Regular Article

Three different methods for smelting treatment of stainless steel dust

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
² Iron Making Plant, Panzhihua Steel & Vanadium Co., Ltd., Panzhihua 617000, China

^⁎ e-mail: zhangyanling@metall.ustb.edu.cn

Received: 25 March 2016
Received in final form: 20 September 2016
Accepted: 6 January 2017

Abstract

In order to effectively recover metals such as Fe, Cr, and Ni from stainless steel dust, three possible smelting treatment methods are proposed and discussed in this article. Process I is self-reduction of stainless steel dust agglomerates, process II is the reduction of stainless steel dust pellets by an Fe–C(–Si) bath, and process III is the simultaneous smelting of stainless steel dust and Cr-bearing molten slag. Laboratory experiments were carried out, and the effects of various factors on recovery ratios of Fe/Cr/Ni and on separation conditions between recovered melt and residual slag were examined. The results suggest that similarly high recovery ratios of metals can be obtained in all three methods. From the viewpoints of energy efficiency and applicability of the recovered metals, process III is recommended.