Characterization and Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Pores of Self-reducing Pellets Done by EAF Dust

This work focused on the characterization physical and microstructural of the self-reducing pellet made of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) dust using different low cost techniques. The serial sectioning technique was used to evaluate detailed measurements of pore connections, tortuositiy of pores and porosity distribution. The chemical analysis using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICPAES), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Optical Microscopy (OM) and X-ray diffraction were carried out to identify the common phases presented in EAF dust agglomerate. It was observed that the pellet phase composition is formed by iron as magnetite, metallic iron, wustite, and zinc ferrite. The visualization of the reconstructed 3D microstructure provided average qualitative and quantitative analysis of the porosity (41.61%), a consistent result and in accordance with that obtained by pycnometry technique (41.53%). As expected, these results are more precise when compared with the result obtained by two-dimensional technique (23.41%). In addition, it was calculated the value of the tortuosity parameter (0.84) that suggested a morphological structure closest to cylindrical shape.