Cement Immobilization of Hazardous and Radioactive Electric Arc Furnace Dust

Abstract

This paper reveals an appropriate ingredient to operating the hazardous and radioactive electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) from the steel production factory using the cement immobilization technique. The cement specimens were prepared by mixing tap water with the binders (i.e., ordinary Portland cement: OPC, and the EAFD) at the different EAFD replacement of 0%, 15%, 25%, 35%, 40%, 45%, and 50% by weight. The water-to-binders ratio was fi xed at 0.40. The compressive strength test on the fabricated samples was performed at two different curing times of 14 and 28 days. It was found that the highest compressive strength of the samples can be obtained when the EAFD loading was 25%. However, the compressive strength criteria for the cement waste form, the use of the ingredient with the higher EAFD loading (35% EAFD with 28-day curing time) for the immobilization is favorable while meets the criteria. The phase composition and microstructure morphology of all samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fl uorescence (XRF) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS).