Steel major POSCO’s Gwangyang Works blast furnace (BF) 4 has recently completed its maintenance works and resumed functioning.
POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, while attending the ceremony for lighting the BF, along with other company officials, lauded the BF’s resumption and said it will help to become a strong support for the POSCO Group.
The maintenance was started with the goal of enhancing production by remodelling of existing facilities, increasing investment in environmental facilities to reduce carbon emissions, and in improving cost competitiveness by establishing a smart blast furnace system.
Investment in environmental facilities include new application of flue gas clean breathers and the addition of dust collection facilities in piping facilities which aim to reduce fine dust emissions by up to 90% compared to existing blast furnaces. Also, the company reduced raw material costs and improved operation stability by combining the know-how of experienced field workers and artificial intelligence for automatic control.
The project was completed in 18 months with an investment of KRW 370 billion ($28.96 million) and 270,000 workers.
Moving towards the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, the company plans on improving the efficiency of steel making process while developing facilities that are eco-friendly. It has plans of investing KRW 20 trillion ($15.63 billion) by CY2026, to achieve these aforesaid goals.
In future, the company aims to reduce its carbon footprint by optimizing the operations of the furnace and reducing coal consumption.
Note: This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Steel Daily and SteelMint.
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