Solutions to the Converter Slag Recycling Problem in Metallurgical Processing

One of the key problems associated with current trends in the development of the iron and steel industries in Russia and CIS countries concerns the recycling of industrial waste products. This problem arose as a result of extensive industry development combined with changing consumer attitudes to the environment involving tens of millions of tons of metallurgical production wastes occupying vast territories and destroying land utility by polluting the soil and water basin.

The present paper analyses the current state of steelmaking slag recycling both in CIS and non-CIS countries. The accumulated experience of world practice in solving the problem of steelmaking slag recycling is described in detail. Particular attention is paid to converter slag recycling in the metallurgical processes of JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau, in which converter scrap is utilized as part of the sinter charge. A generalized analysis of the data on the yield of slag processing products and the iron content of scrap and dump slag indicated the total amount of extracted iron (27.6%) to be significantly less than its proportion in the dump (64.6% of the total iron content). The possibility of increasing the yield of the magnetic part from the converter slag fraction and metallic iron extraction was experimentally confirmed.

Calculated sintering indicators for sinter scrap are given: a 0.2% increase in the iron content is accompanied by an increase in the consumption of fine coke by 0.2 kg per 1 ton of the finished sinter.