PROJECT LOCATION: Aldwarke, IJmuiden, Jamshedpur, Port Talbot and Scunthorpe

PROJECT: The aim of this project was to reduce the costs of ironmaking and steelmaking by optimal recycling of iron-bearing waste. This had to be done without affecting the performance of the Blast Furnace, the Sinter Plant and the Steel plant.

EFFECTS: The group studied the problem by estimating the impact of revert on the Sinter, BF and BOS process. They also studied flowcharts that identified iron-bearing waste recycling streams for every ironmaking/steelmaking site of Tata Steel Group.

The efforts paid off with savings of 500 kilo tonnes per annum and estimated savings exceeding $100 million per annum at current ore prices. The processes put in place by the team after identifying best practices on recycling, oily mill scale treatment, reclaiming iron-bearing wastes were implemented at various sites across the Tata Steel Group.

The team for this project was drawn from the departments of RD&T-Ironmaking, Ironmaking, Sinter Plant, Raw Materials, IMTG and Environment from different TSL sites where the project was implemented.

PROJECT LOCATION: Jamshedpur, India

PROJECT: The aim of the project was to reduce chimney emissions to less than 50mg/Nm³. The team studied the problem thoroughly and came up with measures such as the replacement of carbon monoxide outlets, controlling draft and optimisation of gas flows, among others.

EFFECTS: The SPM level was brought down to the desired level. The project resulted in cost savings of $16 million up to February 2011. It is expected that there will be additional savings of $40 million by March 2012 through the production of 120,417 tonnes of additional coke. These measures to reduce the SPM level were taken without affecting normal operations on site.

As a follow-up, a daily management routine was implemented through which the team monitored chimney emission. The routine was implemented on under firing gas flow, average battery temperature and pushing regulation based on battery temperature. A systematic wall repair was carried out based on daily inspections.

The team for this project was drawn from the coke plant department of Jamshedpur, the refractory maintenance department in IJmuiden and the PIT chair in the UK.

PROJECT LOCATION: Tata Steel (Thailand)

PROJECT: CCM productivity plays a key role in steel manufacturing, not only helping a plant meet desired volumes, but also controlling overall costs. Caster break-out at the SISCO plant had been increasing over the last two years and there was a need to reduce the frequency of this occurrence.

The team collected data from the past two years on the performance of the machine and segregated the instances of a break-out before studying them. By doing this they were able to arrive at corrective actions, such as designing a new slag fishing rod for better pick-up, restoring and maintaining the CCM in prime condition with regular inspections on the CCM status.

The close casting practice in this plant is being benchmarked by the PIT.

EFFECTS: Thanks to these efforts break-out rates fell from 0.15% to less than 0.12%, while casting heats per tundish increased from 11.86 to 12.80.

The team for this project was drawn from the departments of the SISCO steel plant, Thailand.