Blast Furnace 6 Reline

The project helps support the steelworks, hence manufacturing in Australia. This is important in the light of the increasing global pressures on supply chain and geopolitical reasons. Additionally, the project helps support jobs in the Illawarra and even parts of Sydney. I support the project.

I have been indirectly employed as a worker for a local vendor for Bluescope Steel at the Port Kembla Steelworks for over 20 years. As a local worker I support the reline project and the jobs it will bring and sustain for our community. Particularly the skilled workforce this project maintains in NSW whilst we are experiencing a drain on skilled labour to other states. I also support the work Bluescope Steel has done and proposed in environmental improvements. I am also in support the plans to include a fabrication centre for wind farm components on site.
The project is a large investment in NSW and the future of steelmaking as a sovereign capability will rely on this project proceeding. I believe that steelmaking is of vital importance to the future of this country.

DBC Group Australia has participated as a local vendor for Bluescope Steel at the Port Kembla Steelworks for over 20 years. As a local employer I support the reline project and the jobs it will bring and sustain for our community. Particularly the skilled workforce it maintains in NSW. I also support the work Bluescope Steel has done and proposed in environmental improvements. I am also in support the plans to include a fabrication centre for wind farm components on site.
The project is a large investment in NSW and the future of steelmaking as a sovereign capability will rely on this project proceeding. I believe that steelmaking is of vital importance to the future of this country.

Please accept this letter support on behalf of IXOM Operations Pty Ltd for BlueScope's Blast Furnace Reline Project.

This project will provide long term benefits to the Illawarra. It will create a significant number of jobs in the community in addition to supporting the strength of Australia’s economic security by improving the longevity of a critical piece of the country’s infrastructure. I strongly support this project going ahead.

18.04.2022

RE: BLAST FURNACE No 6 RELINE PROJECT

I object to the current proposal for the No 6 Blast Furnace Reline on the grounds that the Environmental Impact Statement and Hazard and Risk Report do not adequately cover established risks and hazards relating to the Exposure of Highly Toxic and Carcinogenic Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF to residents in areas within a 10km radius of the proposed Blast Furnace and ancillary steel making plant.

Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF are Bioaccumulative in nature and have been linked to the causes of Cancer. The Illawarra region has long history of noted cancer clusters – especially amongst the migrant workers and disadvantaged residents living ‘in the shadow’ of the Steelworks precinct.

In recent times the release of these highly toxic gases have repeatedly exceeded the EPA licence limits of Bluescope Steel. Lic No: 6902. Bluescope Steel has been fined by the EPA for these breaches. On October 14 2014 a fire in the Waste Gas Cleaning Plant caused an unknown quantity of toxic Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furnans PCCDF to be released in surrounding residential areas

There is no statement or detail in the proposed Reline of Blast Furnace 6 Environmental Impact Statement or Hazard and Risk Report relating to the possible excessive release of highly toxic Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF in surrounding residential areas due to possible future EPA Licence breaches or Industrial Accidents that have occurred in the past.

There is also no detail in the Reline of Blast Furnace 6 Environmental Impact Statement or Hazard and Risk Report relating to the BIOACCUMULATIVE EFFECTS of highly toxic Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furnans PCCDF in surrounding residential areas.

No provisions have been made in the current proposal for the No 6 Blast Furnace Environmental Impact Statement and Hazard and Risk Report for the FUTURE REMEDIATION of Residential areas within the vicinity of the Bluescope Steel Plant if they have been exposed to BIOACCUMULATIVE Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furnans PCCDF.

There is great concern amongst residents that the Proposed Blast Furnace No 6 Reline will result in continued Bioaccumulation of Dioxins and Furans. The issue of exposure and Bioaccumulation of Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF in surrounding residential areas has been raised many times with Councillors and the Lord Mayor Bradbery at the Wollongong Council Community NF7 meetings during 2020 and 2021 and also with the EPA, Bluescope Community Consultative Committee and the Minister for the Environment, Matt Keane. These documents and communications are all ON THE RECORD.

Given the total lack of detail in the Blast Furnace No 6 Reline Environmental Impact Statement and Hazard and Risk Report regarding the EXPOSURE and CONTINUED BIOACCUMULATION of Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF in surrounding residential areas I ask that;

1. The proposed Reline does not proceed until a COMPREHENSIVE and FULLY INDEPENDENT report by a Dioxin Furan SPECIALIST be submitted to verify the safety of exposure to Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF to residents within a 10km radius of proposed Blast Furnace 6 and the Bluescope Plant.

2. That a FULLY INDEPENDENT Health & Safety MEDICAL REPORT be provided that verifies there is NO CURRENT or LONG TERM health effects from long term exposure to Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF to Residents within a 10 km radius of the proposed Blast Furnace and Bluescope Plant.

