Steel Manufacturing EAF Dust as a Potential Adsorbent for Hydrogen Sulfide Removal

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Environmental Engineering
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) is a steel manufacturing byproduct with limited current applications.
• EAFD contains metal oxides capable of reacting with hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to form stable sulfides.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the potential of EAFD as an adsorbent material for H2S removal from syngas.
• Evaluate and benchmark EAFD performance against commercial adsorbents.

Main Methods:

• Characterization of EAFD from European steel plants.
• Dynamic H2S breakthrough tests at various temperatures (400-600 °C) and space velocities (SV).
• Processing of EAFD into adsorbents via milling and granulation.

Main Results:

• Sulfur capture capacity correlated with milling time and zinc concentration.
• Both zinc oxide (ZnO) and zinc in zinc ferrite (ZnFe2O4) were active in sulfidation.
• EAFD performance surpassed commercial ZnO at 500 and 600 °C.
• High-zinc EAFD-B achieved a capacity of 234 mg g-1 at 500 °C.

Conclusions:

• EAFD, particularly high-zinc variants, shows significant promise as a viable sulfur capture material.
• Repurposing EAFD offers a value-added application for this steel industry byproduct.
• Optimized EAFD adsorbents can effectively remove H2S from syngas at elevated temperatures.