Glassification of Electric Arc Furnace Dust by Using Fly Ash or Bagasse Ash

Electric arc furnace (EAF) dusts contain significant quantities of iron and zinc found almost entirely as iron oxide, zinc oxide and zinc ferrite. The dust has been classified as a hazardous waste due to the relative high lead, cadmium and hexavalent chromium contents. An option for treating EAF dust with an economic and uncomplicated process is by using ashes. Silica in ashes has the ability to incorporate a variety of elements in a nonleachable form in the dust. In this study, the EAF dust was mixed with fly ash or bagasse ash in several ratios. All mixed samples were heated to 1500 degrees C in the muffle furnace and held for 120 minutes and then were examined by XRD and SEM-EDS. It was found that all mixed samples are incorporated into an amorphous glassy structure. In silica-based glassy structures with silica levels of more than 50 wt%, iron and zinc in the EAF dust are incorporated as zinc ferrite in the form of spherical particles on glassy structures.