Recycling Waste Bakelite as an Alternative Carbon Resource for Ironmaking Applications

Abstract

In-depth investigations were carried out on the thermal degradation and structural evolution of bakelite by heat treatment at different temperatures; the structural transformation to graphitic carbon at 1 450°C was confirmed through X-ray diffraction. High amounts of residual carbon were obtained after the high temperature charring of bakelite. The reduction behavior of iron oxide/bakelite composite pellets was studied at 1 450°C to investigate waste bakelite as a carbon resource in ironmaking towards a partial replacement of traditional carbon sources. These studies were carried out for raw bakelite as well as for bakelite char. The reduction of iron oxide by raw bakelite resulted in the non-separation of metal, slag and in the formation of direct reduced iron pellets. On the other hand, bakelite char pellet showed clear separation of iron nuggets from slag. This study has established bakelite as an alternative carbonaceous resource for reduction reactions in new ironmaking processes.

A comprehensive review on energy efficient CO2 breakthrough technologies for sustainable green iron and steel manufacturing

“…Iron and steel making processes are still mostly coal-based and thus highly dependent on fossil fuels, releasing substantial amount of fossil CO 2 [1,2]. It is the second largest consumer of industrial energy, consuming around 616 Mtoe (25.8 EJ) and is recognized one of the largest industrial sources of direct CO 2 emissions (2.3 Gt in 2007) [3]. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the steel industry accounts for 4-5% of the total world CO 2 emission.…”

Recycling Carbonaceous Industrial/Commercial Waste as a Carbon Resource in Iron and Steelmaking

“…The crystallite heights ( L c ) of chars at 1450 and 1550 °C were determined to be 4.8 and 6.68 nm, respectively. This graphitic carbon is believed to have been produced during the chemical reaction between CaO (from the thermal degradation of filler impurity CaCO 3 ) and the amorphous residual carbon forming CaC 2 , which then dissociates to produce graphitic carbon . These results show that the carbon present in Bakelite chars was significantly more ordered than in raw Bakelite.…”

“…The heat treatment at 1450 °C showed a much stronger graphitic peak and additional peaks for Ca 2 SiO 4 , CaO, and CaC 2 . While the diffraction pattern at 1550 °C showed most of these impurity peaks, the carbon peak showed a significant increase in intensity along with a complete disappearance of the CaO peak . With increasing pyrolysis temperatures, the background intensity was significantly reduced and the (002) peak became more symmetric and sharper.…”

“…Our group at UNSW has been actively working on the recycling and utilization of waste polymers, agricultural waste, waste rubber etc. for carburization, iron oxide reduction, and slag foaming during electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking . In this article, we focus on the utilization of end‐of‐life industrial and commercial waste containing substantial carbon‐bearing polymeric components as carbon resources in iron and steelmaking.…”

Novel Recycling to Transform Automotive Waste Glass and Plastics into SiC-Bearing Resource by Silica Reduction

“…Calcium peak was notably high and could be attributed to Bakelite degradation. Thermoset plastic Bakelite structure starts to dissociate at 350°C, and weight losses at 600-800°C are attributed to degradation of both Bakelite and calcium carbonate [21]. In order to understand Bakelite's behavior at high temperatures, some trial runs were carried out with only Bakelite powder following the same experimental Residual 40 % char was characterized by XRD and LECO carbon analysis.…”