Pyrometallurgical recovery of Chromium from scrap metals: Laboratory studies and pilot plant design

As part of an effort to establish processes that could be exploited in case of adverse changes in international chromium production and trading patterns, this study was sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (formerly the Federal Preparedness Agency) through the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, to experimentally determine the feasibility of recovering chromium from critical scrap metals containing significant quantities of this element.

Based on a conceptual pyrometallurgical chromium recovery flowsheet developed at Arthur D. Little, Inc., the experimental program described in this report demonstrated key process steps for the recovery of chromium as ferrochromium in a batch process. The process involves oxidation of chromium into a slag phase, subsequent separation of the slag phase from the remaining metal, followed by reduction of chromium from the slag phase to produce ferrochromium. Drawing on this experimental program, descriptive material and cost estimates are developed for a pilot plant to demonstrate the process.