OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2011. A 53 million pounds investment at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot  works will reduce its external power requirements by about 15% and contribute  towards making the site self-sufficient in energy, reported the press-centre of Tata Steel.     

The investment will introduce a new cooling system in  the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant that will have the benefit of  producing steam, allowing electricity to be generated.  The resulting reduction in energy consumption  will improve the sustainability of steelmaking in Wales. The 10MW of energy  that will be saved would be enough to power an estimated 20,000 homes. 

The main project work will be carried out in the  second half of next year, in parallel with the ?185 million rebuilding of Port  Talbot’s No 4 blast furnace that Tata Steel announced eight months ago.  The investment also follows the 60 million  pounds BOS plant Energy Recovery project, which was completed in May last year.

Karl-Ulrich Kohler, the MD and CEO of Tata Steel  in Europe, said: “This investment is a further demonstration of Tata Steel’s  commitment to make our steel operations in Wales a benchmark for the European  industry.  The UK Strip Products  business reacted in determined fashion to the financial crisis and has earned  the investments that Tata Steel has committed to it in recent months.

"Steel is a capital-intensive and highly  competitive industry that requires long-term planning.  It is vital that the steel industry in  Europe and the UK is not faced with a regulatory environment that reduces its  international competitiveness and makes similar investments in the future  unviable."

Jon Ferriman, Director of Tata Steel's UK Strip  Products business, said: "This project makes further advances towards our  vision of becoming self-sufficient in energy, and also further improves our  environmental performance.  By equipping  our BOS plant with a state-of-the-art evaporative cooling system, we will  improve Port Talbot’s productivity and energy efficiency.  We will also build on the ability to recycle  and reuse process gases that our Energy Recovery plant brought us."

Chair of the Multi-Unions at Port Talbot, David  Ferris, said: "This investment is another massive vote of confidence for the  commitment and expertise of our employees in Wales, and represents an important  building block in securing a sustainable steel industry in Wales."

The project will  replace the BOS plant’s existing off-gas water-cooling system with an  evaporative system that will produce steam.   This steam will be converted through a turbine into electrical power,  improving the energy balance of the steel melt shop and the process safety of  the plant.  The decision to invest in  the new cooling system results from an examination of best practice within the  Tata Steel Group.

About Tata Steel in Europe
The European operations of  Tata Steel (formerly known as Corus) comprise Europe's second largest steel  producer. With main steelmaking operations in the UK and the Netherlands, they  supply steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging,  material handling and other demanding markets worldwide.  Tata Steel is one of the world’s top ten  steel producers. The combined group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of  more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four  continents.