The giant vacuum cleaners filter the air
Třinecké železárny has commenced building of the filtering equipment. There will be noticeably less dust, even the finest one, in the air after putting all filters into operation. They will help the new ecological structures that operate in essentially like a giant vacuum cleaner. This will happen thanks to the new environmental facilities, which work as a giant vacuum cleaner.
The steel company with the largest steel production in the Czech Republic has implemented 19 environmental projects since last year. Their main benefit is a reduction the dust generated during the production of iron and steel as well as other activities related to the industrial production. Some of them are beginning to function. All of them will have been fully operational by the end of 2015.
Within last two years and regarding the record production at the level of 2.5 million tonnes of crude steel, the amount of dust has been kept below 600 tonnes per year, this represents a stable declining trend compared to previous years. And thanks to a long-term investment program to modernize the equipment and dust removal. For example, at approximately same volume of production in 1990 it was almost 10 000 tonnes of dust per year compared to last year's 594 tonnes.
"We intend to continue in this trend. We are working on other investments, which will significantly reduce dust emissions. According to the studies, it will be up to a third of the current state after their commissioning," says TŽ CEO Jan Czudek.
The exhaustion devices at both blast furnaces have started as one of the first and they are in the pilot operation at the moment. The full operation of the exhausts will start in mid-January 2015. A difference from the past is visible to the naked eye even now.
There are 7 exhaustion points for each blast furnace, so they capture dust, which previously escaped into the atmosphere outside the smokestack through the openings in the teeming hall. There was just one electrostatic precipitator for both blast furnaces before the reconstruction. Thus, replacing it with the latest technology of fabric filters that filtrates very fine dust particles with high efficiency.
"Exhaustion of the blast furnaces teeming halls is important regarding the dust reduction in the surrounding area, but it is also to improving the working conditions for the employees. Installation of new fabric filters will eliminate so-called red smoke arising above the main tapping trough due to pig iron oxidation and are associated with emissions of dust particles," explains the director for investment and strategy Radek Olszar. The modernization of the de-dusting system also reduces the noise around the company premises.
The largest investments include dusting off the hall of BOF. The equipment worth almost CZK one billion is cleaning the hall. It acts essentially as a vacuum cleaner, but instead of one dust bag it has a few thousand ones of size eight meters. The amount of dust emitted from the BOF steel plant into the air should drop by about 56 percent.
The construction of de-dusting of fuels and nods at the sinter plant No. 2 for almost CZK one billion has commenced this year and will be completed by the end of next year. "Regarding the dust pollution the highest contribution can be seen at the de-dusting of the sinter plant. After its implementation, it will reduce the total annual production of solid pollutants by 130 tonnes per year on this resource. I consider this as another important step towards reducing the burden on the environment in the region where we live and work," says director for production Česlav Marek.
The electrostatic precipitators will serve as the first stage of de-dusting that captures coarse dust, fabric filters will take care of the finer dust from flue gases and nodes at the sinter plant No. 2.
Since its privatization, the company invested almost CZK 6 billion in environmental projects only. The current investment worth more than CZK 2.5 billion smelter will be supported by subsidy of 90 %. But the operation of the device will be quite considerable extra cost for TŽ each year. The operating expenses in the next year will increase to estimated CZK several hundreds of millions per year.
TZ produces annually about 2.5 million tonnes of steel within the integrated cycle. This represents almost half of the current total steel production in the country. The main product portfolio consists mainly of long-rolled products – wire rods, steel profiles, special steel bars, drawn steel, rails, wide steel, seamless tubes, and steel semi-products. Other products are coke and accompanying products resulting from its manufacture, further artificial compact aggregates and granulated slag. The company employs nearly seven thousand people.
Petra Jurásková
Press Secretary of the Třinecké železárny - Moravia Steel Group
phone: +420 558 535 841
mobile: +420 602 265 738
e-mail: Petra.Juraskova@trz.cz