title: Achieving zero waste of municipal incinerator fly ash by melting in electric arc furnaces while steelmaking.
abstract: The main objective of this work was to promote zero waste of municipal incinerator fly ash (MIFA) by full-scale melting in electric arc furnaces (EAFs) of steel mini mills around the world. MIFA, generally, is considered as a hazardous waste. Like in many countries, MIFA in Taiwan is first solidified/stabilized and then landfilled. Due to the scarcity of landfill space, the cost of landfilling increases markedly year by year in Taiwan. This paper presents satisfactory results of treating several hundred tons of MIFA in a full-scale steel mini mill using the approach of "melting MIFA while EAF steelmaking", which is somewhat similar to "molten salt oxidation" process. It was found that this practice yielded many advantages such as (1) about 18wt% of quicklime requirement in EAF steelmaking can be substituted by the lime materials contained in MIFA; (2) MIFA would totally end up as a material in fractions of recyclable EAF dust, oxidized slag and reduced slag; (3) no waste is needed for landfilling; and (4) a capital cost saving through the employment of existing EAFs in steel mini mills instead of building new melting plants for the treatment of MIFA. Thus, it is technically feasible to achieve zero waste of MIFA by the practice of this innovative melting technology.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan; Center for Emerging Contaminants Research, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan. Electronic address: gordon@mail.nsysu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Gordon C C
authors.initials: GCC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsun-Nan
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chien-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004560:Electricity; D006256:Hazardous Waste; D017745:Incineration / Q000379:methods*; D008669:Metallurgy; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods; D013232:Steel; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D006256:Hazardous Waste; D013232:Steel
keywords: Electric arc furnace; Melting; Municipal incinerator fly ash; Steelmaking by-products; Total recycling; Zero landfill; Zero waste