Recovery of metals from steelmaking dust by selective chlorination–evaporation process

Abstract

Treatment of electric arc furnace (EAF) dusts has become an important issue from the viewpoint of environmental protection and the recycling of valuable resources because these dusts contain considerable amount of zinc and lead. A new recovery process has been proposed, in which the metals in the dusts react with waste polyvinyl chloride to form metal chlorides. To clarify the physicochemical properties and behaviour of zinc, lead and their chlorides and oxychlorides, the kinetics of chlorination of ZnO, PbO and ZnFe₂O₄ contained in the EAF dusts were investigated at 1023–1273 K with Ar–O₂–Cl₂ gas. Based on these results, the selective chlorination and evaporation of zinc and lead from Fe₂O₃–ZnFe₂O₄–ZnO–PbO mixtures has been examined and the high efficiency of selectivity demonstrated.