South Africa’s Hernic Ferrochrome has completed its enclosure project, making it the first ferrochrome pro- ducer in the world to have converted semiclosed furnaces into closed furnaces.

The decision to go ahead with the R180-million project was made by the board in 2007 and the major refurbishment works were started in January 2009.

Hernic CEO Tetsu Kotaki tells Mining Weekly that it was not an easy project for the company, especially in the current unprecedented difficult economic circumstances. “In November last year, the rapidly deteriorating market and extremely depressed ferrochrome demand forced the company to substantially shut down its operations.

“Further, to conserve cash and survive through this difficult time, Hernic halted production from the furnaces during the first three months of the year.”

Kotaki says that Hernic could have waited for the economic climate to warm up before going ahead with the enclosure project, but decided to prioritise its environmental, health and safety initiatives.

Kotaki notes that Hernic did save some money on the project by taking advantage of the shutdown and some rescheduling.

The biggest benefit of the project is that Hernic no longer produces any carcinogenic chromium VI-containing dust, as is the case with semiclosed furnaces, says Kotaki.

Closed furnaces are signifi- cantly more environmentally friendly and efficient, as there is less dust, gas, and heat generated around the furnaces, compared with semiclosed furnaces. The furnaces are also equipped with dedicated tap-hole fume extraction and cleaning equipment.

“The completion of this project is a big achievement for the company from an environmental point of view, especially in terms of air pollution control, with none of the hazardous chromium VI being generated.

“This modification of the furnace design now also enables far more effective recycling of waste gas, which is possibly used for the cogeneration power projects.”

Hernic has been working on a project to more effectively use the waste gas from its converted furnaces. The cogeneration power project will use the waste gas, currently emitted and flared into the atmosphere, to generate electrical power in the future. The project will save the company about 25 MW of electricity.

Further, Kotaki comments that Hernic commits itself to investigating and installing technology to reduce the company’s impact on the environment, and create a safer environ- ment for all its workers and the communities in which it operates.

The company is currently working on a railway siding project that will drastically reduce environmental impacts caused by road traffic in and around Hernic’s operations and within its surrounding communities.

Kotaki says that it should be noted that the recommissioning of these reborn furnaces means the company is now back to its normal production level after the difficult shutdown period.

“Although we still see rather difficult market conditions, it appears that the company has managed to survive the most difficult part of the global economic crisis. “The company has never retrenched people and has managed to maintain its business structure,” Kotaki concludes.

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