Smorgon Steel
Smorgon Steel was the 2001 savewater! award winner in the Large Manufacturing category, find out what they did to earn that honour.
Summary
Water minimisation projects across a number of Smorgon Steel’s sites have been driven by Smorgon’s corporate commitment to resource conservation. At the steel mill in Laverton, total annual water reductions of up to 22% have been achieved in various processes, by using recycled cooling water collected from an on-site dam and used as a substitute for mains water. This has reduced the company’s mains water bills by up to $125,000 and trade waste costs by up to $100,000 per year.
Background
Smorgon Steel is one of the largest steel producers in the southern hemisphere, recycling over 1 million tonnes of iron and steel scrap each year. The scrap is processed into various reinforcement and merchant bar products at their two steel-making mills, Smorgon Steel in Laverton and Comsteel in Newcastle. Comsteel also produces railway wheels and grinding media.
The Laverton Mill is a 2.4 hectare state-of-the-art facility on the western outskirts of Melbourne. Operating 24 hours a day, it processes about 600,000 tonnes of scrap steel, which is then sold to downstream manufacturing businesses run by Smorgon as well as other companies.
The Laverton Mill’s environment manager Sandro Costabile says that water conservation measures are driven by the company’s core business ethic:
“Smorgon Steel’s Environmental Policy provides an underlying need to address water use. Furthermore, Smorgon Steel has identified water use reductions as a key performance indicator within the company.”
The Mill at Laverton is also a member of the Waste Wise Manufacturing Program, which aims to reduce manufacturing waste and encourage the use of sustainable resources.
The Laverton Mill is a 2.4 hectare state-of-the-art facility on the western outskirts of Melbourne. Operating 24 hours a day, it processes about 600,000 tonnes of scrap steel, which is then sold to downstream manufacturing businesses run by Smorgon as well as other companies.
The Laverton Mill’s environment manager Sandro Costabile says that water conservation measures are driven by the company’s core business ethic:
“Smorgon Steel’s Environmental Policy provides an underlying need to address water use. Furthermore, Smorgon Steel has identified water use reductions as a key performance indicator within the company.”
The Mill at Laverton is also a member of the Waste Wise Manufacturing Program, which aims to reduce manufacturing waste and encourage the use of sustainable resources.
The process
Water is used in various stages of the steel milling process. The three key applications are:
- Direct cooling of the steel products and the milling stands, which heat up due to contact with the molten steel.
- Cooling of slag, a by-product of the steel milling process, so it can be handled, processed and stored safely.
- Makeup water in the water cooling towers to replace water lost to evaporation.