Environmental Pollution from Iron Production: A Solutions Report

This report addresses the significant environmental pollution caused by iron-producing factories, highlighting the impacts of activities such as mining, energy use, and waste disposal. It identifies key pollutants like carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides, emphasizing the need...Read More

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ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT

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Introduction
The proposal is intended to be read by the owners or the operators of a facilities or
factories that are engaged in the industry of production of iron products and incidental
activities, Iron and steel industry representatives and other stakeholders. The purpose of the
following proposal is to solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by the iron
producing factories. The growing industrialisation is vital to meet the increasing pace of
evolutionary needs. Every industrial activity is bound to release some by-products which lead
to the environmental pollution in one or different ways. However, it is significant to regulate
the activities engaged in such processing activities in light of the sustainable environmental
practices and optimum utilisation of resources. The pollution not only impacts a local area
only but could even spread to regional or global scale, including through atmospheric
pollution.
Problem Statement
The Iron and Steel Industry is known to have significant impacts on global
environment. This is because of the involvement of the activities like vast mining, extensive
use of the large quantities of energy and minerals and disposal of the waste. Thus, there is an
overall pollution caused in the form of release of air pollutants, waste water sludge, as well as
solid by-products and residues. The main pollutants released by the iron producing factories
are the carbon monoxide, particulate matter and the oxides of sulphur and nitrogen (Xu &
Lin, 2016). There is a requirement of a guideline to optimum utilization of resources to
regulate the release of such harmful pollutants in the environment, thereby protecting the
environment. Under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, the substances
released from the Iron and Steel sector are stated to be toxic (Government of Canada, 2016).
The consistent emissions of such toxic substances from the Iron industry would lead to the
depletion of the ozone layer, exhaustion of non-renewable energy sources, contribute in the
climate changes and have severe health impacts.
Approach to Research and Finding Solutions
The researcher is the right person to conduct the research because of collective
concerns of his generation and preferred area of interest. There are a wide range of possible
solutions that can be employed by the entities engaged in the said industry. Some of the
prima facie solutions that can be adopted by the entity are the efficient processes of

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production, installation of the pollution control systems in the precincts of the entity and
adopting environmental friendly practices. One of the efficient techniques of Scrubbing for
nitrogen oxides are quite popular in the country of Japan. However the same have only
started to be applied in some coking or sintering plants.
At first the entity must understand that the basic emissions can be bifurcated into two
categories namely the organised emissions and secondary emissions. While the former arise
through the installations, the latter are created as a result of spreading of emission due to non-
sealing. Thus, in order to address the issue of the environmental pollution from the emission,
both the issues of emission must be necessarily addressed by the entities. The entities must
further need to understand the step by step procedure and how each of the step contributes
either to the organised emissions or the secondary emissions. Further to state there is a need
to understand the varied kinds of pollution caused such as Thermal, Suspended matter, Toxic
substances, and rinse waters, waste acids and solutions from the finishing processes.
The entities can further choose one among or both of the dry and wet cleaning
techniques of the hard substances. The dry cleaning technique comprises of the following
control systems such as the inertial dust catchers, electro-static precipitators, dry cyclones and
the various kinds of cloth filters. Further, in wet technique, wet cyclones, wet cleaning
scrubbers and various kinds of venturis can be used by the entities, depending on the size and
nature of operations. The wet methods of gas cleaning are suitable in the areas of production,
where the gases containing explosive grade substances are used for the cleaning purposes,
and hence preventing the ignition.
Summary of own research
As the research was conducted it was found that there cannot be proposed a single
solution that is applicable universally to every enterprise involved in the Iron industry.
Hence, the best solution is to refine the steps or the activities involved in each stage which
will together lead to overall reduction of the emissions of waste and gases in the atmosphere.
Therefore the entities are suggested to adopt one or more of the processes if not all to reduce
the problem of environmental pollution to the maximum extent possible.

