Article: A second home for dust: steelmakers and their suppliers continue to experiment with ways to extract useful materials from their waste by-products.(Brief Article)

Steel producers in North America have been using mini-mills with electric arc furnaces (EAFs) to make steel for a number of years. Since 1980, the use of EAFs has grown from about 28% of steel production to more than 40%. However, when steel is produced using these electric furnaces an EAF dust is also produced. The problem is that this dust is considered a hazardous waste in both Canada and the U.S. because it contains small quantities of heavy metals, including lead.

To address this issue, mini-mills have installed elaborate dust collection systems. The simple solution for steel mills was to dispose of the dust at a landfill site. Unfortunately, only a few ...