AISI waste oxide recycling program. Final technical report

In March 1995 AISI completed a five-year, $60 million collaborative development program on Direct Steelmaking cost-shared by DOE under the Metals Initiative. This program defined an energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology to produce hot metal for steelmaking directly from coal and iron ore pellets without incurring the high capital costs and environmental problems associated with traditional coke oven and blast furnace technology. As it becomes necessary to replace present capacity, this new technology will be favored because of reduced capital costs, higher energy efficiency, and lower operating costs. In April 1994, having failed to move forward with a demonstration plant for direct ironmaking, despite substantial efforts by both Stelco and Geneva Steel, an alternative opportunity was sought to commercialize this new technology without waiting until existing ironmaking capacity needed to be replaced. Recycling and resource recovery of steel plant waste oxides was considered an attractive possibility. This led to approval of a ten-month, $8.3 million joint program with DOE on recycling steel plant waste oxides utilizing this new smelting technology. This highly successful trial program was completed in December 1994. The results of the pilot plant work and a feasibility study for a recycling demonstration plant are presented in this final technical report.