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Scope of research
Some of the proposed solutions that can be integrated in the various stages of
production and processing of Iron industry are suggested as follows. The first process that
can be refined is the transportation of raw material by rail and water instead of road. While
activity of loading/ unloading, water curtains can be used together with the bucket conveyor
unloaders with water sprays. The second process that can be enhanced is the saving in energy
by recycling of the clean heated air (Moya & Pardo, 2013). The natural gases can be
reformed to control the problems related to emission, combustion, and boiler blow down
liquids (Nematollahi, Rezaei & Khajenoori, 2011). Thirdly, the Fugitive emissions can be
controlled by adopting closed conveyors or the evacuation of the materials through the use of
the bag filters or the hoods (Hleis, Fernández-Olmo, Ledoux, Kfoury, Courcot, Desmonts &
Courcot, 2013). The fourth set of processes are based on the water methods such as chemical
treatment (coagulation), settling tanks, chlorination filter, clarifiers, and carbon adsorption
(Colling, dos Santos Menezes & Schneider, 2011). Biofiltration is also a vital means to
address the air pollution (Devinny, Deshusses & Webster, 2017).
The chief benefit that obtained by the researcher during the research was increased
knowledge of the pollution and activities involved in the iron industry. While the researcher
proposed certain solutions that can be implemented in varied steps, the researcher did not
consider the impact of the same on the profits of the entity. Thus, there is a risk that the
companies may not earn sufficient profits by employing the stated measures.
The main limitation of the research can be stated to be that till date there is no
reduction system for the Carbon-monoxide. In addition, the research was limited on the fact
that as there are various activities and stages involves in the Iron industry, there could not be
proposed a single solution.
Work Plan
Task
1st
and
2nd
Week
3rd and
4th
Week
5th
and
6th
Week
7th
and
8th
Week
9th
and
10th
Week
11th
and
12th
Week
13th
to 16th
week
17th
to
20th
Week
21st to
23rd
Week

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At first the
research aim and
objectives would
be identified
Next stage is
iterature review
The primary and
secondary sources
will enable the
Data collection
Data Analysis
Review the
evaluation of data
and completion of
write up
Final submission
Activities which would be
performed during the research Targeted Amount (in CAD$)
Data Collection 400
Pooling of the information 350
Data Analysis 350
Sum of projected financial
amount 1100
Conclusion
Thus, as per the research conducted in the previous parts it can be concluded that with
the increased industrialisation and globalisation, there have been extensive establishment of
varied kinds of factories. One of the vastly growing and highly economic contributing

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industry is that of the Iron and Steel production industry. The magnitude of the industry very
well describes the level of pollution caused by the factories forming part of the said industry.
The research was aimed at addressing the pollution problems caused by the Iron production
industry. The research conducted led to an insight of the various means that can be adopted
by the entities to contribute their part in the solution of the problem of the environmental
pollution. The benefits that can be reaped by the readers of the proposal is the better
understanding of the issues and means to solve the problem of the pollution caused by iron
industry.

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References
Colling, A. V., dos Santos Menezes, J. C. S., & Schneider, I. A. H. (2011). Bioprocessing of
pyrite concentrate from coal tailings for the production of the coagulant ferric
sulphate. Minerals Engineering, 24(11), 1185-1187.
Devinny, J. S., Deshusses, M. A., & Webster, T. S. (2017). Biofiltration for air pollution
control. United States: CRC press.
Government of Canada. (2016). Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. Retrieved
from: http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2016/2016-05-28/html/sup2-eng.html
Hleis, D., Fernández-Olmo, I., Ledoux, F., Kfoury, A., Courcot, L., Desmonts, T., & Courcot,
D. (2013). Chemical profile identification of fugitive and confined particle emissions
from an integrated iron and steelmaking plant. Journal of hazardous materials, 250,
246-255.
Moya, J. A., & Pardo, N. (2013). The potential for improvements in energy efficiency and
CO2 emissions in the EU27 iron and steel industry under different payback
periods. Journal of Cleaner Production, 52, 71-83.
Nematollahi, B., Rezaei, M., & Khajenoori, M. (2011). Combined dry reforming and partial
oxidation of methane to synthesis gas on noble metal catalysts. International journal
of hydrogen energy, 36(4), 2969-2978.
Xu, B., & Lin, B. (2016). Assessing CO2 emissions in China’s iron and steel industry: A
dynamic vector autoregression model. Applied energy, 161, 375-386.