Research needs in environmental and waste management in iron & steel industries

Abstract

A large number of processing steps from ore handling to steel finishing involved in the manufacture of steel, consume substantial resources and lead to complex problems of environmental pollution with local as well as global impacts. Paper identifies various global and local environmental issues that steel industry presents before the mankind. Among the global issues, the large emissions of carbon dioxide from steel industry is a major cause of concern to environmentalists. The quantity of this green house gas constitutes a significantly large proportion of the global CO2 load and hence it contributes significantly in the global warming phenomenon. Some of the important methods have been briefly discussed to reduce these emissions through major energy conservation programmes and implementation of energy efficient processes. Among local issues are the problems of air, water and noise pollution along with the generation of large quantity of solid wastes. Under each area some of the programmes have been identified which could provide major research directions towards making the steel industry increasingly more environment friendly.