Steel company installs new equipment

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
SPECIAL Steels Limited (SSL), a Tema-based iron rods manufacturing company, has begun the installation of a new pollution control system to control the emission of exhaust gas to a safe level.
The pollution control system has an in-built chamber that cools exhaust gas after which the cold gas enters a bag filter unit which removes toxic elements from it.
Consequently, SSL has suspended the melting of iron scraps in the furnace to allow for the completion of the installation work by the end of September, this year.
This was evident during an inspection tour of the company on Thursday, following media reports of excess emission of smoke by the company.
The Director of SSL, Mr Vinod Rajan, told the Daily Graphic that the “objectionable” emission was due to some technical failure of the existing pollution control system.
He said the company had rectified the situation by changing the existing blower and replacing it with a higher capacity blower in the exhaust system.
Besides, Mr Rajan said, the company had modified the vantury, scrubber and fume suction hood, to further reduce the smoke.
He said the installation of the new pollution control system was also to meet the increased production at the company as it was to increase production from 2,000 tonnes per month to 4,000 tonnes per month.
Mr Rajan said the SSL had written to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlining the pollution control measures it was undertaking.
A copy of the letter dated August 11, 2009, said, “We humbly request that during the period of installation and test-run of the new pollution control system, the EPA deploys and runs the dust monitoring equipment the results of which will help us understand the level of performance of newly installed system and modify/rectify the stages if the need arises.”
When contacted, a Deputy Director at the EPA, Mr Lambert Faabehuon, confirmed the ongoing installation at the company and the receipt of a road map to control the emission from SSL.
He said the EPA had mounted testing equipment to monitor the emission level at every stage of the installation.