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

Abstract

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 facemasks could be utilized as a supplementary reductant for the rotary hearth furnace (RHF), but their fibrous form makes milling and processing to appropriate sizing for RHF application extremely challenging. A scalable method of grinding facemasks to powder by melting and mixing with Welsh coal dust reported herein provides a solution to both environmental challenges. The melt-blended PPE/coal dust shows a dramatically improved CO2 gasification reactivity (Ea = 133–159 kJmol−1) when compared to the untreated coal (Ea = 183–246 kJmol−1), because of improved pore development in the coal during the pyrolysis stage of heating and the catalytic activity of the CaO based ash present in the facemask plastic. The results are promising for the application of waste facemasks in recycling steelmaking by-product dusts in rotary hearth furnaces and may also be suitable for direct injection to the blast furnace subject to further study.

Valorization of discarded face mask for bioactive compound synthesis and photodegradation of dye

“…The SEM image of the surgical face mask ( Fig. 4 a) shows the long fibers which are interconnected to form a network with empty spaces of 50–100 of microns, the result was concurred with a previous literature ( Stewart et al, 2022 ). In contrast, the SEM image of MWAC ( Fig.…”

Environmental Pollution of Medical Waste and New Medical Plastic Waste Treatment Technology

“…It has been shown that the CO2 gasification reaction is the rate-determining factor in the reduction process of cold-bond self-reducing iron condensates, although the carbon source heat transfer effect becomes more significant at extremely high temperatures. Therefore, increasing the gasification reaction of carbon sources in RHF self-reducing aggregates can provide reduced rates and thus increase productivity [13].…”

“…However, it is difficult to solve the problem of high energy consumption and low efficiency in plastic cracking oil technology. Daniel J.C. Stewart et al [13] studied the waste mask ironmaking technology, which can reprocess and reuse the waste medical waste. But what still needs to be explored are technologies that are not only greener but also more efficient and widely available.…”

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Face Mask Use among University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…As countries across the globe are rolling out public health measures to reduce the rate of transmission, during this period, an exponential rise in the demand for face masks was witnessed as a result of these measures [6]. During the multiple lockdown regimes in China, the daily demand for single-use face masks went up to 900 million pieces [7]. At the height of the pandemic, it was estimated that healthcare workers alone in the United States of America required 89 million pieces per month [1].…”