March 7, 2007 — Gerdau Ameristeel’s Wilton, Iowa, facility was one of 55 new facilities just welcomed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into the National Environmental Performance Track.

This partnership program recognizes facilities that set three-year goals for continuous improvements in environmental performance beyond their legal requirements, have internal systems in place to manage their environmental impacts, engage in local outreach about their performance, and publicly report results.

Wilton previously undertook the U.S. Department of Energy’s plant-wide assessment project in conjunction with the Iowa Energy Center and ISU-Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) to look at the plant’s overall energy use and implement cost-saving technologies. As a result of the project, the Wilton facility installed carbon injectors at the EAF and a new LO-NOx burner package at the reheat furnace. Since their installation in December 2002, the company has tracked resultant energy and cost savings.

Gerdau Ameristeel’s Wilton has also made several recycling changes to their overall contact and non-contact water system to reduce blowdown and water use from the makeup wells. As part of the project, the facility recycled its non-contact water blowdown to the contact water systems. The facility has reduced water usage by roughly 50% in the six years since the projects were initiated in 2000.

The company also anticipates a future project that will use tires or tire shred in the steelmaking process as a substitute for charge carbon or coal. This will involve new technology and equipment, procedures, and employee training to make the carbon-for-carbon substitution work commercially.

If the process change can be implemented, it will represent the use of an alternative material to replace a fossil fuel or carbon source. It also ties in with promoting recycling and a more "green" method of producing steel as compared to EAF steelmaking. The facility will measure performance in terms of the reduction in pounds of coal/carbon that is being replaced by tires.

Performance Track participants represent U.S. facilities of all types, sizes, and complexity, public and private. Program partners provide leadership in many areas, including some that are not currently regulated, such as energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption. Currently, the program has about 450 members and welcomes all qualifying facilities. Applications for the program are accepted twice a year: April 1 - May 31, and September 1 - October 31.

Gerdau Ameristeel’s Wilton, Iowa, facility is an EAF steel minimill facility that specializes in flats, angles, rebar, round-cornered squares, and other miscellaneous shapes. The Wilton facility makes both merchant (MBQ) and special (SBQ) bar quality steel products.

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