South Korea’s Hyundai Steel Vows to reduce 50% Pollutants Emission by 2021

Last month, the South Korean steel giant, Hyundai Steel’s plant in Dangjin along with POSCO’s mill in Gwangyang was ordered by the local government to close down their blast furnaces after the firms were found emitting air pollutants illegally. The measures were announced amid allegations that steelmakers have emitted air pollutants through bleeders of blast furnaces without anti-pollution equipment.

However, the steelmaker filed an appeal against the provincial order with the government and expressed concern about the impact of a suspension, saying that it could disrupt supply chains for months. Subsequently, the company has been given permission to operate its blast furnace normally until administrative authority comes out with probable alternatives to prevent fire or an explosion.

Hyundai Steel has also apologized for causing troubles over environmental violations and has pledged to reduce air pollutant emissions from its sinter plants by more than 50% by 2021 through operating a sinter gas treatment system (SGTS).

According to the company, the amount of pollutants emitted from sinter plants in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, has been reduced since it adopted an SGTS. The emissions of hazardous air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, have been reduced to the range of 30 ppm and 40 ppm from the original 140 ppm and 160 ppm.

The SGTS uses catalytic converters to remove nitrogen oxides and adds sodium hydrogen carbonate to the sinter mixture to remove sulfur oxides from waste gas. Two of three SGTS started operations in May and June, respectively, and the additional system will be completed by June 2020. If all three systems operate without a break, the company expects to reduce the amount of hazardous air pollutants to 10,000 tons in 2021 from 23,292 tonnes in 2018.

During a press briefing, the company’s official said that the organisation has decided to embed SGTS at sinter plants because the carbon selective catalytic reduction deteriorated and there were times when plant operations had to halt to fix problems. The newly introduced STGS is likely to reduce dust and the company aims to become the most environmentally friendly steel mill.