Briquetting today`s waste for tomorrow`s fuel and resources

Environmental Technologies Group International (ETG) has developed technology that appears to allow revert materials to be successfully recycled in the steelmaking process. ETG has presented research indicating revert materials can be processed to maintain thermal integrity, thus enabling them to be reduced in the steelmaking process. Additional research has been undertaken to define briquetted revert material performance in an electric arc furnace environment. Briquettes made from several revert materials with a variety of component spectrums were introduced into an experimental arc furnace to determine reduction rates and iron recovery. It was found that the iron recovery was dependent on the iron content of the revert, but all reverts yielded between 70 to 80% of the iron units present. Coke was used in the briquettes as a fuel and a carbon source for reduction. It was found that a minimum level of coke at approximately 20% was required to provide sufficient fuel and carbon to recover the available iron units. Iron recovered form the revert materials ranged from 92 to 96% with varying amounts of carbon and other materials present.