Waste and environment protection management of the typical German small and medium-sized foundries.

Costache, Bogdan ; Mihai Pencea, Ion ; Funar, Stehan Petru 等

Abstract: The paper addresses the waste and environment protection management of two typical German small and medium-sized foundries by BEVAR GmbH that provides them flexible enterprise waste and environmental management systems (FEWEMS). The main characteristics of the BEVAR's FEWEMS (objectives, targets, assessment procedures etc) are presented together with the main results of FEWEMS application to a representative medium range cast iron foundry and a small range aluminium foundry.

Key words: environment, waste, management, foundry

1. INTRODUCTION

The metallurgical industry was historically among the first targets of environmental concerns thanks to its well-known negative environmental impact.

In the past, the main legal instrument for metallurgical environmental impact decreasing has been the regulation at the state level. Nowadays the EU Directive harmonizes the EU Member States environmental legislation (Dumitrescu & al, 2001).

Thus, the metallurgical companies have to demonstrate their compliance with environmental legislation and regulation in force that establish Maximum Limit Concentrations (MLC) and, in some cases, annual quantitative limitations for released/emitted pollutants (Depner & Hell, 2001).

In accordance with local in force legislation and regulation BEVAR can provide for metallurgical companies consultancy for implementation, operating or only audit of a consecrated environmental management system (EMAS, ISO 14001), but it also offers flexible enterprise waste and environmental protection management system (FEWEPMS) adapted to the specific activities, products and services of the company, whose implementation and operation is cheaper than consecrated ones.

The BEVAR' FEWEPMS is an ecological-minded product which has three main targets:

* Minimization of costs [theta].g. detection and exploitation of cost-reduction possibilities for all field of environmental protection (air, water, solid waste, land contamination);

* Minimization of risks [theta].g. creation of legal security, avoidance of environmental harmful events and increasing of employees awareness concerning the benefit of pollution prevention;

* Gain in image of the company i.e. good reputation with customers, shareholders, suppliers, authorities, stakeholders etc.

The FEWEPMS is based on a structural environmental approach designed to achieve the best environmental performances by controlling the environmental impact of the company's activities, products or services, taking into account their environmental policy. Thus, on the base of specific procedures the following assessment steps of the envisaged company are done:

* Company activities, products and services evaluation as pollution sources;

* Pollutants identification and classification according EU Code;

* Identification and certification of the pollutant toxic potential by " in situ " and laboratory analyses;

* Documented set up of the needed resources for FEWEPMS implementation, operating, checking and improving;

* Formulation of a documented environmental policy draft, including objective and targets, which is subjected to top management approval.

2. EXPERIMENTALS

The BEVAR' FEWEPS was applied in many metallurgical German companies having different production profiles: steal and cast iron foundries, aluminium foundries, copper base alloy foundries, mechanical processing, heat and thermo-chemical metal treatment etc. Among them the cast iron foundries have the biggest polluting potential and, for this reason, an example of FEWEPMS operation with a typical German medium-sized cast iron foundry (GMSCIF) is addressed in this paper as a representative case (Menser, A.G.R. & Keeling, 1996). Also, an example of FEWEPMS application with a German small-sized aluminium foundry (GSSAF) it is shown.A GMSCIF produces cast iron parts for automotive industry. Its cast iron melt capacity per year was held quite constant around 50,000 t/a over the last decade to which we refer. The GMSCIF produces two types of cast iron: Mg treated nodular cast iron and high Ni alloyed cast iron. The types of waste occurred in GMSCIF, their EU associated type (classification), EU codes are given in Table 1.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results and Discussion regarding GMSCIF's FEWEMPS performing.

On the basis of the FEWEPMS the waste elimination/valorification and environmental protection was flexibly conducted during the period 1996-2006 in order to comply with the in force regulation with the lowest possible cost.

The cost of air pollutant elimination depends on the electric power price/kWh, therefore it is a matter of electric power market where it can be lowered or not.

The cost of solid waste elimination can be decreased if the environmental management finds the cheapest ways of waste elimination i.e. recycling, recovering, incineration or disposal. In Germany sending them to specialized companies that are authorised to take them over mainly eliminates the industrial solid wastes. In about all cases, the company pays for elimination of every type of waste.

The evolution of the GMSCIF waste elimination cost per tonne of waste type depends on some waste type variables: toxins content, neutralization procedure and even quantity.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The environmental management of a company is a management task that affects all company's divisions (procurement, production, sales etc.) and, of course, the production costs. Thus, the GMSCIF' FEWEPMS deals with more than 20 pollutants, each of them requiring specific elimination or internal recycling (Vesilind & al., 2002).

The efficient administration of solid wastes occur in the small and medium-sized metallurgical company implies their carefully collection, sorting and elimination mainly by internal recycling or by sending them to the companies specialized in waste treatment (disposal, recovering, incineration etc)

The foundry environmental management should take into account that each cast iron melt tone implies about a half tone of waste. If one addresses the waste quantity related to finite product tone, then it could reach a 1:1 parity (Williams, 2002)

In the case of GSSAF the same ratio are double.

