TRANSLATION FROM RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

2 YDK 669.1:622.267
O. P Baidin, V. I. Rostovsky, D.E Esezobor
“Organization of Wasteless Technology in Blast Furnace Operations”.
Journal of Environmental Control and Rational Utilization of Natural Resources.
Donetsk, 1992 vol. 1517, No 2. p 32-36

Abstracts
The problem of organizing wasteless technology in blast furnace (BF)
processes is identified. More than 10 different types of wastes are generated in BF
plant. Flue dust, sinter and pellet screenings can be successfully recycled through
sintering but the level of utilization of sludge is very low - 42.5 %. The low level is
due to high moisture and metal residual especially zinc in sludge.
The use of BF sludge without dezincification can lead to accumulation of zinc
in the BF. The required rate of dezincification depends on the specific condition of
operation. The side-effect of zinc in the furnace is noticeable when its occurrence in
the sintering charge exceeds 0.1 % or when its specific value mass 0.1 5- 0.5kg per
ton of molten metal.
The various processes of zinc removal: hydro and pyrometallurgy with its
sublimation during reduction process are highlighted in this paper. The technology of
recycling the wastes through sintering is also presented. The process includes
sedimentation/clarification, thickening, classification and filtration with subsequent
blending with dried wastes.
To prevent clogging of the particulates during blending, a rotary mixer-
kneader is recommended. The equipment enhances homogenization of the blend and
lumpiness of the burden.

1
Introduction

In an integrated metallurgical plant, 25 % of the total iron bearing wastes is generated

from sinter plant while roughly 50% is generated from blast furnace production
processes [1].

The primary by-products generated during the production of molten iron include blast
furnace gas, slag and products of its granulation, air pollution control dust and sludges
from top gas cleaning, dust from cast house fume collection, coke breeze, sinter and
pellet fines, dust from spillage from transport devices and equipment etc. Figure 1 is a
blast furnace materials flowchart, showing materials used, final products, by products
and wastes.

Generally, cleaning the flue gases involves the removal of large particulates by a dry
dust collector (yielding blast furnace flue dust) followed by a wet gas cleaning system
for fine particulate removal yielding blast furnace sludge). These residues are
primarily composed of iron, calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminum, as well as
carbon in the form of coke breeze.

Dust and sludge typically constitute 4 to 7 % [2, 3] of the hot metal production with
an iron content of 25-45% and 7-10% SiO 2. These compositions satisfy the basic
requirement for their acceptance or utilization in the metallurgical sector. The waste
products constitute also 0.2-0.7% S, 0.02-0.06% Pb and 0.02 – 0.12% P.

The size composition of sludges from blast furnace gas-cleaning plant is roughly close
to that of sludges from sintering plants, but in a number of cases, given high-
efficiency cleaning of blast furnace gases in dry dust collectors such as electro static
precipitators or under high pressure venturi-tube cleaners, the particles are smaller.

In steel plants with sintering facilities the flue dust, sinter and pellet screenings can be
successfully used as iron and carbon sources for sintering operations. In others, it may
be mixed with other residues, briquetted and recycled back to the blast furnace and or
rotary hearth furnace reduction. While some steel plants have been successful in
recycling the briquetted blast furnace residues to the blast furnace, degradation
problems occur while the briquetted residues are heated during descent in the furnace.
This causes a loss in permeability of the burden resulting in loss production. Of
significant concern is the level of utilization of sludge which is far very low – 42.5%
[3]. The low level is due to its size distribution (97 to 100%) minus 20 mesh), high
moisture (20 to 35%) and metal residuals especially 5-7% zinc, which adversely
affects blast furnace operation and refractory life.

The use of BF sludge without adherence to the limit for maximum allowable zinc
concentration in materials to be charged to the blast furnace may lead to its
accumulation in the furnace. Levels vary from steel plant to steel plant, but the control
level of zinc (maximum) charged into the BF is generally 0.15 to 0.5 kg per ton of hot
metal or the total value in the sintering charge 0.1%. This experience - based limit is
set to present zinc related build - up in blast furnace stack (which have been linked to

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 Dust arising

Pellet screens/fines
Gas released into Pellet
the atmosphere
Sinter
Iron /Manganese ore Sinter screens/fines
Dust released
Cuttings
Scrap Additional
Materials
Limestone
Dolomite
Blast furnace
gas and dust Metallurgical Coke Coke
Dust trapped by
Deduster
Coke Screens/fines

Washwater
Dust arising during
discharging

Scrubbed Gas

Dust in Blast furnace charge

Scrubbed gas

Slurry/Sludge

Blast and injection of

Soluble portion of hydrocarbon additives
blast furnace dust in
washwater

Soda
Home Scrap Pig iron Slag

Metal Losses Granulation

Total Pig Iron Ladle Scale

Total Slag

Figure 1. Blast Furnace Material Flow Chart

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Catastrophic instances of internal scaffolding and slips) as well as damage to
refractories by penetration of zinc followed by condensation of zinc chlorides.

