Currently the Brazilian stainless steel production is around 350.000t per year. The stainless steel industries generate more than 7,000t of dusts with high amount of chromium, nickel, and iron. These wastes represent a problem to the stainless steel industries due to their high content of chromium, nickel, led and iron. The solution to this problem can be in the recycling of these wastes. The first step in this research was the characterization of these wastes. Twelve briquettes were prepared using the wastes (dust/sludge), Fe-Si, CaO and SiO2. The briquettes were introduced in molten steel at three different temperatures (1570, 1600 and 1635ºC). A bench-scale piece of equipment was used to melt the steel. A high recovery of chromium (100%) was found. The time required to recover chromium was about 15 minutes at 1635ºC.
Chromium; stainless steel; dust; sludge; briquette
