Recycling end-of-life waste materials as resources in EAF steelmaking - fundamentals of high temperature reactions and industrial implementations

The steel industry consumes a large amount of energy GHG emissions. Rubber tires and agricultural wastes have the potential to be used in industries seeking alternative fuel and sustainable raw materials sources. Previous studies focused on recycling these materials as fuel resources, i.e. rubber in cement industry and agricultural materials for power production. The present paper focuses on investigations of carbon /slag reactions, namely slag foaming using rubber and palm shell wastes as sustainable carbon sources through quantitative estimation of the slag volume. An improved volume ratio for the rubber blend compared to coke was seen. Foaming was also improved when palm shell char was used as carbon material. Industrial implementations at OneSteel showed reductions in electrical energy and carbon consumption. These results indicate that partial replacement of coke with rubber and palm shell is efficient due to improved interactions with EAF slag