There are many encouraging reports of successful technologies for treatment of blast
furnace residues, as evidenced by many research programmes, pilot-scale projects and
even full-scale ferruginous waste treatment plants [4 - 7]. However, the number of
process steps, process options, and associated potential waste or by - products lead to
challenging system level of optimization question such as at which process step to
separate materials or remove impurities, reduce, recycle or engineer waste or
products, and how to balance research efforts between improving traditional dirty
processes and developing cleaner new processes that may reduce the number of
process steps required.

This paper highlights the various processes of separating the metal residues.

Zinc content in BF sludges of steel plants operating on Krivorodskovo iron ore

reserves is relatively low and is at the level of 0.02 – 0.05 %. High zinc content is
observed in BF sludges in steel plants from Eastern past of USSR (Table 1).
Therefore there is the need to embark on dezincing of the materials especially when
steelmaking sludges are recycled through sintering.

Hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes can be employed to treat zinc

bearing wastes. Three technical concepts are currently employed in various steel
plants worldwide with capacities ranging from 40 to 200 kT per annum. There are the
wet classification processes and selective chemical leaching, direct and melting
reduction

Some successes have been achieved using hydro-cyclones, a wet classification

process to treat blast furnace sludge. Kamaishi Steel Plant in Japan operates a two-
stage hydrocyclone system capable of reducing the zinc concentration in the feed
return material to between 0.1 and 0.3 %, although a new stream containing up to 7 %
zinc is created [4].

Similarly Bethlehem Steel’s Burns Harbour Integrated Waste Management Facility

treats all blast furnace sludge, basic oxygen furnace sludge, and waste water treatment
sludge [5]. The facility incorporates BF hydroclone slurry and oily sludge into the
sinter plant.

However, wet classification process and selective chemical leaching tend to be

ineffective due to the fineness of the material and the form in which the zinc is
present- zinc ferrite (oxide) particle.

From practical view point, it appears that only pyrometallurgical processes are
capable of performing dezinfication of sludges. A number of pyrometallurgical
processes have been developed for the treatment of residues to yield iron for recycling
and zinc product for sale as a feedstock, some of which have been realized in pilot
and full

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 Table 1. The Chemical Composition of BF sludges of some selected steel plants in USSR

Plant / Complex Composition, %

Fe FeO Fe2O3 SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO P S C Zn
1. Azovstal 42.81 9.32 50.11 11.70 2.03 5.57 1.04 0.08 0.65 10.77 0.51
2. Donetsk 47.37 8.87 57.88 8.63 1.36 5.74 1.12 0.02 0.74 9.79 0.16
3. Enakievsky 54.72 10.84 66.20 8.12 0.68 5.34 0.97 0.03 0.18 3.78 0.02
4. Ilicha 43.34 7.11 54.07 8.59 1.01 10.58 1.45 0.03 0.40 9.04 0.18
5. Zaporodstal 47.11 6.87 59.73 8.52 1.50 8.59 0.88 0.04 0.30 8.67 0.13
6. Zapadno – Sibirsky
(Southern Siberia) 49.53 7.58-9.69 60.06 6.39-7.0 2.93-3.36 3.28-3.86 2.00-2.05 0.10-0.12 0.20-0.57 9.55-19.64 1.50-2.77
7. Kuznesky 30.85 5.81 36.65 6.86 2.83 4.78 2.13 0.05 0.02 12.20 15.39
8. Krivorodstal 52.70 8.41 66.00 1.77 0.75 4.67 0.82 0.02 0.23 7.56 0.02-0.05
9. Kommunarsky 29.99 9.46 32.37 13.85 2.85 9.83 1.23 0.04 0.43 16.60 0.14
10. Magnitogorsky 41.09 7.65 50.26 5.93 2.15 4.13 1.08 0.03 0.40 21.45 0.55
11. Makeevsky 54.33 10.97 65.10 8.75 1.05 7.27 0.96 0.03 0.33 1.78 0.03
12. Nidnetagilsky 45.33 7.02 57.02 6.72 2.18 6.91 1.21 0.03 0.32 10.07 3.90
13. Orsko Halilovsky 32.61 7.09 38.82 7.95 1.86 19.56 1.39 0.02 0.54 6.54 0.46
14. Tulsky “Dzerdinskovo 54.89 9.56 67.86 8.13 1.19 6.29 0.89 0.01 0.15 2.66 0.05
15. Novo-Lipetsk 40.15 5.13 51.71 9.38 2.17 5.13 1.96 0.057 0.43 11.79 0.92

