Impact of environmental legislation on the steel industry

Conference · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Iron and Steel Engineer; (United States)

OSTI ID:6910476

Hogan, W T ^[1]

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1. Fordham Univ., Bronx, NY (United States). Industrial Economics Research Inst.

In the steel plant, from the ingress of raw materials to the shipment of finished products, there is virtually no process that is not controlled by some type of environmental legislation. These regulations are more intense in some processes than others. The fundamental cokemaking operation is heavily regulated by the amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990, which specifies a number of items including the leakage of coke-oven doors which had to be reduced to 8% in 1993 and 3% by 1998. Steelmaking furnaces, particularly electric furnaces, are regulated in regard to collecting and disposing of flue dust. Scrap preparation is controlled, particularly in regard to the disposal of nonmetallics. Cooling water from the various rolling and forming processes must be recirculated and purified. To meet the regulations in a number of instances, new technology and new processes have been developed, particularly in regard to coke ovens. Several processes for making iron have been developed and fundamental changes have taken place in the blast furnace. Coal injection will probably replace 30 to 35% of coke required to smelt iron ore, thus, fewer coke ovens and less pollution. The investment involved on an industry-wide basis in the effort to be in compliance with environmental laws amounts to billions of dollars.

• OSTI ID: 6910476
• Report Number(s): CONF-9409223--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Iron and Steel Engineer; (United States) Journal Volume: 71:9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010800 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Waste Management
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320305* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Industrial & Agricultural Processes-- Industrial Waste Management
ALLOYS
ARC FURNACES
BLAST FURNACES
CLEAN AIR ACTS
COKING PLANTS
CONTROL
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ELECTRIC FURNACES
ELEMENTS
FURNACES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INDUSTRY
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
LAWS
METAL INDUSTRY
METALS
POLLUTION CONTROL
POLLUTION LAWS
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
PRODUCTION
REGULATIONS
SCRAP
SCRAP METALS
SOLID WASTES
STEELS
TECHNOLOGY IMPACTS
WASTES