Open AccessProcessing electric arc furnace dust into saleable chemical products
Publication year - 1998
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/594449
Subject(s) - electric arc furnace , profit (economics) , revenue , product (mathematics) , waste management , engineering , capital investment , net profit , environmental science , business , process engineering , manufacturing engineering , economics , metallurgy , mathematics , finance , materials science , geometry , microeconomics
The modern steel industry uses electric arc furnace (EAF) technology to manufacture steel. A major drawback of this technology is the production of EAF dust, which is listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The annual disposal of approximately 0.65 million tons of EAF dust in the United States and Canada is an expensive, unresolved problem for the steel industry. EAF dust byproducts are generated during the manufacturing process by a variety of mechanisms. The dust consists of various metals (e.g., zinc, lead, cadmium) that occur as vapors at 1,600{degrees}C (EAF hearth temperature); these vapors are condensed and collected in a baghouse. The production of one ton of steel will generate approximately 25 pounds of EAF dust as a byproduct, which is currently disposed of in landfills