Selective leaching of zinc from electric arc furnace dust by a hydrothermal reduction method in a sodium hydroxide system

Electric arc furnace (EAF) dust is a hazardous waste material containing valuable elements, such as zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), as well as other environmentally harmful elements. In the conventional process, the existence of zinc ferrite (ZnFe 2 O 4 ) in EAF dust results in a low recovery ratio of zinc and can induce high energy consumption or difficulties utilizing iron resources. In this article, a hydrothermal reduction method in a NaOH system is proposed to recover Zn selectively from EAF dust. First, when pure ZnFe 2 O 4 was used as the input material to test the feasibility of the new method, 70% Zn leaching efficiencies and the isolation of Fe in the residue through the formation of ferroferric oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) were achieved at the optimal conditions of 260 °C, 6 M [NaOH], 10 g/L [C 6 H 12 O 6 ] n and 50 mL/g of L/S. Second, a leaching process of EAF dust was proposed using the following two procedures: (i) first leaching under normal pressure to dissolve zinc oxide (ZnO); and (ii) second leaching of the first leach residue under hydrothermal reduction conditions to dissolve ZnFe 2 O 4 . The leach liquor from the second step was recycled to the first step. Under optimum conditions, the leaching efficiencies of Zn during the first and second leaching were 66.4% and 69.3%, respectively. The total Zn leaching efficiency was calculated to be 89.7%, producing Zn-impregnated leach solution and a leach residue rich in Fe (up to 39.4 wt%) that are suitable as resources for a steel-making plant. However, this process also has its shortcomings owning to larger liquid-solid ratio in the leaching process. Overall, the study technically provides an alternative approach to improve the recycling of zinc and iron and effectively reduce environmental risks from EAF dust.