Grain Size Effect in Elution Test of Electric Arc Furnace Slag

In this paper we discuss the effects of deslagging practices and the size of electric arc furnace (EAF) slags on structural, microstructural, composition and leaching tests. The samples were collected from seven steelmakers located in Brescia (Lombardy Region, Italy). Nine granularity fractions of four samples were tested to evaluate the influence of the granularity on the leaching tests. The results showed that, in general, the release of the elements arises when the size of the particle decreases, except in one sample, in which vanadium and zinc displayed the opposite trend. X-ray diffraction results suggest that behavior may be ascribed to the effect of the grinding, which causes a different percentage of the phases in the various fractions. In conclusion, the possible effects of the size should also be carefully considered when defining new leaching test requirements for EAF slags.