World Iron and Steel Association launches research project on water resources management in iron and steel industry

Water resources management is an important part of the sustainable development route of the iron and steel industry, and the level of water resources management will also directly affect the image of the iron and steel industry. In order to fully understand the experience of the global iron and steel industry in water management and demonstrate the responsible water resources management practices of the iron and steel industry, the World Iron and Steel Association officially launched the Water Resources Management Research Project in February 2021.

The focus of this survey is to collect and sort out typical cases of water resources management in iron and steel enterprises under different water conditions and different policy environments. Steel companies around the world face a variety of water resources challenges and policy constraints, and the project team will solicit water management practices and cases from different types of steel mills around the world to share their solutions and future plans.

During the three-month research work, the project team plans to select about 20 iron and steel enterprises to carry out the research work, and the participating enterprises will have the opportunity to share their practical experience with their counterparts around the world through webinars and other forms. Promote other iron and steel enterprises to improve the performance of water management. At the end of the project, the main findings will be released and shared in the form of a publication.

This survey is mainly qualitative and will cover all types of steel mills and various water resources challenges, including comprehensive utilization of water resources, water shortage, water quality challenges, zero sewage discharge, water use rules and regulations, etc.

Water resources is a global environmental issue of common concern to human beings. problems related to water resources vary greatly in different regions and will be reflected in a variety of forms, including water shortage, flood, water pollution and sea level rise. Most of the problems are expected to worsen in the future as a result of the impact of climate change.

In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the current situation of water use efficiency in the global iron and steel industry, the World Iron and Steel Association conducted an in-depth qualitative calibration study on water resources management in 2011. The research of the project shows that water resources are extremely important to the iron and steel industry and will become more important in the future. The shortage of water resources and the deterioration of water quality will endanger the production of iron and steel, which needs further attention.

According to the results of qualitative research in 2011, in the iron and steel industry, blast furnace process water consumption is the largest, followed by hot rolling, cold rolling and coking. The water consumption intensity expressed by water intake varies greatly among different steel mills. The water consumption per ton of steel ranges from 1 cubic meter to nearly 100 cubic meters.

The overall efficiency of water consumption in iron and steel enterprises is very high, but due to the amount of water resources in different areas, regulatory environment, steel plant process types and other reasons, similar processes in different steel mills still have significant differences.

According to the policy environment, water management system, water use efficiency and other factors, the project team comprehensively evaluated the water management level of the selected iron and steel enterprises. The results show that with a full score of 100, the average score of the enterprises participating in the evaluation is 67, with the lowest 31 and the highest 94.