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Weekly UpdatesAir quality in Sault Ste. Marie has taken a turn for the better. Essar Steel Algoma has a new air pollution technology operating that captures particulate emanating from its main blast furnace. The company has commissioned what amounts to a giant $25 million dust buster - known as a baghouse--to capture iron oxide particulate emanating from its ironmaking operations.
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The bag house, which boasts a 99 per cent air cleaning rate, went into operation Feb. 10. It is a permanent replacement for three temporary bag houses at No. 7 blast furnace.
Despite flat steel markets, the Mumbai, India-owners of the plant are committed to doubling steel production and knew it had to manage its emissions over the community. With a filtering'capaciry of 940,000 cubic feet per minute, the bag house will remove 120 tonnes of particulate from being annually released, said Jerry Suurna, manager of safety, environment and emergency ser-vices. The true measure of air quality will be borne out in the next three to six months from Essar's air quality monitoring stations in the city.
Bag house technology is becoming commonplace across the North American steel industry. Ministry of Environment (MOE) officials, who granted Essar a Certificate of Approval for the technology were on site in February for a facility tour and inspection and came away very impressed, said Suurna. The bag house is described by Suurna as an "overgrown vacuum cleaner."
Located at the base of the towering No. 7 blast furnace, it is a stand-alone building measuring 150 feet by 80 feet. An intake line collects particulate from the iron-making facility and funnels it through "filter socks" made of a felt-type material. Two large 3,500 horsepower fans draw in air here the dirt is deposited on the exterior side of these socks. The clean air is vented out.
With forced air pulse, the particulate is deposited into a silo, sealed up and the contaminants are stored in the company's land-fill site.
"In the future, we're looking to re-claim all those iron units in some form of a bri-quetting facility" said Suurna. "We would charge that back into the operation to reclaim that iron. The system has been designed that it can take any emissions that No. 7 at its maximum capacity could ever throw at it," said Suurna.
Overtime, baghouse technology has gotten belter in cleaning efficiencies and electrical components. This new system has variable frequency drive that ramps the fan up or down when needed which conserves more energy.
Essar plans to install another baghouse at its refurbished No. 6 blast furnace. That furnace, which had been idled for many years, was fired up last August then put back into mothballs last fall when the world economy and international steel markets collapsed.
Company spokeswoman Brenda Stenta said this technology will greatly contribute to the 20 to 25 per cent in Essar's overall air emissions expected by year's end. Essar has committed $90 million in its environmental air emissions program.
Essar has baghouses in other areas of the steelworks including one on their coke oven batteries, its lime plant, desulphurization station, hot metal transfer station, on steel-making secondary emission controls.
Almost a decade ago, the steel plant annually released 3,000 tonnes of particulate over Sault Ste. Marie. Since then, Suurna said it's been cut to 800 tonnes with a package of environmental initiatives, including simple things like dust suppression.
"Road dust is a large contributor to off-set particulate," said Suurna.
The company undertook an on-site road paving program or applied a chemical wetting agent to dirt roads, instead of water which evaporates. To knock down dust coming off its coal piles, a large wind-deflecting berm was constructed on the west side of Essar's dock where ships discharge the material.
www.algoma.com/company/environment
By IAN ROSS
Northern Ontario Business
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