Recycling of Iron Scrap Wastes into Cement Industry

Abstract

This work aims at the exploitation of huge quantities of iron scrap wasted during iron production via recycling iron wastes using an electric arc furnace as a partial replacement to ordinary Portland cement to increase the production capacity of Portland cement without further firing and hence decreasing the ecological problems associated with its production. Six mixes were prepared with different additives of iron scrap wastes up to 50 wt. % on the expense of the cement content. Physico-mechanical properties namely water of consistency, setting time, hydration behavior, sintering parameters (bulk density and apparent porosity) as well as mechanical properties (cold crushing strength) were tested according to the International Standard Specifications. X-ray diffraction technique was used to investigate the phase compositions of the hydrated cement samples. The results indicated a marked improvement in the physicomechanical properties of the prepared cement mixes as the content of iron scrap waste additives increased. The mix composed of 70 wt. % Portland cement with 30 % iron scrap waste additive was considered as the optimum mix due to its outstanding physical and cementing properties (setting time; initial:48 min., final: 160 min., combined water; 43.25 %, bulk density; 3.22 g/cm³, apparent porosity; 10.46 %, cold crushing strength; 530 kg/cm²) which satisfy the requirement of International standard of mixed cement.