The FEWEPMS applied to the typical German small and medium-sized foundries can be adapted, with a few alterations, to the Romanian similar foundries for an efficient compliance with the specific EU in force regulation.

5. REFERENCES

Depner, E. & Hell, M. (2001). Betriebliches Abfallwirtschaftskonzept der Eisengie[beta]erei, internal report, BEVAR, Germany.

Dumitrescu, C., Pencea, I., Druga, L. & Rosenthal, D., (2001) The management bases of environmental protection and ergonomic work in the metallurgical heat and thermochemical treatment sectors, University "Polytechnics" of Bucharest Ed., Romania

Menser, A.G.R. & Keeling, A.A. (1996). Processing and Recycling municipal Waste, CRC Press, ISBN 1-56670-164-3, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

Vesilind, P.; Worrell, W.A. & Debra, R.R. (2002).Solid Waste Engineering, Wadsworth Group, ISBN 0-534-37814-5, Pacific Grove, CA, USA

Williams, P.T. (2002). Waste Treatment and Disposal, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-98149-3, Chichester, England

Ministry of Waters and Environment Protection. (2002). National Stage Programme for Waste Management, Available from http://www.mappm.ro, Accessed: 2004-06-01

Table 1. GMSCIF waste types, EU classification and their EU code.

No Waste type EU classification EU code

1 Dry used sand from cast Casting cores and moulds 10 09 08
 undergone forms and which have undergone
 kernel pouring other that those
 mentioned in 10 09 05

2 Sand from crude waste Casting cores and moulds 10 09 06
 forms and kernels which have not undergone
 pouring other that those
 mentioned in 10 09 05

3 Oven slag Furnace slag 10 09 03

4 Used lining and Linings and refractory 16 11 06
 refractory ceramic waste from non-metallurgical
 process others that those
 mentioned in 16 11 05

5 Air filter powder residue Flue gas dust other than 10 09 10
 from iron and steel those mentioned in
 pouring 10 09 09

6 Air filter powder residue Flue gas dust other than 10 09 10
 from foundry, containing those mentioned in
 iron 10 09 09

7 Air filter powder residue Ferrous metal dust and 12 01 02
 from sablation chamber particles

8 Air filter powder residue Ferrous metal dust and 12 01 02
 from nodular cost iron particles
 polishing workshop

9 Air filter powder residue Ferrous metal dust and 12 01 02
 from high Ni alloyed cast particles
 iron polishing workshop

10 Forms and kernel cripples Other particulates other 10 09 12
 and powders than those mentioned in
 10 09 11

11 Household waste Mixed municipal waste 20 03 01

12 Greases contaminated Adsorbents, filter 15 02 03
 filtering materials materials (including oil
 filters not otherwise
 specified) protective
 clothing contaminated

13 Waste oil Mineral-based 13 02 05
 non-chlorinated engine,
 gear and lubricating oils

14 Waste plastic (filter Waste plastic 07 02 13
 cloth/bags)

15 Waste wood Wooden packaging 15 01 03

Table 2. The annual quantity evolution of the GMSCIF main types of
waste during 1996-2006.

Waste type 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

Dry used sand from 21122 16863 20375 20375 21152 18935
 cast undergone forms
 and kernel
Sand from crude waste 758 1227 707 938 473 510
 forms and kernels
Oven slag 7925 7092 5295 2525 2443 1490
Used lining and 135 0 167 120 95 0
 refractory ceramic
 waste
Air filter powder 1183 1957 1737 2113 2167 1047
 residue from iron
 and steel pouring
Air filter powder 0 0 0 80 153 565
Household waste 185 0 143 143 168 127
Grease materials 0.0 8.5 1.5 2.2 2.3 8.7
Waste plastic 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
 (filter cloth, etc)
Waste wood 42.2 10.3 38.5 18.7 35.0 49.3
TOTAL 31351 27157 28463 26316 26689 22731

Waste type 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Dry used sand from 25957 20743 21357 20490 19263
 cast undergone forms
 and kernel
Sand from crude waste 763 693 867 893 463
 forms and kernels
Oven slag 1345 1730 3385 1742 1997
Used lining and 0 180 358 162 138
 refractory ceramic
 waste
Air filter powder 915 1415 1567 1783 1988
 residue from iron
 and steel pouring
Air filter powder 560 648 565 550 563
Household waste 97 157 183 198 292
Grease materials 15.2 9.2 20.0 0.0 4.8
Waste plastic 0.0 5.0 4.2 1.3 0.0
 (filter cloth, etc)
Waste wood 38.3 50.2 75.5 30.0 61.3
TOTAL 29690 25631 28381 25850 24751