A Study on the Recovery of Zn from Electric Arc Furnace Dust by Carbon Reduction

There is a potential usability of electric arc furnace(EAF) dust produced during the iron manufacturing process as a recycled resource, because valuable materials such as Zn, Pb and Fe are contained in it. In this study, metallic Zn was recycled from the fine electric arc furnace dust by a solid state reduction method using carbon at relatively low temperature. It was possible to recover metallic zinc by using of high vapour pressure of zinc with this reduction method. The feasibility of recycled zinc for cold bonded pellet(CBP) was investigated. The main composition of EAF dust were franklinite(ZnFe$_2$O$_4$), magnetite(Fe$_3$O$_4$) and zincite(ZnO), and Pb and Cl were completely removed by a heat treatment in oxidation environment. The reduction ratio increased as the solid carbon content increased, and it increased with decreasing of dust particle size and increasing of compaction pressure due to a increase of contact area.