Designing of Synergistic Waste Mixtures for Multiphase Reactive Smelting

Electric arc furnace (EAF) dust, together with a mill scale and coke were smelted in a laboratory electric arc furnace. These metallurgical wastes consist of a many different phases and elements, making the reaction process complex. Thermo-chemical analysis of the reactions in metal, slag, and gas phases was done, and used for modeling of the mixture composition and energy consumption required for smelting. Modelling was performed with the software named RikiAlC. The crude ZnO, slag, and metal phase were analyzed using the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), the optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-OES), the X-ray diffraction (XRD), the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), and reflected and transmitted light microscopy. Also, in order to follow the behavior of this process the exhausted gases were monitored. The synergetic effects of the designed mixture may be recognized in minimizing energy consumption for the smelting process, improving the product yield efficiency, and reducing the negative environmental effects.