• Resources Recycling
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.54-61
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• 2024

When steel contaminated with Pb, produced by the decay of natural radionuclides, is remelted, Pb distributes among the metal, slag, and gas phases. In this study, 5 wt%Pb was added to Fe and melted with CaO-SiO₂-Al₂O₃-MgO slag to investigate Pb's distribution in the metal/slag/gas. As slag basicity ((wt%CaO)/(wt%SiO₂)) increased, Pb solubility in Fe slightly increased, while Pb in the slag tended to decrease. Consequently, the slag/metal distribution ratio of Pb decreased with increasing basicity. Thermodynamic calculations revealed that the slag/Fe phase distribution ratio of Pb remained very low irrespective of the activity coefficient of PbO in the slag, consistent with the experimental results. The calculated evaporation rate of Pb in Fe-Pb was approximately 22 times that of Fe; hence, most of the Pb evaporated into the gas phase.