Recovery of Zinc and Iron from Steel Mill Dusts by the use of a TBRC: A possible Mini-mill Solution?

The search for an effective mini-mill solution to treat zinc containing residues from steel industry or also cupola furnaces has a long history but has not been very successful yet due to several reasons. Some of them are: Not available technologies, the not well known and not developed product market by the steel producers, still relatively low treatment charges for the landfilling and no effective solution for an additional iron recovery. The present paper describes a process where in two subsequent steps by the use of a Top Blown Rotary Converter technology a simultaneous recovery of zinc, iron and other valuable metals should be possible. Investigations which were done in an advanced technical scale gave satisfying results. These data allowed the calculation of a mass- and energy balance. First economic considerations underline that with such a concept a feasible mini-mill solution could be established for the mentioned residues.