Furnace for Power Quality Issues

Electric arc furnaces(EAFs)represent one of the most disturbing loads in the subtransmission or transmission electric power systems.Therefore,it is necessary to build a practical model to descript the behavior of EAF in the simulation of power system for power quality issues.This paper deals with the modeling of EAF based on the combination of extended Kalman filter to identify the parameter of arc current and the power balance equation to obtain the dynamic,multi-valued u-i characteristics of EAF load.The whole EAF systems are simulated by means of power system blockset in Matlab to validate the proposed EAF model.This model can also be used to assess the impact of the new plant or highly varying nonlinear loads that exhibit chaos in power systems.

Computer Aided Mass Balance Analysis for AC Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking

A mass balance analysis was undertaken for liquid steel production using a computer program specially developed for the AC electric arc furnace at an important alloy steel producer in Turkey. The data obtained by using the computer program were found to be very close to the actual production ones.

Heat Transfer Analysis for Industrial AC Electric Arc Furnace

The heat transfer analysis was performed for an AC electric arc furnace (EAF). Heat losses by conduction, convection and radiation from outer surface, roof, bottom and electrodes of EAF were determined in detail. Some suggestions about decreasing heat losses were presented.

Mathematical model on heat transfer of water-cooling steel-stick bottom electrode of DC electric arc furnace

For predicting and controlling the melted depth of bottomelectrode during the process of steelmaking, the water-cooling steel-stick electrode is taken as an example, to analyze the process ofheat transfer, then 3D mathematical model by control capacity methodis built. At the same time, the measurement on the melted depth ofbottom electrode is conducted which verified the correctness of thebuilt mathematical model. On the base of verification, all kinds ofkey parameters are calculated through the application and a series ofresults are simulated. Finally, the optimum parameters are found andthe service life of bottom electrode is prolonged.

Development and Application of Castables for Ladle Nozzle of Electric Arc Furnace

The castables for ladle nozzle were developed using brown corundum as the main raw material and the right amounts of complex additives . The influence of several additives on the properties such as strength and permanent linear change of the samples was studied . The results showed that applying complex additives improved the strength and the volume stability of the castables greatly. The campaign of the castables for ladle nozzle has increased from about 40 heats to 70 heats.

High Alumina Refractory Bricks for Electric Arc Furnace Roofs

This standard specifies the sort, technical requirement, test method, inspection rules, marking, packing, transportation, storage and quality certification of high alumina refractory bricks for electric arc furnace roofs.

Flexible Power Supply System of AC Electric Arc Furnace

The AC electric arc furnace(EAF)is becoming a core apparatus of the modern steel industry.Nevertheless,it used to be a major threat of power quality in the traditional power supply system.In this paper,a flexible power supply system of the AC EAF is proposed,which is expected to completely alter its inherent cognition of impact load in the power grid.The basics of the power supply for EAF are first reviewed and the novel techniques to enhance the operation flexibility of EAF are introduced.The power circuit and the control structure are then presented,followed by the detailed strategies of various operations fully considering the features of EAF.A large disturbance stability criterion based on the mixed potential theory is also established for the practical application.Both electromagnetic transient simulations using PSCAD and benefit analyses verify the feasibility of the proposed system.

Carbothermic Reduction of Zinc and Iron Oxides in Electric Arc Furnace Dust

The reduction of zinc and iron oxides from electric arc furnace dust （EAFD） by carbon was investigated at temperatures between 800 and 1300℃. The analytic technique employed includes chemical analysis, X-ray fluores- cence spectroscopy （XRF）, X-ray powder diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） equipped with X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry （EDS）, and thermodynamic database FactSage 6.2. It was found that the reduction of zinc and iron oxides depends largely on Boudouad reaction. At 900℃, zinc exists in tested samples as ZnO, which is reduced in the temperature range of 1000--1 100℃. At 1 100℃, 99.11% of the zinc is evaporated. The metallization ratio of Fe is 79.19% at 1300℃, as the content of Fe2＋ is still 9.40%. A higher temperature is thus required for a higher reduction degree of Fe oxides by solid or gaseous carbon.

Designing Evolutionary Wavelet Neural Network for Estimating Foaming Slag Quality in Electric Arc Furnace Using Power Quality Indices

In the present study,a novel approach based on an evolutionary wavelet neural network(EWNN)is proposed to estimate the slag quality in an electric arc furnace(EAF)employing power quality indices.In the EWNN,an evolutionary method is applied to train the parameters for a combination of neural networks and wavelets.I For this purpose,all of the electrical parameters for six melting processes are measured with a power quality analyzer,attached to the secondary component of an EAF transformer at a Saba steel complex,to estimate the foaming slag quality.Experimental results on various combinations of measured electrical parameters,applying the designed EWNN estimator,demonstrate that utilizing five leading indicators leads to the highest precision.The obtained 99%accuracy for estimating the foaming slag quality by EWNN compared to the other methods illustrates the proposed method's efficiency.

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) emissions from electric arc furnaces for steelmaking

The proportion of steel produced using electric arc furnaces(EAFs)is increasing.In this study,polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans(PCDD/Fs)concentrations and patterns in stack gas samples from three typical EAFs in steelmaking plants were determined to allow the contributions of EAFs in steelmaking plants to PCDD/Fs emissions in China to be assessed.Samples collection was accomplished by adopting the automatic isokinetic sampling technique,then the PCDD/Fs congeners concentrations were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by isotope dilution high-resolution gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry(HRGC-HRMS).The mean PCDD/Fs mass concentrations in stack gases emitted during the scrap preheating phase of plants E1,E2,and E3 were 0.48,385.55,and 0.34 ng Nm^-3,respectively,and the total toxic equivalent(WHO2005-TEQ)concentrations were 0.05,33.16,and 0.03 ng Nm^-3,respectively.The PCDD/Fs mass concentration in stack gases emitted during the melting phase at plant E3 was 0.12 ng Nm^-3(0.02 ng WHO2005-TEQ Nm^-3).The operational temperature of the bag filter of the preheating in the E2 EAF was as high as 230℃,which is conducive to the generation of PCDD/Fs,whether the temperature in the bag filter of E1(150℃)and E3(120℃)are not.Moreover,the bag filter temperature is suggested to be best controlled to below 150℃.The emission factors(EF)for PCDD/Fs released into the air during the scrap preheating phase for plants E1,E2,and E3 were 0.13,52,and 0.10 mg WHO2005-TEQ t1,respectively,and the EF for the smelting phase from plant E3 was 0.14 mg WHO2005-TEQ t1.The emission factor in E2 is 5 times higher than the highest current UNEP toolkit factor for EAFs(10 mg TEQ/tonne steel).Therefore,an update for the UNEP toolkit emission factor for a few case plants is suggested.Several congeners,including 2,3,7,8-TeCDF,1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDF,and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD,were dominant during the preheating phase,while 2,3,7,8-TeCDF,1,2,3,7,8-PeCDF,and 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF were dominant during the smelting phase.The monitoring data from the case plants helps to better understand the PCDD/Fs emissions of EAFs using preheating process stages.However,a more complete emission inventory requires more case investigations on the PCDD/Fs emissions from representative EAFs steelmaking plants.