SOLID-WASTE REMEDIATION IN THE METALLURGICAL INDUSTRY - APPLICATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL-IMPACT

This paper describes problems associated with the remediation of solid metallurgical wastes, primary manufacture of major metals (iron, copp er, aluminum, zinc and lead). It focuses on three types of solid waste s: slags, dusts and sludges. It has been shown that solid waste remedi ation technologies, such as stabilization or solidification, incinerat ion, and hydro-chemical metal recovery have been applied in the indust ry and new technologies such as plasma- and vitrification-processing o f solid wastes are under development. On the whole, however, solid res idue remediation remains relatively uncommon. In addition, currently a pplied technologies are unable to solve the complex problems of metall urgical solid wastes (e.g., simultaneous destruction of toxins and ext raction of multiple metals). A new thermal process applicable to direc t ironmaking that would achieve significant utilization of zinc residu es has been proposed. It has been suggested that the high-temperature treatment of wastes in which metallurgical furnaces are used as remedi ation reactors holds great potential as an alternative disposal method .