On the issue of minimizing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere during the processing of industrial waste

Abstract

The industrial activity of mankind using mineral raw materials and fossil fuels is steadily increasing man-made waste and carbon dioxide emissions. These factors, in turn, lead to pollution of the soil, air and an increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. This article discusses an example of waste-free processing of excavated slag and the search for a method of minimizing carbon dioxide in the exhaust gases of the smelting unit. When solving this problem, the main provisions of the method of extreme energy saving were used: 1) selection of a high-performance melting unit; 2) the formation of a technology that allows decreasing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere; 3) development of a heating scheme for an energy-saving, waste-free, environmentally friendly processing of industrial waste. On the basis of the created energy-saving unit “reactor inversion phase – rotary kiln”, a thermal scheme for waste-free processing of zinc-containing slag has been developed. It is proposed that “CO2, H2O” in the reactor exhaust gas be reduced with zinc vapors to “CO, H2”. The resulting excess hydrogen will be used to displace from CO elemental carbon, which will serve as reducing agent in the zinc distiller. In case of implementation, the proposed system expects integrated waste management, minimization of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere up to 50% and a five-fold reduction in the specific fuel consumption per process.