Ore-based steelmaking generates a variety of residues and recycling of these within the existing process or via other applications is essential for sustainable production from mainly environmental aspects. In blast furnace (BF) ironmaking, the gas-cleaning equipment recovers the particles in the off-gas as BF dust and sludge. Traditionally, the dry dust is recycled back to the BF. In order to recycle the BF sludge together with the dust, the sludge has to be upgraded, removing zinc. The literature reports cases of recycling BF dust and the low-zinc fraction of upgraded BF sludge to the BF. However, research towards recycling of the high-zinc fraction of BF sludge within the ore-based steel plant is limited. In the present paper, the high-zinc fraction of tornado-treated BF sludge was incorporated in self-reducing cold-bonded agglomerates. The agglomerates were subjected to smelting reduction experiments aiming to study the feasibility of recycling the in-plant residues to the desulphurization plant. Difficulties in the melt-in of the agglomerates suggested that cold-bonded pellets were more suitable for recycling than the briquettes. However, full-scale trials suggested that cold-bonded briquettes can be used to recycle in-plant residues to the desulphurization plant without affecting the desulphurization process and final steel quality.
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