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Mike Lantz, Dane Smith, and Doug Hassenzahl, left to right, accepted the AIST Energy Achievement Award in Cleveland on January 19th.
By STEVEN HUSZAI
Daily Globe Staff Reporter
 SHELBY — Arcelor Mittal’s Shelby plant, nostalgically referred to throughout the region as the “Tuby,” was recognized for a project which reduced fuel usage and emissions output. Mike Lantz, the project manager for the “oxy-fuel retrofit” project on its rotary hearth furnace, explained the full scope of his efforts and the award.
“(We) received the AIST Energy Achievement Award for the oxy-fuel retrofit project... on January 19th in Cleveland,” explained Lantz, who is the Plant #1 Primary Mills Senior Process Engineer, and led the oxy-fuel project.
Lantz accepted the award with Dane Smith (Shelby Operations Plant Manager) and Doug Hassenzahl (Plant #1 Primary Mills Superintendent).
AIST, which stands for the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, is a non-profit group which advances production of iron and steel, with members from 60 countries. Its Energy and Utilities Technology Committee established the award which recognizes energy conservation projects.
“The history of this project begins in late 2004 when we saw a need to reduce the amount of energy consumption in the rotary furnace,” Lantz said.
The rotary furnace, located in Plant #1 at the Tuby, is utilized to heat seven-foot long steel billets (rods) from ambient temperature, which is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, to approximately 2,275 degrees Fahrenheit in a matter of minutes, for eight hours a day. It is the first step in the seamless mill process. “Basically, steel is like Play-Doh when it’s that hot,” Lantz said.
“The rotary furnace before the oxy-fuel retrofit project, basically consumed enough natural gas to fuel 4,300 average size homes for a year,” Lantz continued, which is where the Tuby saw a need in addressing its energy consumption as well as combatting rising energy prices.
Lantz said in 2005, the Tuby worked on a 5-percent enrichment program for the furnace, which combines air and natural gas into its combustion system to achieve the extreme temperatures needed to heat the steel inside it. As the oxygen burns during the process, and nitrogen is emitted from the smoke stacks.
During this enrichment program, Lantz said the amount of oxygen introduced into the system was increased from 20-percent to 25-percent.
“We saw a tremendous benefit from the system just from the 5-percent enrichment program,” Lantz said, which helped increase production at the Tuby as well.
Soon after, Lantz and a team began work with Linde Gas, LLC (a leading company in oxy-fuel technology) to convert the rotary furnace to this new technology, which uses liquid oxygen, converts it to a gas, before combining it with natural gas in the combustion process.
“The interest with the project is we have since reduced our natural gas consumption of the furnace by 60-percent and reduce nitrogen emissions by 92-percent (along with other greenhouse gases),” Lantz said. “The project was very successful.”
Lantz said currently the Tuby is the only user of this oxy-fuel technology in North America, and is one of about 110 facilities in the world using it. But the Tuby’s technology is one of the smaller group which is using the latest, most up-to-date version of the oxy-fuel technology.
Lantz added this was a Tuby-specific project which has gained the attention of corporate.
“What was a real success with a project of this size was the timeframe,” Lantz said. “We signed the contract in April 2007 to start the project and were finished in August 2007,” he said, adding the complete retrofit of the furnace (stripping it down and rebuilding it) took ten days total.
To win the award, the energy efficient technology had to be operational for a minimum of two years. Lantz applied for it in August 2009. On January 1st, he found out they won the award.
“The prestige of winning the award... it’s an honor to have won it and for Arcelor Mittal to start looking at this project means a lot,” Lantz commented on the award for his efforts, and those of the rest of the Tuby.
“It demonstrates Arcelor Mittal’s committment to sustainability in the steel industry and it brought recognition to Shelby,” he continued. “This benefits the community with less energy consumption and emitting a lot less greenhouse gases. We are ahead of the game (of greenhouse gas regulations).”
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