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Sustainable Metallurgical Processing and Industrial Solid Waste Recycling

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 March 2023) | Viewed by 22443

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: green metallurgy processing; mineral processing; waste minimization and recycling; CO2 capture and reduction
School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: mineral processing and metallurgical engineering; mineral functional materials; recycling of industrial solid wastes
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Guest Editor
Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy, Mining Engineering Department & George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Interests: extractive metallurgy; mineral processing; waste minimization; recycling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Metallurgical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, Anhui 243002, China
Interests: ferrous metalurgy; sintering processing; waste minimization; recycling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the most important challenges almost every country is facing in the 21st century is the exhaustion of minerals and fossil energy resources. Due to the fact that economic development is strongly dependent on the use of natural resources, the gap between demand and supply of natural resources is becoming bigger and bigger. Moreover, a large number of industrial solid wastes harmful to the environment are generated, and they are difficult to utilize and recycle. Therefore, optimizing the extracting and recycling processes for critical metals, setting quality standards of wasted materials, and developing cleaner production technologies of wasted materials is an important way to address the dilemma of resource shortage and environmental protection.

This Special Issue of Sustainability is devoted to aspects of sustainable metallurgical processing and industrial solid waste recycling. If you are interested in this topic, please consider submitting your valuable work to this issue. This topic includes green/intelligent/sustainable metallurgical processing, industrial waste minimization and recycling, and CO2 emission reduction. Critical metals (Ni, Co, Mo, Sn, PGMs, Ga, In, Au, Ag, Cu, Zn, Pb, Fe, Cr, Mn, etc.) recovery from  wasted materials (e-wastes, scrap metals, etc.) and utilization of metallurgical slags/dusts are also welcomed. Also, topics related to the utilization of low-grade ferrous or nonferrous resources and tailings will be considered. Review papers and original papers are welcome. Thank you.

Prof. Yuanbo Zhang
Dr. Zijian Su
Prof. Dr. Corby G. Anderson
Prof. Dr. Hongming Long
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • low-carbon metallurgy
  • hydrogen metallurgy
  • intelligent metallurgy
  • metallurgical slag utilization
  • secondary resources recycling
  • metal recovery
  • hazadous waste disposal and stabilization
  • low-grade primary resource processing
  • steel scrap reuse
  • CO2 capture
  • CO2 reduction

