The utilization of industrial waste as renewable resources is an essential issue of sustainable development. Kish graphite is a precipitate of excess carbon generated during the cooling of molten iron and one of the byproducts associated with steel slags. The scale-up recycling of kish graphite from steelmaking slags is a promising way to develop natural graphite alternatives. However, only one means cannot work efficiently because of the unusual occurrence of associated impurities; combining multiple separation methods is the solution. In this paper, we proposed an integrated beneficiation process, pneumatic separation-flotation-sonication-magnetic separation, to recycle kish graphite flakes with a high graphitization degree and investigated the sorption performance of various oils on kish-based expanded graphite. The new process avoided shortages such as the sediments of iron particles in the flotation cell and the loss of clean graphite in the magnetic separation. Consequently, the carbon content of kish graphite reached ∼95% after separation and >99% after acid leaching. The macroscopic structural defects of kish particles created more active sites, made the intercalation of KG-GICs faster, and yielded better-staged compounds. The kish graphite-based expanded graphite presented an octopus-like shape and exhibited an expansion volume of ∼150 mL/g. Furthermore, the developed macropore structure of the obtained kish graphite-based expanded graphite led to a superior sorption performance for oils. This work supplies one feasible and promising way to recycle kish graphite from steelmaking slags and use it.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.