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

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 2693 - 13
• Main Authors: Stewart, Daniel J. C., Fisher, Lucy V., Warwick, Michael E. A., Thomson, David, Barron, Andrew R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.02.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/898; 639/4077/4082/4059; Carbon dioxide; Coal; Coal dust; Coal Industry; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Dust; Furnaces; Gasification; Heart; Humanities and Social Sciences; Masks; Metallurgy; multidisciplinary; Pandemics; Plastic debris; Pyrolysis; Recycling - methods; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Waste Management - methods; Waste materials

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...