# Construction and Performance of Novel Oil Catalytic Materials from Electric Arc Furnace Dust

## TL;DR

This paper presents a new method to create efficient biodiesel catalysts from industrial waste, achieving high performance and stability.

## Contribution

A novel three-step process using electric arc furnace dust produces a magnetic catalyst with exceptional biodiesel conversion stability.

## Key findings

- The catalyst achieved over 93.44 wt% biodiesel conversion for 14 cycles at low temperatures.
- Catalytic performance declined after calcination at 600°C due to sodium detachment and agglomeration.
- Electric furnace dust was successfully repurposed into a high-performance, stable catalyst for biodiesel production.

## Abstract

As a widely sourced solid waste rich in metallic elements such as Fe, Zn, Mn and Ca, electric furnace dust serves as a crucial raw material for preparing catalytic materials. This study employed a three-step process—“acid/alkali modification–impregnation–calcination”—to synthesise an electric furnace dust-based magnetic heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production. The catalyst prepared via CH3ONa modification combined with Na2CO3 impregnation achieved stable cycling performance at low temperatures, with 14 cycles yielding a consistent conversion exceeding 93.44 wt%, demonstrating exceptional catalytic activity. The CH3ONa modification generates abundant reactive oxygen species on the furnace dust surface, facilitating the binding of hydroxyl oxygen from the active component (Na+) to the modified surface (EFD/CH3ONa) and thereby anchoring the active species. However, the decline in catalytic performance of the Na2CO3&(EFD/CH3ONa) catalyst after calcination at 600 °C (yield decreasing to 69.77 wt% after 11 stable cycles) was attributed to the detachment and agglomeration of the active component sodium at elevated temperatures. This paper employed electric furnace dust as feedstock to synthesise highly active and stable magnetic multiphase catalysts, thereby not only providing an environmentally sound pathway for industrial solid waste recycling but also offering novel insights for the industrial-scale production of biodiesel.