Earth’s commercial and affordable zinc reserves are expected to be depleted in less than 50 years. Since electric arc furnace (EAF) dust contains a certain amount of Zn, recovery of Zn from EAF dust has become an important issue to assure a sustainable resource supply in the future. The key technical challenge is that Zn mainly occurs in EAF dust as ZnFe₂O₄, a very stable crystal which is difficult to reduce or leach. MgCl₂ is believed to be effective in breaking the structure of ZnFe₂O₄. This work investigates the fundamentals of the reaction between MgCl₂ and ZnFe₂O₄. Experiments show that Zn in ZnFe₂O₄ is chlorinated to ZnCl₂ quickly with priority over Fe, implying the efficacy of MgCl₂ in separating Zn and Fe in ZnFe₂O₄ by selective chlorination. Effects of MgCl₂/ZnFe₂O₄ molar ratio and temperature on the reaction are clarified. Overuse of MgCl₂ slows down the reaction and is detrimental to the selective chlorination of Zn. Temperature can effectively increase the reaction rate as well as the priority of chlorinating Zn. Utilization of MgCl₂ could be high, because evaporation of MgCl₂ is not as fast as the reaction with ZnFe₂O₄. According to these results, a new technology to recover Zn from EAF dust by using MgCl₂ is proposed.

预计地球上的商业和负担得起的锌储量将在不到 50 年的时间内耗尽。由于电弧炉（EAF）粉尘中含有一定量的锌，从电弧炉粉尘中回收锌已成为保证未来可持续资源供应的重要问题。关键的技术挑战是，锌主要以 ZnFe ₂ O ₄形式存在于电弧炉粉尘中，这是一种非常稳定的晶体，难以还原或浸出。MgCl ₂被认为对破坏ZnFe ₂ O ₄的结构是有效的。这项工作研究了 MgCl ₂和 ZnFe ₂ O ₄之间反应的基本原理。实验表明ZnFe ₂ O中的Zn₄比Fe优先快速氯化生成ZnCl _{2 ，表明MgCl 2}具有选择性氯化分离ZnFe ₂ O _{4中的Zn和Fe的功效。}阐明了MgCl ₂ /ZnFe ₂ O ₄摩尔比和温度对反应的影响。过度使用 MgCl ₂会减慢反应速度并且不利于 Zn 的选择性氯化。温度可以有效提高反应速率以及氯化锌的优先级。_{MgCl 2}的利用率可能很高，因为 MgCl ₂的蒸发不如与 ZnFe ₂ O的反应快₄ . 根据这些结果，提出了一种利用MgCl ₂从电弧炉粉尘中回收锌的新技术。