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Efficient Utilization of Stainless Steel Dust and Chromium-Containing Slag by Carbothermal Direct Reduction: Synergistic Mechanism and Optimization Analysis

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Abstract

Stainless steel dust as the main solid waste produced in the process of stainless steel smelting has the characteristics of high basicity, low treatment efficiency, and low recovery. In this study, chromium-containing slag with low basicity was added to stainless steel dust on the basis of carbothermal reduction. Through the study of the effect of single factor of reduction process and multiple factors based on response surface method (RSM) on the recovery of metal Fe, Cr, and Ni, the efficient reduction of valuable metal components in stainless steel dust was realized. The results show that the addition of chromium-containing slag and reduction temperature have a significant impact on the metal recovery of the reduction product, and there is a significant interaction between the metal recovery of Fe, Cr, and Ni in the reduction product. The optimum process parameters are as follows: the addition of chromium-containing slag is 6%, the reduction temperature is 1425 °C, the reduction time is 28 min, and the molar ratio of fixed carbon to metal oxide (FC/O) is 0.9. The predicted recoveries of Fe, Cr, and Ni were 94%, 93%, and 97%, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are especially grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51974077) and Xingliao Talent Plan (No. XLYC1902118), and special thanks are due to the instrumental analysis from Analytical and Testing Center, Northeastern University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Peijun Liu, Zhenggen Liu, Ruijun Yan, Feng Li, Jue Tang & Jinge Feng

  2. Institute for Frontier Technologies of Low-Carbon Steelmaking, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Peijun Liu, Zhenggen Liu, Ruijun Yan, Feng Li, Jue Tang & Jinge Feng

  3. Liaoning Province Engineering Research Center for Technologies of Low-Carbon Steelmaking, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Peijun Liu, Zhenggen Liu, Ruijun Yan, Feng Li, Jue Tang & Jinge Feng

  4. State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Mansheng Chu

  5. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

    Mansheng Chu

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  1. Peijun Liu
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Contributions

PL: Investigation, Writing—original draft. ZL and MC: Writing—review and editing. RY: Data curation. FL: Photo editing. JT: Methodology, Validation. JF: Investigation.

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Correspondence to Zhenggen Liu.

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The contributing editor for this article was M Akbar Rhamdhani.

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Liu, P., Liu, Z., Chu, M. et al. Efficient Utilization of Stainless Steel Dust and Chromium-Containing Slag by Carbothermal Direct Reduction: Synergistic Mechanism and Optimization Analysis. J. Sustain. Metall. 8, 1877–1891 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-022-00610-z

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