Evaluating Practices to Reuse/Recycle Spent Refractory Materials in the Steel Industry

摘要

Refractories removed from service in the steel industry are typically landfilled. A number of driving forces to encourage recycling have recently emerged. These include growing concerns over legislation, the environment, and future liability. Spent refractories can be reused/recycled as a raw material source in a number pf products or processes ranging from low to high volume applications and with varying material values. Material cleanliness, beneficiation costs, and material consistency will play a large role in determining these applications. Barriers to material reuse are oftentimes based more on an unwillingness to change prior practices and on a lack of driving forces than on barriers caused by technical issues. Efforts at a number of steel mills have shown that successful reuse of spent refractory materials can be done with proper planning and if conditions such as storage space and company culture are conducive to recycling versus disposal. A successful recycling program must look at all issues and costs associated with material reuse versus disposal. Applications for the spent refractories have typically been internal rather than external. At a minimum, processing of the spent refractory material typically involves segregation into the different types of refractories, than crushing and magnetic separation. Dust suppression is an issue in recycling. Users of refractories oftentimes send the spent refractory materials back to a company for processing rather than invest in the resources to do it internally. Companies that process spent refractories as a business should be considered in any recycling program. These companies have the equipment and a large amount of firsthand experience they can utilize to beneficiate and market the spent refractory materials.