The use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste for iron and steel industry

In iron-steel industry common pellets, which are treated at high temperatures, are fed to the blast furnace and used for pig iron production. Recently due to the development of alternative iron and steel production techniques, cold bonded pellets and composite pellets which include reductant material were developed. The use of low-quality raw materials will be provided, operating costs will decrease, production will be done more quickly with these new technologies. The usage of PET wastes which their amount is increasing and harmful to the environment in pellet structure as reductant instead of coke provides not only recycling of PET which can reduce harmful effects to the environment but also decreasing consumption of coke in iron-steel industry, so it is intended to reduce costs. Also cleaning of released gases are being worked by making physical and chemical analyzes of combustion gases. In this study, waste PET pulverized with imparting brittle character at a temperature below melting temperature. Iron-based magnetite ore concentrates prepared in three different mix using coke and waste PET powder as a reductant. Composite pellets were produced from these mixtures and at different temperatures and times were subjected to the melting process. Obtaining metallic iron were aimed with performed experiments. According to experimental results, metallic iron was obtained at using waste PET as a reductant, 1400 :C temperature and after 60 minutes of waiting time.