Heating and melting mechanism of stainless steelmaking dust pellet in liquid slag

The heating and melting mechanisms of the pellets immersed in liquid slag were investigated, and the effect of the pellet heating and the melting conditions were studied. The results show that the dust component in the pellet is melted from the surface and no metallic elements are melted before the dust component, the time for the pellet completely melted is reduced as the iron powder content increases since the metallic iron has high thermal conductivity. These are four stages of heating and melting of pellet in liquid slag, they are the growth and melt of solid slag shell, penetration of liquid slag, dissolving of dust component and melting of reduced metals. The lifetime of the solid slag shell is in the range of 7-16 s and increasing the pre-heating temperature of the pellet and the slag temperature can shorten the slag shell lifetime. The time for the dust component in the pellet to be melted completely is in the range of 20-45 s and increasing the pre-heating temperature, especially in the range of 600-800 ℃, can obviously reduce the melting time. A higher slag temperature can also improve the pellet melting and the melting time is reduced by 10-15 s when the slag temperature is increased from 1 450 to 1 550 ℃. The pellet with higher content of iron powder is beneficial to the melting by improving the heat conductivity.

Study on stainless steelmaking dust agglomeration

A new direct recycling technology was developed to recover the valuable metals present in the stainless steelmaking dust and protect the environment. The agglomeration behavior of the dust was analyzed to ensure the requirements of the direct recycling. The main characteristics such as strength, leachability, structure and chemical composition of the pellets were investigated. SEM images show a significant amount of porosities affecting the strength of the pellets and the arrangement of particles in the pellets reveals that no recrystallization bonds are formed, resulting in the poor strength of the pellets. When lignosulfonate is applied as the binder for the agglomeration and the green pellets are dried at room temperature for 60 h, the strong pellets can be obtained without milling the dust. The result of leachability tests shows that the pellets agglomerated can not satisfy the regulations set by the environmental protection agency of US. And it will cause some environmental problems in the long storage of pellets.

Chromium Recycling from Argon-oxygen Decarburization Dust in Hot Metal Pre-dephosphorization Process

The chromium recycling from the stainless steel dust of an argon-oxygen decarburization （AOD） furnace during a hot metal pretreatment process was investigated. Experiments at different temperatures or with different amounts of AOD dusts were carried out in a laboratory furnace equipped with MoSi2 heating elements and subsequently industrial experiments were conducted in a stainless steelmaking factory, in order to study the thermodynamic mechanism of C and Si reacted with Cr2O3 to get Cr from AOD dust. The results showed that the reaction between C and Cr2 O1 occurred below 1572.18 K. Although its reducing ability was weaker than that of Si, C enabled the Cr in Cr2O3 in the AOD dust to be recycled using the Si in the slag. By combining the AOD dust added in an earlier stage, the hot metal pretreatment slag added in a later stage could not only recycle Cr from AOD dust but also remove Si, S, and P. Higher hot metal temperatures resulted in higher Cr content and lower remained P concentration in the molten iron.