Emissions management in a steel mill
Pittini Group’s mills, like all steel plants, generate fumes during the smelting process. The management and reduction of these emissions is a priority for the Group’s sites. In recent years, the smoke extraction systems of our 3 steel mills have been completely overhauled: first, the Osoppo plant, followed by the Siderpotenza plant, and now the new smoke extraction system of Acciaierie di Verona is under construction as part of the Sustainable Steel project. These state-of-the-art facilities ensure optimal emissions management, reducing fumes well beyond the limits required by law.
How a fume filtration system works
Emissions are divided into primary and secondary. The primary emissions are drawn in from the cover of the Electric Arc Furnace, which is called a vault, through an elbow opening, the so-called ‘fourth hole’. After being drawn in, fumes are conveyed to a first stilling chamber, the “dust bag”, where the coarsest and heaviest parts of the exhaust gases, mainly ferrous particles, are deposited by gravity. Subsequently, a cooling process takes place through a tube stack system. Secondary emissions, on the other hand, rise at each opening of the vault, are extracted by a hood on the roof of the chamber, and conveyed into a pipe that also intercepts the Ladle Furnace exhaust. The primary and secondary emissions are merged into a single pipe, upstream of a dioxin abatement system and the filtration unit, which finally separates the dust from the flue gas through a system of bag filters. After filtration, the air finally leaves the steelworks’ chimney.
Recovery from fume extraction systems
50,000 tonnes of dust are recovered annually at third-party zinc recovery plants, reducing the need for natural mineral extraction.
Meticulously and constantly monitored fume extraction system
A permanent monitoring system known as the SME checks that emissions comply with the limits every 5 seconds, calculating the hourly and daily average in real-time. In the event of anomalies and exceeding these limits, the system intervenes directly by shutting down the production facilities. In addition, polluting emissions are sampled and monitored every six months, and the results are shared with the control authorities, Arpa, and the Region.
