Dielectric Properties and Microwave Reduction Behavior of BOF Slag and Lignin Mixture
摘要
Basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag is the second highest byproduct generated in the European steel industry. In this study, the reduction behavior of BOF slag mixed with lignin, a byproduct of paper-pulp and bioethanol industries, under microwave heating was investigated. The microwave dielectric properties of a BOF slag-lignin mixture were measured under intense microwave electric fields. The microwave reduction experiments were carried out at 300 °C, 400 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C, and 900 °C temperatures, for 10 minutes, under an inert N2(g) atmosphere. The microwave reduction results were compared with TGA reduction experiments conducted at the same temperatures. The dielectric properties showed that BOF slag can be heated under microwave efficiently due to its high permittivity and loss tangent values. The microwave reduction of BOF slag results indicated that increasing temperature leads to increase the reduction of srebrodolskite (main iron-bearing phase of BOF slag) to metallic iron, at 800 °C temperature, srebrodolskite completely reduced to iron metal under microwave energy. TGA results showed that srebrodolskite not fully reduced into iron metal event at 1000 °C. This indicates efficient reduction of BOF slag at lower temperature under microwave heating.