Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application

Stewart, Dan; Fisher, Lucy; Warwick, Michael; Thomson, David; Barron, Andrew

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06691-w

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Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application

Dan Stewart, Lucy Fisher, Michael Warwick

, David Thomson, Andrew Barron

Scientific Reports, Volume: 12, Issue: 1

Swansea University Authors: Dan Stewart, Lucy Fisher, Michael Warwick , Andrew Barron

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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s41598-022-06691-w

Abstract

The global pandemic response to COVID-19 has led to the generation of huge volumes of unrecyclable plastic waste from single use disposable face coverings. Rotary hearth furnaces can be used to recover Zn and Fe from non-recyclable steelmaking by-product dusts, and waste plastic material such as fac...

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Published in:	Scientific Reports
ISSN:	2045-2322
Published:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2022
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60496

first_indexed	2022-07-14T08:41:21Z
last_indexed	2023-01-13T19:20:40Z
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Rotary hearth furnaces can be used to recover Zn and Fe from non-recyclable steelmaking by-product dusts, and waste plastic material such as facemasks could be utilized as a supplementary reductant for the rotary hearth furnace (RHF), but their fibrous form makes milling and processing to appropriate sizing for RHF application extremely challenging. A scalable method of grinding facemasks to powder by melting and mixing with Welsh coal dust reported herein provides a solution to both environmental challenges. The melt-blended PPE/coal dust shows a dramatically improved CO2 gasification reactivity (Ea = 133–159 kJmol−1) when compared to the untreated coal (Ea = 183–246 kJmol−1), because of improved pore development in the coal during the pyrolysis stage of heating and the catalytic activity of the CaO based ash present in the facemask plastic. 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spelling	2022-10-31T15:29:01.4526734 v2 60496 2022-07-14 Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application 804211bb4fb801d3f92cdbec5e12596a Dan Stewart Dan Stewart true false 2f76ce7eee62015fe4b9a99f3e2943ed Lucy Fisher Lucy Fisher true false 9fdabb7283ffccc5898cc543305475cf 0000-0002-9028-1250 Michael Warwick Michael Warwick true false 92e452f20936d688d36f91c78574241d Andrew Barron Andrew Barron true false 2022-07-14 The global pandemic response to COVID-19 has led to the generation of huge volumes of unrecyclable plastic waste from single use disposable face coverings. Rotary hearth furnaces can be used to recover Zn and Fe from non-recyclable steelmaking by-product dusts, and waste plastic material such as facemasks could be utilized as a supplementary reductant for the rotary hearth furnace (RHF), but their fibrous form makes milling and processing to appropriate sizing for RHF application extremely challenging. A scalable method of grinding facemasks to powder by melting and mixing with Welsh coal dust reported herein provides a solution to both environmental challenges. The melt-blended PPE/coal dust shows a dramatically improved CO2 gasification reactivity (Ea = 133–159 kJmol−1) when compared to the untreated coal (Ea = 183–246 kJmol−1), because of improved pore development in the coal during the pyrolysis stage of heating and the catalytic activity of the CaO based ash present in the facemask plastic. The results are promising for the application of waste facemasks in recycling steelmaking by-product dusts in rotary hearth furnaces and may also be suitable for direct injection to the blast furnace subject to further study. Journal Article Scientific Reports 12 1 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2045-2322 17 2 2022 2022-02-17 10.1038/s41598-022-06691-w Data availability: All data are available in the main text or the supplementary materials. COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Financial support was provided by Materials and Manufacturing Academy (M2A) that has been made possible through funding from the European Social Fund via the Welsh Government, Swansea University EPSRC impact acceleration account, the COATED doctoral training centre, and Tata Steel UK. Additional support is provided by the Reducing Industrial Carbon Emissions (RICE) operations funded by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) through the Welsh Government. 2022-10-31T15:29:01.4526734 2022-07-14T09:35:40.8007928 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering Dan Stewart 1 Lucy Fisher 2 Michael Warwick 0000-0002-9028-1250 3 David Thomson 4 Andrew Barron 5 60496__24597__f7c87ef2c1294ae58f13431dd66b26de.pdf 60496.pdf 2022-07-14T09:41:09.5177073 Output 2648113 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application
spellingShingle	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application Dan Stewart Lucy Fisher Michael Warwick Andrew Barron
title_short	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application
title_full	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application
title_fullStr	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application
title_full_unstemmed	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application
title_sort	Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application
author_id_str_mv	804211bb4fb801d3f92cdbec5e12596a 2f76ce7eee62015fe4b9a99f3e2943ed 9fdabb7283ffccc5898cc543305475cf 92e452f20936d688d36f91c78574241d
author_id_fullname_str_mv	804211bb4fb801d3f92cdbec5e12596a_*_Dan Stewart 2f76ce7eee62015fe4b9a99f3e2943ed__Lucy Fisher 9fdabb7283ffccc5898cc543305475cf__Michael Warwick 92e452f20936d688d36f91c78574241d_*_Andrew Barron
author	Dan Stewart Lucy Fisher Michael Warwick Andrew Barron
author2	Dan Stewart Lucy Fisher Michael Warwick David Thomson Andrew Barron
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container_title	Scientific Reports
container_volume	12
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publishDate	2022
institution	Swansea University
issn	2045-2322
doi_str_mv	10.1038/s41598-022-06691-w
publisher	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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department_str	School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Chemical Engineering
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description	The global pandemic response to COVID-19 has led to the generation of huge volumes of unrecyclable plastic waste from single use disposable face coverings. Rotary hearth furnaces can be used to recover Zn and Fe from non-recyclable steelmaking by-product dusts, and waste plastic material such as facemasks could be utilized as a supplementary reductant for the rotary hearth furnace (RHF), but their fibrous form makes milling and processing to appropriate sizing for RHF application extremely challenging. A scalable method of grinding facemasks to powder by melting and mixing with Welsh coal dust reported herein provides a solution to both environmental challenges. The melt-blended PPE/coal dust shows a dramatically improved CO2 gasification reactivity (Ea = 133–159 kJmol−1) when compared to the untreated coal (Ea = 183–246 kJmol−1), because of improved pore development in the coal during the pyrolysis stage of heating and the catalytic activity of the CaO based ash present in the facemask plastic. The results are promising for the application of waste facemasks in recycling steelmaking by-product dusts in rotary hearth furnaces and may also be suitable for direct injection to the blast furnace subject to further study.
published_date	2022-02-17T08:08:13Z
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score	11.047306

Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application

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