I
have many doubts about Taiwan Steel Union (TSU). Where is it? What do they do?
Is it the main cause of pollution? We could know better about this company
through this special topic. Thanks to our principal and Ms. Liu Su Ju from
Changhua Coastal Industry Park Association, with their commination and coordination,
we could visit TSU successfully. Thanks for the explanation of Taiwan Steel Union
to let us get the answers to these questions.
I. Presentation & Introduction
The
general manager Mr. Fang Yen Pin of Taiwan Steel Union received us that day,
and made the presentation about company profile first. He mentioned that the
name for TSU is the union of steel and it was founded by 12 steelmaking plants.
The shareholders are Fenghsing, Tunghan, Haikuang, Hsiehshengfa, Chienshun, Chinghsinhsin,
Shihchia, Lungching, Liencheng, Weichih, Hanhua and Isheng. These companies
have 13 plants and 15 electric arc furnaces which use the high temperature
resulted from electric shock on electric arc to smelt waste steel at 1600°C; that is, to smelt high purity steel from waste steel.
The recycled waste steel
was processed by these steelmaking plants, so the electric arc furnace is a
part of source recycling. When they use the electric arc furnace, it will
produce heavy metal toxic substances; therefore, steelmaking plants use the
filter fabric to collect dust and keep the toxic dust well to send to Taiwan
Steel Union. TSU will smelt valuable substances from toxic dust to make the
harmful substance into harmless ones and sell the valuable products. Those
mentioned above are what TSU do.
Government didn’t formulated relevant Act in early, so people dumped the furnace dust randomly. Therefore, government made steelmaking plants try to build processing plants, so Taiwan Steel Union was founded. The job for TSU isn’t to smelt steel but to dispose the toxic substances from steelmaking into harmless ones and this is a small recycling among the big source recycling. |
Next, Mr. Fang explained
the transportation for furnace dust. Since the dust is toxic, it should be
transported carefully. These steelmaking plants are located in North, middle,
and South, and there are 14 electric dragsters, 9 closed tank cars (in bulk), 7
trucks (frame dragster) and 1 wing-closed box car (in bag) to transport harmful
substances. There are 14 lead vehicles and 17 carts in total. These cars would
be installed GPS in headstock and tailstock to track and the transportation
routes would be sent to control center in EPA.
How to dispose the furnace dust sent here? There are zinc, lead and other substances in furnace dust; zinc occupies the most part of useful substance, and it is around 15% to 30%. Zinc will gasify at 900°C but steel will gasify at 1600°C. With this chemical feature, they could smelt the zinc oxide out, and the main product from TSU is crude zinc oxide (purity is about 55%~60%). They sell 90% of products to zincmaking plants in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and China to re-produce zinc metal, and sell 10% of products to factories in Taiwan or China to re-produce zinc oxide (purified zinc oxide) to be provided for chemical material use. The remaining non-toxic could be the construction material.
How to dispose the furnace dust sent here? There are zinc, lead and other substances in furnace dust; zinc occupies the most part of useful substance, and it is around 15% to 30%. Zinc will gasify at 900°C but steel will gasify at 1600°C. With this chemical feature, they could smelt the zinc oxide out, and the main product from TSU is crude zinc oxide (purity is about 55%~60%). They sell 90% of products to zincmaking plants in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and China to re-produce zinc metal, and sell 10% of products to factories in Taiwan or China to re-produce zinc oxide (purified zinc oxide) to be provided for chemical material use. The remaining non-toxic could be the construction material.
There
are air, furnace dust and coke in waelz kiln. Burning coke will produce CO and
CO2, when the concentration of CO is high, to zinc in dust will reset
easily. When zinc interacts with oxygen in air, it will compound into zinc
oxide; therefore, large amount of coke is required to produce high concentration
CO to proceed reduction reaction in kiln. Except for zinc, the iron, lead and
other metal minerals in dust could be reset and produced by the kiln reaction. Therefore,
the general manager joked that they found treasure from dust, and the main
product of zinc oxide is their gold.
The
amount of dust disposal by TSU has increased day by day (except for 2005, they
applied to stop working for half year), and it has increased sharply on June 8th
2010 when the second kiln started to run and produce. The amount of dust has
reached to 154,475 tonnes in the end of October 2013.
They have appropriately disposed more than millions tonnes of electric arc furnace dust since the plant was built. They are one of common processing system model plants guided by Industry Agency, and provide the best disposal place for recycling the furnace dust.
They have appropriately disposed more than millions tonnes of electric arc furnace dust since the plant was built. They are one of common processing system model plants guided by Industry Agency, and provide the best disposal place for recycling the furnace dust.
TSU
carried out completed environment supervision plan and every emission meets the
Act standard; besides, they signed the “Harmony Environment Protection Letter
of Agreement” with Shenkang and Hsien-Hsi Township. They appropriate donation according
to the dust processing amount to achieve the goal of society feedback every
year.
- The chlorine salt of groundwater, salinity, TDS and BOD are carried out once a season, and other items are carried out once a month.
- Dioxin regular inspections for main exhaust pipes are carried out four times a year, and two times of them are carried out once a season by assigned inspection organizations from Shenkang and Hsien-Hsi Township for the public trust.
II. Visiting fac
III. Conclusion & Reflection
The general manager Mr Fang
explained to us in humor way, and the content was particular and the
explanation was clear. During the explanation, we could easily understand what
he said. After his explanation, we have learned many valuable lessons. We not
only understood Taiwan Steel Union (we knew nothing but its name only in the beginning),
but also learned some English terms of chemicals and substances, and we even
learned their management ways. They operate their company carefully through
specific rule for every classification to lower the error possibility. Taiwan
Steel Union could be regarded as the post of industrial parks for its environment
pollution control, since the industry pollutions are everywhere now