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scale plants. Direct reduction in rotary kilns is the most common method, notably the
Waelz kiln process. The process comprises direct reduction of green pellets made
from zinc bearing residues, reduction of green pellets made from zinc bearing
residues and subsequent reduction in rotary kiln at 1050oC. The volatile zinc is taken
off together with off-gases and condenses in a combined cooling / dust separation
system. As a result a zinc concentrate is obtained (>50% Zn) which is sold as Waelz
oxide [6]. A successful process of removing of zinc from dusts and sludges, prior to
recycling through the BF occurred at Kashima, Sumitmo Metal Industries, Japan [7].
The method involves reducing the moisture content of dust sludge slurry from 70 to
20 % using filter presses and then drying the material in a Waelz kiln. Iron (mostly as
Fe2O3) is reduced to FeO and the zinc is vaporized, recovered as the oxide and sold.
The coarse iron rich residue is charged directly to the BF (+50 mm), while the fine
fraction (-50 mm) is directed to the sinter plant.

These approaches have not been economically viable in various steel plants in terms
of consumption of coke and level of zinc concentrate. New treatment processes had
been studied and developed [8 - 10]. However, the few operational results reported so
far give insufficient data for a comprehensive evaluation of the method.
The plasma smelting reduction process (SKF plasmadust process, Landskrona) [11]
injects dusts / sludge mixed with coke breeze into the reaction shaft. The high
temperature of the arc plasma torch reduces the metal oxides. Zinc and lead evaporate
and can be sucked off together with emitted gases. They are separated in specially
designed condensers as high refined metals (98 %). The resulting molten iron is
drained out in liquid form. In USA, cyclone smelting is developed [6]. Basically, the
operational sequence is similar to those of the SKF process, except the arc plasma
torch is replaced with dust oxygen lance, where supersonic air (oxygen) is used.

These sequences of operation reported so far do not allow a thorough comparative

evaluation. However, the processes are technically feasible. A determinant factor to
the choice of any of these methods is the economic value in terms of the prices of raw
materials, treatment as well as the quantity of the waste products and the costs of
transport (on-site and off-site processing)

This work presents an appropriate low cost technology for recovery and recycling of
BF wastes through sintering.

Initial Data
The quantity and chemistry of the iron bearing wastes are established using the data
from technical / operation project of a typical metallurgical plant with 2 sinter
machines of 312 m2 each and 2 blast furnaces of 2000 m 3 each as in the case of
Ajaokuta Steel Plant (Nigeria) contract No 44-045 / 02200 1975 with Tiaproexport
USSR. To develop an appropriate technology of wastes utilization in BF,
data/materials were gathered from reviewed works of leading metallurgical plants in
the western world, various metallurgical plants in USSR, publications and also
recommendations from Research Institutes such as Ukrgipromeza, Uralmechanobra,
BHNNNYEO, Energprom and Donetsk Polytechnic Institute. The estimated average
annual yield of wastes of iron making process is showed in Table 2.

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The real density of sinter BF and under bunker sludges is taken to be respectively 4.0,
3.4 and 3.6 g/cm3 [6, 12 - 13] and average apparent density of all sludges to be 1.5
g/cm3, while that of sinter screenings is 2.0 g/cm3

Technological Process
The proposed routine of wastes recycling in the blast furnace is displayed in Figure 2.
The process involves sedimentation, thickening, clarification and filtration with
subsequent blending with dried wastes. Waste balance (Table 3) used in this paper
indicates that all iron bearing wastes will be completely utilized.

