RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT PROCESS

The EnvIRONment process, invented by Prof. H. K. Worner. has been deve loped to treat metallurgical and organic wastes using pyrometallurgica l technology. Developed at the University of Wollongong, the process s uccessfully overcomes many of the technical challenges of processing f erruginous waste. Composite pellets of Ferruginous, typically steelwor ks dust, and organic waste are bath smelted in a DC are furnace, utili sing a deep slag layer to produce iron, an innocuous slag, and a zinc enriched fume. Process viability has been demonstrated with over 4 yea rs of trials in a purpose built 100 kg DC are furnace. The suitability of bath smelting for processing of wastes, in particular metallurgica l wastes, has been sufficiently encouraging that commercialisation of the EnvIRONment process is being pursued. Fundamental research being u ndertaken within the Department of Materials Engineering at the Univer sity of Wollongong is addressing unresolved aspects of the pyrometallu rgical reactions operating within the process. The aim of the research is to quantify process kinetics while gaining a greater understanding of reduction mechanisms and the smelting behaviour of composite pelle ts. To date kinetic interpretation has been complex, however it is evi dent that the reaction of the composite pellets is influenced by sever al parameters including pellet chemistry and heating rate. Smelting of the composite pellets in slag was found to occur via dissolution of F eO and metallic iron at the slag pellet interface. (C) 1998 Canadian I nstitute of Mining and Metallurgy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.