Recycling Blast Furnace Dust as Raw Material in Iron-Making

A large amount of dust is formed as one of the primary by-products during the blast furnace ironmaking process. Iron and carbon are mainly compositions in the dust. Blast furnace dust (BFD) is cycled to protect the environment and recover valuable components. In this study, BFD is used pelletization process with iron ore concentration for raw materials charging to the iron-making furnace. The mixture of BFD and iron ore (30; 40; 50 by mass %) with 2 % bentonite as a binder was used for making pellets. The produced pellets were tested drop strength and fired at 1200 °C for 30 minutes in the atmosphere environment. Fired pellets were examined compressive strength and reduced at 900; 1000; 1100 °C in 30 minutes. Mechanical, porosity and reduction degree properties of reduced pellets were analysed. The results show that green strength and compressive strength are acceptable values. Good porosity is observed when using a high amount of BFD so that it gives a high degree of reduction. XRD, SEM were used for characterization. Iron whiskers were observed in the sample, which was reduced at 1000 °C. It is clearly shown that the pellets using BFD are appropriated for charging to blast furnace as raw materials.