Substance flow analysis of arsenic and its discharge reduction in the steelworks

Although certain emission standards have been implemented to reduce the air pollution from the steel industry, heavy metal pollution associated with steel production in China has not been well addressed yet. Arsenic is a metalloid element, commonly present in various compounds in many minerals. When it presents in steelworks, it not only affects the quality of steel products, but also causes environmental consequences such as soil degradation, water contamination, air pollution and associated biodiversity loss and public health risks. At present, most of the studies on arsenic were limited to its removal in a certain process, while there has not been a thorough analysis of the flow path of arsenic in steelworks that can facilitate a more efficient removal from its lifecycle. To achieve this, we established a model to depict arsenic flows in steelworks for the first time using adapted substance flow analysis. Then, we further analyzed arsenic flows in the steelworks using a case study in China. Finally, input-output analysis was applied to study the arsenic flow network and explore the reduction potential of arsenic-containing wastes in steelworks. The results show that: 1) the arsenic in the steelworks comes from inputs of iron ore concentrate (55.31 %), coal (12.71 %) and steel scrap (18.67 %), while the outputs were hot rolled coil (65.93 %) and slag (33.03 %). 2) The input, circulation, and final product content of arsenic are 96.120, 32.510, and 66.946 g/t-CS, respectively, and the recycling rate of arsenic was 48.28 %, in the steelworks. 3) The total arsenic discharge from the steelworks is 34.826 g/t-CS. 97.33 % of arsenic is discharged in the form of solid waste. 4) The reduction potential of arsenic in wastes is 14.31 % in the steelworks by adopting low-arsenic raw materials and removing arsenic from processes.