Asahi Industries Establishes Dust Treatment Equipment in Saitama

Asahi Industries, the major makers of flat steel and reinforcing steel bars, announced on Monday that it would introduce a rotary hearth furnace (RHF), which is an electric furnace dust treatment facility, at its Saitama Plant, Eastern Japan, by March 2007 in order to continue stabilized dust treatment and lower costs for the treatment. The introduction by Asahi would be the first time in the electric furnace steel industry. The investment is about 900 million yen including that of incidental equipment. The fundamental construction is starting from this May. The dust disposal capacity would be about 10,000 tonnes per year. According to the firm’s plans, the industrial waste from the plant can be reduced by about 90% from fiscal 2004. Asahi aims at no emission of the waste in fiscal 2008. In addition, Asahi estimates the cost reduction effect as about 100 million yen per year. RHF is the furnace that collects the dust generating in steelmaking process as reduced iron and zinc oxide of the second dust. Reduced iron will be recycled as iron resources. The second dust will be sold to zinc smelters as a zinc material. As for the disposal process, Asahi will produce briquette through composition of carbon dust and binder in head-end process, first of all. Then, Asahi will supply RHF with briquette, reduce iron oxide in the dust, and collect reduced iron in reduction process. After that, Asahi will collect the second dust throughout cooling waste gas. There is dust generation of about 6,600 tonnes per year at its Saitama Plant.