摘要 |
Finely divided ferruginous material is intimately mixed with finely divided carbonaceous material and agglomerated and formed into pellets typically of a few cubic centimeters volume to form a feedstock for a smelting operation. The carbonaceous material includes carbon in both high reactivity and low reactivity forms typically provided respectively by sewage sludge or other biosolids and by coke fines, kish graphite, natural graphite, lignite or brown coal. Smelting is conducted in a bath smelting furnace with the bath temperature of at least 1420 DEG C. and preferably 1500 DEG C. in a manner controlled to destroy any organic compounds present, to use carbon as a source of fuel, to carburise the iron to around 4% carbon or higher and to provide an off-gas which can be processed to collect any volatilized metal values.
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