Abstract: A pyrometallurgic process for the treatment of post-steelwork residues, comprises the following phases: preparing a furnace (1) of the electric type, suitable for the introduction of the residues; preparing the residues, for example in a hopper with the possibility of mixing with additives and reaction elements; introducing the residues, together with suitable additives and chemical reagents, into the furnace (1); introducing directly into the slag, by means of lances (4), additives, flushing and reaction elements to correct the composition of the slag (7); reacting the residues with the slag (7) to obtain: a) separation of the liquid metallic phases which are added to the metal bath (6) to form a sellable liquid metal; b) separation of the metallic volatile elements in vapour phase which, when transferred to the free zone of the furnace (1) recombine with the oxygen for the formation of oxides and consequently of powder.

Abstract: A pyrometallurgic process for the treatment of post-steelwork residues, comprises the following phases: preparing a furnace (1) of the electric type, suitable for the introduction of the residues; preparing the residues, for example in a hopper with the possibility of mixing with additives and reaction elements; introducing the residues, together with suitable additives and chemical reagents, into the furnace (1); introducing directly into the slag, by means of lances (4), additives, flushing and reaction elements to correct the composition of the slag (7); reacting the residues with the slag (7) to obtain: a) separation of the liquid metallic phases which are added to the metal bath (6) to form a sellable liquid metal; b) separation of the metallic volatile elements in vapour phase which, when transferred to the free zone of the furnace (1), possibly with the help of post-combustion, recombine with the oxygen for the formation of oxides and consequently of powder; c) separation of the stable phases,

Abstract: Iron ore is introduced in a series of fluidized bed reactors, with a reducing gas that is heated before each bed and cooled after each bed and thereafter washed with water so as to remove from the gas the very fine powder of solids which otherwise would build up in the reactors. The reducing gas can be divided and fed to the reactors in parallel, the gas from all the reactors being recombined and subjected to washing, addition of make-up gas, and recompression, prior to recycling in a plurality of parallel streams. Alternatively, the reducing gas can proceed from the final reactor in reverse order to the passage of iron ore through the reactors, with heating of the gas before each reactor and cooling and washing of the gas after each reactor, followed by addition of make-up and recompression prior to recycling.