The production of high value pig iron nuggets from steelmaking by-products – A thermodynamic evaluation

Zinc contaminated steelmaking by-products such as blast furnace (BF) dust and basic oxygen (BOS) present a significant recycling challenge at integrated plants. Rotary Hearth Furnaces (RHFs) provide an attractive route for recovery of Fe Zn from these materials through carbothermal reduction the oxides in material to yield Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) crude zinc oxide. The next generation RHF processes ITmk3 e-nugget produce pig iron nuggets ore concentrates coal, gangue separate in-situ without additional melting unit. A computational study metal-slag system using FACTSAGE 7.3 suggests that production good quality (93.75 wt.% Fe, 4.3 C, 0.116 S, 0.66 Mn) can be produced BF BOS ratio 37:63 with addition 5.4 SiO2 1.51 wt% MgO 1450 °C. These results are agreement experimental studies on similar and, such, suggest practically feasible process.