Abstract
Flue dust waste coming from a copper (Cu) smelting company has been valorized using a newly developed metallurgical process with the aim of recovering a dust concentrated in valuable metals, such as lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn), and studying the feasibility of replacing anthracite with biochar as reducing agent. Metallurgical trials using different mixtures of reducing agents have been performed in a furnace at 1400 °C. This furnace employs a high-power thermal plasma (HPTP) system as energy source. Using copper as the base metal, pellets containing a mixture of the waste, different reducing agents, and binder were introduced into the furnace for their dissolution. Recovery yields in the range of 45–85 wt.% for Pb and Zn were obtained in the flue dusts. All the trials proved the effectiveness of the developed process to enrich the flue dusts in valuable metals, including those only using biochar as reducing agent. Further trials will be carried out in order to better control the parameters involved in the metallurgical process developed and improve its efficiency.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1756 |
Pages (from-to) | 1756 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | Metals |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Oct 2022 |
Keywords
- Biochar
- Olive stones
- Reducing agent
- Metal recovery
- Waste valorization
- Pyrometallurgy
Project and Funding Information
- Project ID
- info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/820670/EU/CIRMET
- info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/19145/EU/DIGISER++
- Funding Info
- This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 820670 (CIRMET) and by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT Raw Materials), a body of the European Union, under the Horizon 2020 EU framework programme for Research and Innovation (project agreement No. 19145-DIGISER++). The official website of the DIGISER ++ project is https://digiser.tech, accessed on 28 August 2022.