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Sustainable Metallurgical Processing and Industrial Solid Waste Recycling

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 March 2023) | Viewed by 14610

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yuanbo Zhang

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Guest Editor

School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: green metallurgy processing; mineral processing; waste minimization and recycling; CO₂ capture and reduction

Dr. Zijian Su

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Guest Editor

School of Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: mineral processing and metallurgical engineering; mineral functional materials; recycling of industrial solid wastes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Corby G. Anderson

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Guest Editor

Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy, Mining Engineering Department & George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Interests: extractive metallurgy; mineral processing; waste minimization; recycling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Hongming Long

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Guest Editor

School of Metallurgical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, Anhui 243002, China
Interests: ferrous metalurgy; sintering processing; waste minimization; recycling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the most important challenges almost every country is facing in the 21st century is the exhaustion of minerals and fossil energy resources. Due to the fact that economic development is strongly dependent on the use of natural resources, the gap between demand and supply of natural resources is becoming bigger and bigger. Moreover, a large number of industrial solid wastes harmful to the environment are generated, and they are difficult to utilize and recycle. Therefore, optimizing the extracting and recycling processes for critical metals, setting quality standards of wasted materials, and developing cleaner production technologies of wasted materials is an important way to address the dilemma of resource shortage and environmental protection.

This Special Issue of Sustainability is devoted to aspects of sustainable metallurgical processing and industrial solid waste recycling. If you are interested in this topic, please consider submitting your valuable work to this issue. This topic includes green/intelligent/sustainable metallurgical processing, industrial waste minimization and recycling, and CO2 emission reduction. Critical metals (Ni, Co, Mo, Sn, PGMs, Ga, In, Au, Ag, Cu, Zn, Pb, Fe, Cr, Mn, etc.) recovery from wasted materials (e-wastes, scrap metals, etc.) and utilization of metallurgical slags/dusts are also welcomed. Also, topics related to the utilization of low-grade ferrous or nonferrous resources and tailings will be considered. Review papers and original papers are welcome. Thank you.

Prof. Yuanbo Zhang
Dr. Zijian Su
Prof. Dr. Corby G. Anderson
Prof. Dr. Hongming Long
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

low-carbon metallurgy
hydrogen metallurgy
intelligent metallurgy
metallurgical slag utilization
secondary resources recycling
metal recovery
hazadous waste disposal and stabilization
low-grade primary resource processing
steel scrap reuse
CO₂ capture
CO₂ reduction

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 7366 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preparation of Red Iron by Magnetization Roasting-Hydrothermal Method Using Ultra-Low-Grade Limonite

by Geng Xu, Fei Li, Peipei Jiang and Shiqiu Zhang

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4708; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15064708 - 07 Mar 2023

Viewed by 858

Abstract

Iron is one of the most important strategic materials in national production, and the demand for iron ore is huge in the world. High quality iron ore reserves have been almost exhausted, and it is necessary to develop a technology that utilizes low-grade iron ore. Limonite is a representative low-grade iron ore due to its complex mineral and elemental composition. In this paper, the union process was employed to separate the iron elements in low-grade limonite. Firstly, a rough iron concentrate was obtained under 1.0 T of magnetic field intensity and −0.074 mm > 94.84% of grinding fineness; then, the rough iron concentrate was magnetization roasted under a temperature of 700 °C, 60 min of retention time, 3 wt% of biochar consumption, and 0.15 T of magnetic field intensity. The grade of iron concentrate was 59.57% and the recovery of iron was 90.72%. Finally, the red iron pigment was produced via a high temperature hydrothermal method in order to increase the additional value of this ultra-low-grade limonite. The optimal parameters were 10.0 g/L of solution acidity, a 200 °C reaction temperature, 5 h of reaction time, and a 6:1 solid-to-liquid ratio. The reaction mechanism was also discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Metallurgical Processing and Industrial Solid Waste Recycling)

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14 pages, 3935 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reaction Behavior and Transformation Path of Zinc in the Heating-Up Zone during Sintering Process

by Wei Lv, Min Gan, Xiaohui Fan, Zengqing Sun, Rongchang Zhang, Zhiyun Ji and Xuling Chen

Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 10147; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141610147 - 16 Aug 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1019

Abstract

Iron ore sintering is a simple and sustainable way to treat zinc-bearing secondary resources. In this paper, the reaction behavior of zinc was studied by combining thermodynamic calculation and simulation tests under sintering temperature and atmosphere. The evolution law of Zn-containing phases during the heating process was also revealed. The results showed that Zn-containing substances were mainly converted to ZnO when the temperature reached 700 °C in the pre-drying zone, and ZnO started to combine with Fe₂O₃ to form ZnFe₂O₄ when the temperature reached 800 °C in the combustion zone. ZnFe₂O₄ remained stable at 1300 °C, and did not change in the atmosphere with low CO concentration. In conventional sintering conditions, the removal rate of zinc was about 5 wt%, zinc was mainly converted to ZnFe₂O₄ and stuck in the sinter. Therefore, to meet the zinc amount of the blast furnace load, pretreatment of raw materials or ore matching to control zinc content is necessary. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Metallurgical Processing and Industrial Solid Waste Recycling)

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12 pages, 3035 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Conversion of Calcium-Containing Phases and Their Separation with NaCl in Molten Salt Chlorinated Slags at High Temperature

by Feng Chen, Changlin Liu, Yuekai Wen, Fuxing Zhu, Hongguo Yao, Yufeng Guo, Shuai Wang and Lingzhi Yang

Sustainability 2022, 14(1), 293; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14010293 - 28 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1261

Abstract

The titanium resources in Panxi reign, China, have a high-impurities content of Ca and Mg, which is usually processed by the molten salt chlorination process. This process allows higher Ca and Mg content in its furnace burdens. However, there is a huge amount of molten salt chlorinated slag produced by this process, consisting of complex compounds and waste NaCl/KCl salts. These slags are always stockpiled without efficient utilization, causing serious environmental pollutions. To recycle the NaCl in the slag back to the molten salt chlorination process, a novel process to deal with those molten salt chlorinated slags with phase conversion at high temperature is presented in this paper. The calcium-containing solid phase was generated when Na₂SiO₃ was added to the molten salt chlorinated slags at high temperature, while NaCl was kept as a liquid. Thus, liquid NaCl was easily separated from the calcium-containing solid phase, and it could be reused in the molten salt chlorination process. The conversion of calcium-containing phases and their separation of NaCl are the key parts of this work, and they have been systematically studied in this paper; thermodynamic analysis, phase transformation behavior, and calcium removal behavior have all been investigated. The calcium removal rate is 78.69% when the molar ratio of CaCl₂:Na₂SiO₃ is 1:1.5 at 1173 K and N₂ atmosphere. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Metallurgical Processing and Industrial Solid Waste Recycling)

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Review

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22 pages, 2422 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review of Life Cycle Assessments for Steel and Environmental Analysis of Future Steel Production Scenarios

by Julian Suer, Marzia Traverso and Nils Jäger

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14131; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142114131 - 29 Oct 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 10369

Abstract

The steel industry is focused on reducing its environmental impact. Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the impacts of the primary steel production via the blast furnace route and the scrap-based secondary steel production via the EAF route are assessed. In order to achieve environmentally friendly steel production, breakthrough technologies have to be implemented. With a shift from primary to secondary steel production, the increasing steel demand is not met due to insufficient scrap availability. In this paper, special focus is given on recycling methodologies for metals and steel. The decarbonization of the steel industry requires a shift from a coal-based metallurgy towards a hydrogen and electricity-based metallurgy. Interim scenarios like the injection of hydrogen and the use of pre-reduced iron ores in a blast furnace can already reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions up to 200 kg CO₂/t hot metal. Direct reduction plants combined with electrical melting units/furnaces offer the opportunity to minimize GHG emissions. The results presented give guidance to the steel industry and policy makers on how much renewable electric energy is required for the decarbonization of the steel industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Metallurgical Processing and Industrial Solid Waste Recycling)

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