Recycling of End-of-Life Polycarbonate as a Carbon Resource in Ironmaking

Globally, millions of end-of-life Polycarbonates (PC) are generated annually. Landfill disposal is one of the primary options for handling end-of-life PCs. There is a possible potential release of Bisphenol-A (BPA) from PC via hydrolysis or leaching when disposed at landfill sites. In this work the use of end-of-life PC as reductant for the production of metallic iron from Mbalam iron oxide was investigated in a horizontal tube furnace through the composite pellet approach. Elemental analysis of the charred PC shows a carbon content of (78.92 wt %) and hydrogen content of (7.07 wt %) which are reasonably above those of various forms of coals and can be recovered for use as reductant in metal extraction processes. Composite pellets of high-grade Mbalam iron ore (assaying ~97 % Fe2O3) with charred end-of-life PC were heated from room temperature to 800 °C and then between 800-1300 °C in a continuous stream of pure argon and the off gas was analysed continuously using an infrared (IR) gas analyser. Elemental analyses of samples of the reduced metal were performed chemically for its oxygen content using a LECO oxygen/nitrogen analyser. Gas emission studies revealed the emission of large volumes of the reductant gas CO along with CO2. It is further demonstrated that end-of-life PC is effective in reducing iron oxide to produce metallic iron with reduction in oxygen content from 30.99 wt % to 0.0372 wt % corresponding to 99.88 % in less than 2400 s

Production of Metallic Iron from the Pudo Magnetite Ore using End-of-Life Rubber Tyre as Reductant: The Role of an Underlying Ankerite Ore as a Fluxing Agent on Productivity

This research work investigated the nature of a nonmagnetic ore from Pudo in the Upper West Region of Ghana and its fluxing effect on the extent of reduction of the Pudo titaniferous magnetite ore using pulverised samples of charred carbonaceous materials generated from end-of-life vehicle tyres (ELT) as reductants. Reduction studies were conducted on composite pellets of the Pudo titaniferous magnetite iron ore containing fixed amounts of charred ELT and varying amounts (0%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%) of the nonmagnetic fluxing material in a domestic microwave oven and the extent of reduction was calculated after microwave irradiation for 40 minutes. Analyses by XRF, SEM/EDS and XRD of the nonmagnetic ore revealed an Ankerite type of ore of the form Ca0.95Fe0.95Mn0.1 (CO3)2. From the microwave reduction studies it was observed that premium grade metallic iron could be produced from appropriate blends of the Pudo iron ores using ELT as reductant, with a measured extent of reduction up to 103.8%. Further, the extent of reduction was observed to increase with an increase in the amount of the nonmagnetic fluxing material (Ankerite) that was added as fluxing agent.   Keywords: Ankerite, End-of-life Rubber Tyres, Fluxing Agent, Extent of Reductio