Water management for sustainable steel industry

Abstract

The Worldsteel Water Management Project was initiated in June 2007 with the aim to prepare steel plants for future public and political pressures relating to water. Following several meetings and a presurvey, a water management survey was launched in July 2009. Data were received from 29 steel plants, representing 8% or approximately 111 million tonnes of the world’s total steel output in 2008. Results show that water consumption (consumption within this article refers to: intake water, when a complete steelworks is in question and to actual water needed by the process or facility (intake+reuse water) when talking at process level) at the steel plants varies from under 1–150 cubic metres per tonne of steel (m³ ts⁻¹) produced. The volume and quality of consumed and discharged water relate to steel plant configuration, geographical location and local legislation. Nearly 82% of all the water is used for once-through cooling. The data collected on for example, waste water treatment technologies and discharge quality are available in a digital database that can be used for, as an example, optimising water management within processes. This paper is based largely on the Worldsteel report ‘Water Management in Steel Industry 2011’ and outlines finding of the Water Management Working Group.