The pulps of sludges concentration 14 and 8g particulates per litre respectively, from
flushing of sinter plant and underbunker workshops are subjected to classification to
remove the coarse particulates and metallic objects, while the pulp of sludges from
wet gas dedusting system of sintering gases, furnace top laboratory, casting machines
and semi fine BF gas dedusting system are directed to radial clarifier. Further
thickening of the sludges is done at the vacuum filters and the products are blended
with dried wastes as part of the sintering burden. Since, sludge balance is based on
dried mass, the quantity of sludges obtained from classificator and vacuum filter with
moisture content of 20 % will be higher by

Classificator residues = 24000 + 1800 + 3400 =36500T and

0.8
Cake from Disc vacuum filters 145800 = 18220T
0.8
Lime, added to the mixer will dehydrate the materials by absorbing the moisture and
thereby releasing heat. For the purpose of this calculation, the lime activity is taken as
75 %.

Consumption rate of water for slaking lime W2 by the reaction

CaO + H2O = Ca (OH) 2 + Q can be determined by the equation

A  18  M
wl 
56  100
where A – lime activity
M – Consumption rate of lime (40 kg/ ton sinter)
18 and 56 – molecular mass of water and CaO respectively
The quantity of waste mix will be 796040 / (360 x 24) = 92.1 ton per hour (dried
mass)

Average weight value of moisture content screenings mix can be evaluated as

36500x0.2 + 182250x0.20 +43620x0.06 + 372670x0.02 = 6.8 %

36500 + 182250 + 43620 + 372670+200

The flue dust is assumed to be transferred to the mixing section after wetting to 6 %
moisture in the BF workshop.

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The Recycling routine as displayed in Figure 2 creates room for possible utilization of
all generated iron bearing wastes of iron making except the fine particles of sludge
obtained from BF gas dedusting system.

Table 2. Wastes generated during iron making

Type of wastes Yield, Annual output,

kg/t product ton
Sintering plant
1. Dust particulates from collector 28.7 170,000
2. Dust from cyclones 10 59,000
3. Sludge from wet deduster 2.3 14,000
4. Sludges from flushing surroundings 12 71,000
5. Dust from central pollution control systems
Total 70.0 414,000
Blast Furnace (BF) workshop
1. Flue dust 15 41,000
2. Sludge from wet dedusters: 17 100,000
Semi-fine 10.5 28,000
Fine 4.6 13,000
3. Sludge from furnace top laboratory 3.0 8,000
4. Sludge from washing of the under bunker 18 49,000
surrounding
5. Dust from casting house 0.7 2,000
6. Sludge from casting machines 6 5,000
7. Sinter screenings 135 365,000
Total 192.7 511,000
Grand Total 925,000

Technical specifications of the proposed schemes of waste treatment are as follows:

Dewatering plant 200,000 tons per year capacity with blending workshop where
sludge and dried wastes are blended to 8-9% humidity. The total throughput of the
complex is 1 million tons per year.
Routine of operation: Quantity of working days in a year – 350 days with three shifts
of 8 hours each. Generally, the routine of recycling of wastes except dewatering of
sludge is conducted 24 hours a day.

The suspended solids in the sludge slurry are determined through water balance
obtained from wet dedusting of gases and washings of the dedusters section. The
quantity of suspended solid in sludge pulp is 2.2 g/l when 35 m 3 of water per hour is
used to dedust sintering gases from cyclone (if the quantity of sludge is 2.3 kg / ton
sinter on dried basis). The consumption rate of water at the scrubber and tube venturi
to dedust BF gases is 1.6 and 1.0 g litre per m 3 gas respectively. The quantity of
suspended solid in the slurry will be respectively 3.95 and 2.5 g per litre. (4.0 g/l and
2.5 g/l are used in this work).

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The clogging of the particulates during blending can be eliminated by the use of a
rotary kneader mixer. The equipment enhances homogenization of the blend and
lumpiness of the burden especially if the quantity of graphite bearing of casting
workshop is great

