Protecting the Environment
Currently, US-based mini-mills using the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) method to melt scrap steel generate more than a million tons of steel mill dust annually. Classified as a hazardous substance, most of this steel dust can be recycled to obtain zinc oxides used as a raw material for the world's zinc smelters.
At this time, however, nearly 400,000 tons of steel dust are not recycled, but are buried in landfills. When it comes on line, the new Steel Dust Recycling plant will have the capacity to recycle more than a quarter of that excess steel dust, thereby reducing the amount of hazardous materials landfilled, and reducing the need to find and mine more raw materials for zinc production.
The Waelz Kiln being installed in the Steel Dust Recycling's Millport, Alabama plant is the first greenfield site of its kind in the US and utilizes the latest environmental control technologies. The products of the process include Waelz Zinc Oxide for zinc production and Waelz Iron Product, an inert compound used for paving and construction, or in the production of cement.
