Focus on ecology is the major trend of modern production. It is especially relevant for ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy production, each stage of which is accompanied by the production of waste in the form of concentration tailings: slag, sludge, and gas cleaning dust. Industry-dominated areas need proper waste disposal with hazardous substances extracted and some elements reused, which is economically and ecologically beneficial.
The Integrated Processing of Industrial Waste project of South Ural State University involves the development of theoretical and technological foundations for the extraction of the most valuable components from slag, namely, iron and zinc. The slag residue will be used to produce proppant, a granular material used in the oil industry to increase the efficiency of well production using fracking.
Iron, the most valuable of the components of copper smelting waste, will be used to manufacture cast iron grinding media.
‘SUSU research has shown the possibility of obtaining a commercial product in the form of grinding media, in which sulfur is not a harmful impurity. On the contrary, by preventing carbon graphitization, it contributes to its release in the form of solid carbides and increases wear resistance. Copper, in its turn, is also a useful impurity that increases the impact-resistant properties of cast iron. With high quality, the grinding media have a significantly lower cost since the cast iron used for casting is produced from the waste of the copper industry (slag). It does not contain expensive additives (chromium),’ said representatives of ITs AS Teplostroy, OOO, an industrial partner of the project.
The second most expensive component, zinc, is essential for the industry. Copper-smelting slags contain about 2.5% of this non-ferrous metal, so its return to production as Waelz oxide will make it possible to compensate for the lack of zinc in modern enterprises.