• Preservation of precious available water requires innovation and new approaches
• Sustainable water management system complying with all environmental standards
• Water treatment and keeping it in a closed loop is a powerful lever to protect resources in production processes

Italian section producer Duferco Steel has contracted SMS group (www.sms-group.com) to equip its new section rolling mill in San Zeno, Brescia, Italy, with a comprehensive water treatment plant. The new water management system will enable Duferco to meet all future environmental requirements.

Antonio Gozzi, President of Duferco Italia Holding, says: "Saving and treatment of water are two essential factors for the sustainability of a green plant which will help us attain our production targets in compliance with European environmental standards. This is the reason why we selected SMS as our partner who will support us on the road to setting a new efficiency standard in the production of sections in Europe."

For an eco-friendly production process, the water treatment plant will be equipped with the latest technologies from SMS. It makes sure the production processes will be supplied with the needed water volume just at the right moment. Thanks to water treatment it will be possible to reduce the total amount of filtered particles in the discharged water to less than 5 ppm. In addition, product quality assurance will be improved due to a more efficient control of the production process.

Three main circuits will be integrated in the medium section mill of the facility: indirect cooling, direct cooling and sludge treatment. The indirect cooling system will be used in the reheating furnace and the rolling mill, the direct cooling system in the reheating furnace, the roughing and tandem mill, the rinsing channel and at the cut-to-length saw. The sludge treatment system will be available for all units. In case of a power failure, water supply will be ensured by emergency generators. Fill water treatment will minimize the fill water volume by increasing the concentration of chemical constituents and hence reducing the need for feed water. To reliably satisfy European, Italian and local environmental requirements, the plant further offers the option of treating settling water.

The scope of equipment SMS is to supply to Duferco hence includes an advanced water treatment plant in addition to a new medium section mill with all electrical and automation systems, the contract for which was awarded earlier this year.

Commissioning of the overall project is scheduled to take place at the end of 2022.

This new order reinforces the leading position of SMS in the market of water treatment plants for the steel industry and other metallurgical sectors.