Steel Manufacturing

Find out how a steel-maker in Cambridge, Ontario is reducing its costs and energy demands by piping in methane gas from a nearby landfill site to fire up its big furnaces.

Transcript

Narrator:

The thunder and lightning of steel-making at this Cambridge, Ontario plant is being combined with innovative thinking to conserve energy.

Gerdau Ameristeel recycles industrial and consumer scrap metal, instead of using iron ore to produce steel. Melting scrap takes two thirds less energy.

But the real beauty of this operation lies under the hills right next door. It's a landfill site. The landfill produces methane gas, which could pose a threat to the environment and would normally be flared in this stack.

There's enough methane gas here to heat 25 hundred homes for 20 years. The landfill gas is collected from a series of wells. It's treated at a regional facility and piped over to the steel plant.
Using landfill methane has cut greenhouse gas emissions at Gerdau by the equivalent of taking 17,000 cars off the road for a year!

Bob Downie, Environment Co-ordinator, Gerdau Ameristeel - Cambridge, Ontario:

"It's a win for the environment, it's a win for the steel company and it's a win for the municipality. If the municipality were burning this gas, it would cost them money to operate their flare. The steel plant reduces its gas consumption and the environment reduces the amount of greenhouse gas."

Narrator:

99% of the water used to cool down steel is recycled at the plant, which is always looking for innovations. Gerdau gets plenty of energy conservation ideas from the Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation, a partnership between industry and Natural Resources Canada.

The landfill connection saves Gerdau thousands of dollars every day by replacing natural gas to fuel its reheating furnace.

By blending landfill methane with natural gas in making steel, there's also a reduction in emissions of nitrous oxides, which contribute to smog.

Gavin Tobin, Rolling Mill Manager, Gerdau-Ameristeel - Cambridge, Ontario:

"We've always been a company that's been technologically trying advance ourselves, trying to look for areas of technology so that we can improve ourselves in energy consumption as well as what we can do for the environment."

Narrator:

To learn more about industrial energy conservation , go to nrcan.gc.ca - slash - cleantech.

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