Utilisation of metallurgical sludge by multi-layer sintering

Metallurgical wastes landfills in Poland significantly grew during last four decades. Landfilled wastes are characterised by iron content at range 30-50% and zinc content about 2-3%. Therefore wastes are not interesting for the zinc smelter, on the other hand, even such low zinc content in ironmaking burden causes problem with a shaft furnace operation. So, the wastes are valuable for ironmaking due to the high iron content, provided that zinc will be removed from them. The article describes the general ways of dealing with zinc containing metallurgical wastes. In detail, the semi-industrial research conducted on sinter pot set of Stanislaw Staszic Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy is presented. The study determined the conditions under which obtained three benefits: landfilled sludge utilisation, raw materials substitution and zinc recovery.