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Recovery of Valuable Metals from Steel Mill Dust
Challenge
Zinc accumulates in various process streams both from iron ore processing and scrap and waste recycling in the iron and steelmaking sector.
Once the concentration of zinc goes beyond a certain point, the material is no longer suitable for iron recovery as high zinc content leads to poor processing.
Requirement
The recovery of valuable metals from steel mill dust (SMD) is essential for reducing environmental impact and improving resource efficiency. This needs to be processed in an economically viable way.
Zinc and iron-rich by-products, arising from steelmaking is an issue and methods to reduce and process these in an economically viable way are needed.
Project
We applied various technologies
- Physical
- Hydrometallurgical
- Pyrometallurgical
- Combined treatment processes
to look at opportunities to reduce the zinc content of steelmaking by-products.
Project Activities
- Characterisation testing, calcination in different furnaces and various process conditions.
- Delivery of a comprehensive techno-economic assessment of the various technologies for zinc removal.
Outcome
- Successfully removed more than 90% of zinc from steelmaking dusts.
- Established that the pyrometallurgical processing remains the most developed and economically assessable route for de-zincification.
- Economic viability depends on feedstock quality, requiring either high zinc content or a hybrid approach that leverages iron recovery in dust.
- The technoeconomic assessment provided beneficial insights into the scaling up of the dezincing project.
- The findings suggesting that hybrid processing solutions could optimise zinc and iron recovery.
- Although the pyrometallurgical treatment, consumed energy, the LCA analysis demonstrated that the associated trade-off is justified from an environmental perspective.
Recommendations
Carry out further economic assessments for hydrometallurgical and ultra cavitation processes.
Undertake additional activities focused on industrial scale validation, optimisation of energy efficiency, and economic model refinement.
Contact the Materials Processing Institute
Enquire about services, facilities, and expertise.
