Applied Mineralogical Investigation on the Nature of Phosphorous in the Basic Oxygen Furnace Slag

Slag generating from the basic oxygen furnace during steelmaking is one of the significant solid wastes that has not been recycled due to many physical, chemical, and structural properties. Phosphorous is one of the key yardsticks for recycling the slag as a Ca-rich flux into the iron making process. The recycling of the slag depends on the phosphorous limitation as well as other properties. In the present investigation, an effort is made to understand the phosphorous distribution in a slag generated from Indian operation and analyzed through different characterization techniques. It is found that phosphorous is well dispersed in all the different phases in the sample and present predominantly at an ultrafine size. It is further tried to analyze the phosphorous partition in the different slag phases through the magnetic separation. From the characterization, it can be concluded that it is difficult to partition phosphorous-rich fractions. Majority of the particles are varying with phosphorous concentration from 1.55 to 7.86% in ultrafine size dissemination.