The Potential of Recycling the High-Zinc Fraction of Upgraded BF Sludge to the Desulfurization Plant and Basic Oxygen Furnace

In ore-based steelmaking, blast furnace (BF) dust is generally recycled to the BF via the sinter or cold-bonded briquettes and injection. In order to recycle the BF sludge to the BF, the sludge has to be upgraded, removing zinc. The literature reports cases of recycling the low-zinc fraction of upgraded BF sludge to the BF. However, research towards recycling of the high-zinc fraction of BF sludge within the ore-based steel plant is limited. In the present paper, the high-zinc fraction of tornado-treated BF sludge was incorporated in self-reducing cold-bonded briquettes and pellets. Each type of agglomerate was individually subjected to technical-scale smelting reduction experiments aiming to study the feasibility of recycling in-plant residues to the hot metal (HM) desulfurization (deS) plant. The endothermic reactions within the briquettes decreased the heating and reduction rate leaving the briquettes unreduced and unmelted. The pellets were completely reduced within eight minutes of contact with HM but still showed melt-in problems. Cold-bonded briquettes, without BF sludge, were charged in industrial-scale trials to study the recycling potential to the HM deS plant and basic oxygen furnace (BOF). The trials illustrated a potential for the complete recycling of the high-zinc fraction of BF sludge. However, further studies were identified to be required to verify these results.