Thorough recycling of water

The production of steel demands a large quantity of water. As water is a natural resource, we use it sensibly by utilising and recycling it multiple times. This makes us one of the most economical integrated steel companies in the world.

We utilise water for three purposes:

1. Cooling water: We need to be able to cool down our installations, this as our production process goes hand in hand with the use of high temperatures;
2. Process water: Used to, for instance, extinguish the coke in the coking plant or to remove the layer of oxide from the steel slabs in the hot strip mill;
3. Environmental applications: For example the gas purification installations.

Our main water source is the canal Ghent-Terneuzen. Every square meter of water that is pumped out of the canal, is re-utilised around 25 times. This is done by making use of water purification installations, water towers and cooling towers. After having been purified and when having met all environmental requirements, the water is discharged back into the canal.