Thermodynamic analysis of the selective carbothermic reduction of electric arc furnace dust

Electric arc furnace (EAF) dust, which is produced as a result of the melting of automobile scrap in an electric arc furnace, contains considerable amounts of zinc and lead, which are of significant economic value. Typically, the other major components are iron oxide and calcium oxide with minor amounts of other metal oxides. In this research, a detailed thermodynamic study of the pyrometallurgical processing of the dust, using carbon as a reducing agent was performed. The SOLGASMIX solver of Outokumpu HSC Chemistry (R) 5.1 was used to calculate the equilibrium composition under reducing conditions. The control input dust composition was as follows (in mass percent): 8.100% CaO, 8.250% 2CaO.SiO2, 11.200% CaCO3, 8.830% CaO-Fe2O3, 7.840% Fe3O4, 3.770% PbO, 38.150% ZnFe2O4 and 13.860% ZnO. Selective reduction and separation of both the zinc and the lead as metallic vapours, from the iron, in oxide form, was examined. The separation of the zinc or the lead from the iron, was defined quantitatively in terms of the selectivity factor (log beta) as follows. for zinc beta(Zn/Fe) = X-Zng/X-Fem Y-Feo/Y-Zno for zinc beta(Pb/Fe) = X-Pbg/X-Fem Y-Feo/YPb+1 where the subscript symbols refer to the metal being present in gaseous (g), metallic solid (m), solid oxide (o) or metallic liquid (1) form, respectively. The standard calculations were performed for one hundred grams of dust at atmospheric pressure: The variables investigated were as follows; temperature in the range of 1273-1873 K, reactant ratio (i.e. moles of carbon per gram of dust), dust composition, addition of inert gas and reduced total pressure. The calculated values were in reasonable agreement with those from previously published studies and also industrial results. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.