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 7366 KiB  
Article
Preparation of Red Iron by Magnetization Roasting-Hydrothermal Method Using Ultra-Low-Grade Limonite
by Geng Xu, Fei Li, Peipei Jiang and Shiqiu Zhang
Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4708; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064708 - 7 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1287
Abstract
Iron is one of the most important strategic materials in national production, and the demand for iron ore is huge in the world. High quality iron ore reserves have been almost exhausted, and it is necessary to develop a technology that utilizes low-grade [...] Read more.
Iron is one of the most important strategic materials in national production, and the demand for iron ore is huge in the world. High quality iron ore reserves have been almost exhausted, and it is necessary to develop a technology that utilizes low-grade iron ore. Limonite is a representative low-grade iron ore due to its complex mineral and elemental composition. In this paper, the union process was employed to separate the iron elements in low-grade limonite. Firstly, a rough iron concentrate was obtained under 1.0 T of magnetic field intensity and −0.074 mm > 94.84% of grinding fineness; then, the rough iron concentrate was magnetization roasted under a temperature of 700 °C, 60 min of retention time, 3 wt% of biochar consumption, and 0.15 T of magnetic field intensity. The grade of iron concentrate was 59.57% and the recovery of iron was 90.72%. Finally, the red iron pigment was produced via a high temperature hydrothermal method in order to increase the additional value of this ultra-low-grade limonite. The optimal parameters were 10.0 g/L of solution acidity, a 200 °C reaction temperature, 5 h of reaction time, and a 6:1 solid-to-liquid ratio. The reaction mechanism was also discussed. Full article
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14 pages, 3935 KiB  
Article
Reaction Behavior and Transformation Path of Zinc in the Heating-Up Zone during Sintering Process
by Wei Lv, Min Gan, Xiaohui Fan, Zengqing Sun, Rongchang Zhang, Zhiyun Ji and Xuling Chen
Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 10147; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610147 - 16 Aug 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1525
Abstract
Iron ore sintering is a simple and sustainable way to treat zinc-bearing secondary resources. In this paper, the reaction behavior of zinc was studied by combining thermodynamic calculation and simulation tests under sintering temperature and atmosphere. The evolution law of Zn-containing phases during [...] Read more.
Iron ore sintering is a simple and sustainable way to treat zinc-bearing secondary resources. In this paper, the reaction behavior of zinc was studied by combining thermodynamic calculation and simulation tests under sintering temperature and atmosphere. The evolution law of Zn-containing phases during the heating process was also revealed. The results showed that Zn-containing substances were mainly converted to ZnO when the temperature reached 700 °C in the pre-drying zone, and ZnO started to combine with Fe2O3 to form ZnFe2O4 when the temperature reached 800 °C in the combustion zone. ZnFe2O4 remained stable at 1300 °C, and did not change in the atmosphere with low CO concentration. In conventional sintering conditions, the removal rate of zinc was about 5 wt%, zinc was mainly converted to ZnFe2O4 and stuck in the sinter. Therefore, to meet the zinc amount of the blast furnace load, pretreatment of raw materials or ore matching to control zinc content is necessary. Full article
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12 pages, 3035 KiB  
Article
The Conversion of Calcium-Containing Phases and Their Separation with NaCl in Molten Salt Chlorinated Slags at High Temperature
by Feng Chen, Changlin Liu, Yuekai Wen, Fuxing Zhu, Hongguo Yao, Yufeng Guo, Shuai Wang and Lingzhi Yang
Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 293; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010293 - 28 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1652
Abstract
The titanium resources in Panxi reign, China, have a high-impurities content of Ca and Mg, which is usually processed by the molten salt chlorination process. This process allows higher Ca and Mg content in its furnace burdens. However, there is a huge amount [...] Read more.
The titanium resources in Panxi reign, China, have a high-impurities content of Ca and Mg, which is usually processed by the molten salt chlorination process. This process allows higher Ca and Mg content in its furnace burdens. However, there is a huge amount of molten salt chlorinated slag produced by this process, consisting of complex compounds and waste NaCl/KCl salts. These slags are always stockpiled without efficient utilization, causing serious environmental pollutions. To recycle the NaCl in the slag back to the molten salt chlorination process, a novel process to deal with those molten salt chlorinated slags with phase conversion at high temperature is presented in this paper. The calcium-containing solid phase was generated when Na2SiO3 was added to the molten salt chlorinated slags at high temperature, while NaCl was kept as a liquid. Thus, liquid NaCl was easily separated from the calcium-containing solid phase, and it could be reused in the molten salt chlorination process. The conversion of calcium-containing phases and their separation of NaCl are the key parts of this work, and they have been systematically studied in this paper; thermodynamic analysis, phase transformation behavior, and calcium removal behavior have all been investigated. The calcium removal rate is 78.69% when the molar ratio of CaCl2:Na2SiO3 is 1:1.5 at 1173 K and N2 atmosphere. Full article
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Review

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22 pages, 2422 KiB  
Review
Review of Life Cycle Assessments for Steel and Environmental Analysis of Future Steel Production Scenarios
by Julian Suer, Marzia Traverso and Nils Jäger
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14131; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114131 - 29 Oct 2022
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 16714
Abstract
The steel industry is focused on reducing its environmental impact. Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the impacts of the primary steel production via the blast furnace route and the scrap-based secondary steel production via the EAF route are assessed. In order [...] Read more.
The steel industry is focused on reducing its environmental impact. Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the impacts of the primary steel production via the blast furnace route and the scrap-based secondary steel production via the EAF route are assessed. In order to achieve environmentally friendly steel production, breakthrough technologies have to be implemented. With a shift from primary to secondary steel production, the increasing steel demand is not met due to insufficient scrap availability. In this paper, special focus is given on recycling methodologies for metals and steel. The decarbonization of the steel industry requires a shift from a coal-based metallurgy towards a hydrogen and electricity-based metallurgy. Interim scenarios like the injection of hydrogen and the use of pre-reduced iron ores in a blast furnace can already reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions up to 200 kg CO2/t hot metal. Direct reduction plants combined with electrical melting units/furnaces offer the opportunity to minimize GHG emissions. The results presented give guidance to the steel industry and policy makers on how much renewable electric energy is required for the decarbonization of the steel industry. Full article
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