Volumen II - SAM

Congreso SAM/CONAMET 2009 Buenos Aires, 19 al 23 de Octubre de 2009
USE OF STEEL-MAKING PLANT WASTES INTO CLAYEY CERAMIC
C.M.F. Vieira (1) , R. Sanchez (1) , S.N. Monteiro (1) , C.A.C.M. Dias (1) , N. Lalla (2) and N.
Quaranta (2,3)
(1) State University of the North Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro - UENF
Advanced Materials Laboratory - LAMAV
Av. Alberto Lamego, 2000; Campos dos Goytacazes, State of Rio de Janeiro, 28015-602, Brazil. 55 22 27261624
(2) National Technological University – San Nicolás Regional Faculty
Environmental Studies Group
Colón 332, 2900, San Nicolás, Argentina. 54-3461-420830
(3) CIC Researcher
E-mail: vieira@uenf.br
ABSTRACT
This work has for objective to investigate the incorporation of electric arc furnace dust, a typical waste from
steel-making plant, into clayey ceramics used for civil construction. Ceramic body compositions were
prepared with incorporations of up to 20 wt% of the waste into two types of clays, one from Argentina and
other from Brazil. The plasticity of the compositions was evaluated by the Atterberg method. Specimens were
prepared by uniaxial press-molding and then fired in a laboratory furnace at 850 o C. The technological
properties such as linear shrinkage, water absorption and diametral compression were determined. The
results showed that is technologically feasible to recycle the evaluated steel-making waste into red ceramics.
Key-words: electric arc furnace dust, clay, recycling, steel plant waste.
1. INTRODUCTION
The steel-making industrial sector generates a wide variety of solid wastes, liquid effluents and gaseous
emissions in its various processing stages [1,2]. Major pollution associated with atmospheric emissions are
dust, carbon oxide, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. The electric arc furnace dust, EAFD, is
one of several types of solid wastes from steel-making process. The most common phases present in this type
of waste are Fe2O3, FeO, Fe-met., 2FeO-SiO2, ZnO, SiO2 (quartz), 3CaO-2SiO2 and 4PbO-PbSO [3]. Several
works have been dedicated to characterize and to evaluate possible applications to this type of waste [3-11].
The incorporation into red ceramic is nowadays an environmentally correct solution for the disposal of a
wide range of solid wastes [12,13]. The natural variability of the clay characteristics, the use of relatively
simple processing techniques as well as the relatively low technical performance required for the products,
facilitate the presence of a significant amount of impurities introduced in the final structure of the ceramic.
Furthermore, the firing stage, that reaches temperature in the range between 600-1000 o C, is fundamental to
particle consolidation. It allows the volatilization of dangerous compounds, as well as changes in the
chemical characteristics of materials and inertization of potentially toxic and dangerous compounds through
fixation in the vitreous phase. In addition, some types of wastes can also contribute to facilitate the red
ceramic fabrication not only by changing the plasticity/workability of the ceramic body, but also by
enhancing the technical performance of the ceramic as well as increasing the mechanical strength and
decreasing the water absorption.
The need to find an environmentally correct alternative to recycle the EAFD was one of the objectives of
this work. Moreover, the investigation of technical advantages to red ceramics incorporated with this waste
was another objective.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The raw materials used in this work were one type of waste and two types of significantly different clays.
The waste was an electric arc furnace dust, denoted as EAFD, collected from a steel-making process of an
integrated plant from Argentina. The different clays were one from Argentina, denoted as Aclay, and the
other from Brazil, denoted as Bclay.
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