Recycling of Rubber Tires in Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking: Simultaneous Combustion of Metallurgical Coke and Rubber Tyres Blends

The present study investigates the effect of addition of waste rubber tires on the combustion behavior of its blends with coke for carbon injection in electric arc furnace steelmaking. Waste rubber tires were mixed in different proportions with metallurgical coke (MC) (10:90, 20:80, 30:70) for combustion and pyrolysis at 1473 K in a drop tube furnace (DTF) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), respectively. Under experimental conditions most of the rubber blends indicated higher combustion efficiencies compared to those of the constituent coke. In the early stage of combustion the weight loss rate of the blends is much faster compared to that of the raw coke due to the higher volatile yield of rubber. The presence of rubber in the blends may have had an impact upon the structure during the release and combustion of their high volatile matter (VM) and hence increased char burnout. Measurements of micropore surface area and bulk density of the chars collected after combustion support the higher combustion efficiency of the blends in comparison to coke alone. The surface morphology of the 30% rubber blend revealed pores in the residual char that might be attributed to volatile evolution during high temperature reaction in oxygen atmosphere. Physical properties and VM appear to have a major effect upon the measured combustion efficiency of rubber blends. The study demonstrates that waste rubber tires can be successfully co-injected with metallurgical coke in electric arc furnace steelmaking process to provide additional energy from combustion.