Recovery of zinc from electric arc furnace dust by alkaline pressure leaching using iron as a reductant

To recover zinc from electric arc furnace (EAF) dust, a process of primary normal pressure leaching and secondary alkaline pressure leaching is proposed. First, under the alkaline pressure leaching system, the experiment of pure zinc ferrite being reduced by iron powder was carried out. Under the optimal reduction conditions (i.e., temperature of 260 degrees C, NaOH concentration of 6 mol/L, liquid-to-solid ratio of 50 mL/g, and a 5-fold excess of iron powder), 89% of zinc was extracted. The iron in the reduced residue exists as a magnetite phase. Subsequently, the normal pressure leaching experiment was carried out with EAF dust as raw material, and 66% zinc was leached. The main phase of zinc in normal leaching residue was determined to be zinc ferrite. Then, the normal leaching residue was reduced by iron powder under the alkaline pressure leaching system, and 66.5% of zinc was extracted. After the two-stage leaching process, the leaching rate of zinc in EAF dust can achieve 88.7%. The alkaline pressure leaching solution can be returned as the normal pressure leaching solution, and the magnetite in the alkaline pressure leaching residue can be recovered by magnetic separation.