References

1. Komarov G.A., Karabasov. U.S., Pitatel V.A Comparative technical economic

analysis of different methods of iron bearing wastes treatment in steel plant.
Collective Scientific Works / MIS and S – 1982 – No 137. p. 52-63
2. Tolochko A.I., Slaving V.I., Suprum U.M, Hairutdinov. R.M. Utilization of dusts
and sludges in steel industry. Cheliabinsk Metallurgia, Cheliabunskoe Section, 1990,
152 p
3. Kurgan, V and Sachno 1. By-products in the iron and steel industry and their
physico-chemical properties. Metallurgical series. Dnepropetrovsk, 1983.
4. Uno Shagetoshi Umetsu Yukio, Ohmizu Masuru et al. Dezincing equipment and
operation based on wet classification of wet-cleaned BF dust. Nippon Steel Technical
Report, 1979- No 13 – p 80-85
5. Shif Charles, Stelnmelr R.P. Bethlehems Burns Harbour 2 million TPY sinter plant.
Iron Making Proceedings – 1977-V. 36-No 8 – p. 70-79
6. The management of steel industry by –products and Wastes. Iron and Steel
Institute, Brussels, 1987.
7. Shigeni Akitoshi, Fujita Keiki. Recycling of iron bearing steelmaking dusts.
Nippon Steel Technical Report- 1980-No 16- p 73-87
8. Lihodievsky V.A Gubanov V.I, Ispolatov V.B. et.al. Wastefree technology of
treating iron-ore materials in steel industry. Stal- 1984-No5 p.5-8
9. Zinc removal from Blast furnace fine dust dedusters: Equipment and its operation
Puself, flotation-1979-26, No 2 p. 86-90(Japan)
10. Cases J-M./, Trabelsi K., Valence G. Valorisation du plomb et du zinc contenus
dans les boues d’epuration secondaire des gar de hauts fouin@auz et des poussier
d’acierie par voil physique // industrie Minev Technique-1981 – No 10-P 720-731- v.
yx: Discussions – p. 732 (France)
11. Method of treating steel mill dust-plasmadust process. Cherny Metal (Ferrous
Metals) – 1983-No 9 p. 47
12. Secondary Materials resources in steel industry T.2 sludges, slaps, wastes:
Handbook – Moscow Economics, 1986- 229p.
13. Verma E.F. Small Hand book for iron makers, Moscow, Metallurgia, 181 – 240p

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Table 3 Wastes Moisture Balance

Annual output, Moisture Quantity of water

Materials tons % % tons
Wet Dry
1. Residues from classificator 36500 8.6 6.5 20.0 7300
2. Cake from Disc Vacuum Filters 182250 43.0 39.2 20.0 36 450
3. Flue dust 43620 10.3 11.0 6.0 2.617
4. Sinter dust 159000 37.6 42.8 - -
5. Dust from casting workshop 2000 0.50 0.50 - -
6. Wastes mix 423370 100 100 10.95 46387
53.2 50.5
7. Sinter screenings 372670 46.8 49.5 2.0 7453
Total wastes 796040 100 100 6.8 53820

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 Sludges from clean- Sludges from clean- Sludge from sinter Sludge from furnace Sludge from casting Coarse dust sludge
up of sinter plant up of the BF under- gas dedusting top laboratory machine from the deduster of
bunker surrounding system BF gas
Q = 71 Q = 49 Q = 14 Q = 8. 0 Q = 5.0 Q = 5.0
qn = 587 qn = 709 qn = 810 qn = 308 qn = 289 qn = 814
Z = 14 Z =8 Z =2.0 Z =3.0 Z =2.0 Z =4.0
Classification Classification Sedimentation Sedimentation Clarification Clarification

Q = 1, 8 Q = 69.2 Q =45.6 Q = 3.8 qw = 793.8 Q =14 qw = 298.74 Q =8.0 Q =8.0 Q =2.8 qw = 89.54
qw = 293.2
W=8 qn = 587 qn = 709 W=8 qn = 16.2 Overflowed qn = 9.3 qn = 5.8 qn = 32.4+12.8
Z = 14 Z=8 Z = 100 Water for Z = 100 Z = 100 Overflowed Z = 100
Overflowed recycling Water for
Classification Water for recycling
recycling
Thickening
Q = 24 Q =90.8 qn = 130.6
Suspended Overflowed
W = 20 qn = 1295 Q =145.8 Z = 10.7
solids to Water for
Z=8 sinter plant qn = 31.2+2.6 recycling
Overflowed
Sedimentation Z = 500 Water for
Filtration recycling

Q =90.8
qn = 87.9 Q = 145.8 qn= 29.6
Z = 120 W = 20
Filtrate
Overflowed
Water for
recycling Q = 567
W = 1.7 Q = 14, w= 60
Grit/Suspended solids Flue Dust
Q = 365, w= 20
Blending Sinter Screenings
Q - Mass of wastes, Kilo tons per hour Q = 2.0
Directed to Casting House Dust
sinter returns
qn - Volume of sludge pulp, m3 per hour
Q = 159 Sinter Dust
stream qw -Volume of water, m3 per hour
Z - Concentration of suspended solids, %
W - Moisture, % To Burden Section Lime Fines
Other Wastes
Figure 2.The Proposed Routine of Wastes Recycling in the Blast Furnace Workshop
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