Eramet Marietta experienced two accidents involving furnace #1 within the past couple of weeks. In both cases, molten metal burned through and created a mess. But last year the company sent a letter to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that included plans to reline that problematic furnace. Despite the accidents, so far it’s an upgrade that has yet to occur.

 

A letter from John Hughes, Eramet Environmental Engineer, dated April 27, 2006, reveals that prior to the recent labor stoppage, the plant planned to upgrade the furnace. The document outlines specifically how the improvements would reduce emissions and increase efficiency.

 

Hughes describes a maintenance outage due early in 2007.

 

“Eramet plans to reline the reaction shell for this furnace in early 2007. This relining is normally done every 10 – 15 years and is now overdue (16+ years). During the relining process, Eramet is planning to increase the depth of the reaction shell (furnace shell) from its current depth of 18.9 feet to 21.3 feet. . . the increased depth of raw materials will allow for more cooling of the furnace gasses and condensation of the manganese vapors back into the raw material mix before it exits the top of the furnace. This disposition will therefore result in lower particulate emissions from the furnace.”

 

Another favorable aspect of the upgrade is a reduction in carbon consumption accompanied by a 14 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. It will also allow the company to produce more alloy.

 

The Neighbors for Clean Air and Ohio Citizen Action want to know why the upgrade, which could have prevented the recent accidents, hasn’t been performed. A letter from the two groups asks Eramet’s CEO why the furnace hasn’t been fixed yet.

 

“Did you prolong the furnace improvement because of the lockout from August 2006 to February 2007? Are there other plans for further improvements that are not being implemented?”