Electric Arc Furnace: R&D Trends
HRD Flame Reactor (Figure)The iron and steel industry disposes of about 550,000 tons/year of EAF dust, an EPA classified hazardous waste material. A number of developments are under way to recover metals and provide a disposable waste material. The Flame Reactor by HRD, originally a zinc smelting technology, is being applied to EAF dust as a means to recover zinc and to create a usable iron-rich slag. The original process is based on coal or coke fuel. However, GRI is developing a gas-fired version to eliminate the equipment and manpower required for solid fuels handling. The gas fired test plant achieved better zinc recovery rates than the solid fuel process and all slags passed the EPA toxicity test criteria for delisting as a hazardous waste.
Other
In another project, Florida Steel with Maumee Research and Engineering is taking EAF dust and briquetting it with carbon and reducing it to capture heavy metals (zinc). They have built a full scale facility.
John Pusateri, “Results of Gas-fired Flash Smelting Tests, Phases I-III”, Horsehead Resource Development Co., Inc. GRI Report (GRI-90/0086), June 1990.
R&D Status Report: Industrial Utilization Research Department 1992-1993, Gas Research Institute.