Recycling of electric arc furnace dust through dissolution in deep eutectic ionic liquids and electrowinning

The dust waste formed during steelmaking in electric arc furnace (EAF) is rich in ferrous and nonferrous metals. Recycling of this dust as a raw material in iron or steel-making is hazardous and therefore it is mostly dumped. This paper demonstrates recycling of EAF dust through selective dissolution of metal oxides in a deep eutectic ionic liquid. It was found that about 60% of Zn and 39% of Pb could be dissolved from the dust when stirred for 48 h in 1 choline chloride:2 urea ionic liquid at 60 °C. The resultant electrolyte was subsequently fed to a conventional three-electrode cell where cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements were conducted to describe its electrochemical behavior. Two deposition peaks were determined and ascribed to deposition of zinc and lead. Static potentials were successively applied to electrowin metallic zinc. SEM/EDX investigations showed that the zinc electrowon contained remarkable contents of lead.