Characterization of BOF Dust for Pellets Production Used in Blast Furnace

Abstract

In order to minimize the incorrect disposal of dust generated in the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) converter and to generate a new application for this solid residue, a simple characterization route was proposed. The powder residue is used to produce self-reducing pellets and can be used in the blast furnace process. The chemical analysis of the dust was carried out using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and some elements as Fe, Si, P, Al and Ca were detected in high amount, as the iron which achieved about 65% concentration. Moreover, the X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the iron was found in the phases, mainly, as magnetite (Fe3O4) and hematite (Fe2O3) while quartz (SiO2) and calcite (CaCO3) were the major impurities. The spectrometry dispersive energy (SDE) analysis confirmed the presence of such elements and the images obtained by SEM allowed visualizing the morphology of the particles. The average of particle size distribution of the dust was 0.053 mm which is suitable for self-agglomerates pellets.