3. That STATE-OF-THE-ART INDEPENDENT AIR QUALITY MONITORING be implemented within a 3 km radius (not currently available ) of the proposed blast furnace 6 and Bluescope Plant to verify Data relating to emissions of Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF Dioxin at all times.

4. That an INDEPENDENT REPORT by a noted Dioxin / Furan emissions specialist be provided that verify that there is NO LONG-TERM Bioaccumulative danger to Residents within a 10 km radius from Dioxin of Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF emissions.

Given the LONG TERM CONCERNS of residents of exposure to Tetra-chloro-dibenzo-P-dioxin 2,3,7,8 and Dibenzo Furans PCCDF from the Bluescope Steel Plant it is surprising that there is very little detail in regards this issue in both the Environmental Impact Statement and the Hazard and Risk Report. The continued release of dangerous Dioxins and Furans from the proposed No 6 Blast Furnace reline also contradicts the aims of the Federal Government National Dioxin Plan.

A ‘fast track’ approval of the Blast Furnace 6 Reline proposal without a COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH AND SAFETY REPORT and INDEPENDENT MONITORING of these highly Toxic Dioxin and Furan emissions will perpetuate the current belief that these dangerous emissions are being ignored not for critical infrastructure requirements but simply for COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGE.

Lake Heights Resident.

I support the project

BlueScope Steel is an organisation of personnel and workers who have worked hard over the years since being sold off by the supposedly Big Australian BHP. They have continued the task of value adding to iron ore by improving productivity and product quality, something BHP was not interested in doing. Being able to operate No.6 Blast Furnace will give the BlueScope organisation the ability to continue their years of hard work and employment of many people. The continued blast furnace operation will form a base with which the dedication, gained experience, future research and technology development will allow production of iron and steel with reduced environmental impact. Let this not be like the BHP expectation of immediate results (in their case profits). Let this be a progression of technology which employs people meaningfully in maintaining an important productive asset for a nation.

I support the Reline because of the jobs it will create for the community of Wollongong.

The Blast Furnace Realignment should be approved as it supports many more jobs in the Illawarra.

I think the reline on the No 6 Blast Furnace is a great project. It gives the local community hope and employment, for Australian products. Bluescope tour was very interesting tour which gives Consideration to the environment. Bluescope is heading in right direction with carbon emissions.

The Blast Furnace 6 Reline project will be very beneficial to both the local community and the nation as BlueScope Ltd (BSL) is a major supplier for steel products and a key driver of the local economy. The reports prepared by BSL provide a comprehensive plan for the future. In particular, the greenhouse gas report shows BSL’s attempts to tackle the challenge of decreasing the carbon intensity of steel production while still remaining competitive. BSL is placed as a leader in its industry for the reduction of CO2 emissions in the foreseeable future. The Reline project in BSL is very deserved in having government’s full support as major infrastructure project.

SUBMISSION IN RESPONSE TO APPLICATION NUMBER: SSI-22545215

BLAST FURNACE NO.6 RELINE PROJECT
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT
BLUESCOPE STEEL (AIS) PTY LTD

There are very many aspects of this project that are positive, including:
• An on-going commitment to production of iron and steel in Wollongong into the long term
• Upgrading the operation to reduce environmental impacts, such as recycling of gases and a long-term strategy to move to Direct Reduction Iron making
• Maximising the participation of local workers and contractors in the rebuild.

However, I have a number of concerns which, if they could be addressed, would ensure this project would have a significantly improved environmental outcome. These include:
1. Timing – Australia was a signatory at COP26 to a commitment to near-zero steel technology established by 2030. However, according to the latest IPCC Report on the state of our climate, the need to get out of fossil fuels and reduce GHG emissions to net zero by 2030 is now critically urgent. A timeline of 2040 will not be soon enough and to meet our international obligations this project must be speeded up. At the moment, Bluescope’s 2030 steel-making decarbonisation target is just 1% annually. According to the World Steel Association, in 2020 Australia produced 5.5 million tonnes of crude steel, 74% via blast furnaces. The share of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) production grew from 17% in 2010 to 26% in 2020, significantly lower than EAF’s share in the US (71%) and EU (42%). Bluescope claims a shortage of scrap steel is a problem for the company moving to EAF. However, according to a IEEFA 24 Jan, 2022 report*, Australia exported 2.1Mt of scrap steel in 2020, equivalent to 38% of the year’s crude steel production. This suggests there is at least some potential for further recycling and reducing GHG emissions at a much faster rate. Bluescope claims impurities in Australian scrap limits its use in the production of high-quality steel, however the majority of global steel goes into buildings and infrastructure where impurities in scrap are less of a problem. On top of this, US steel manufacturers are apparently already finding solutions to the quality issues in the scrap-EAF process, even for the quality-sensitive automotive sector.
2. Threats to the Sydney water catchment – it seems blast furnace technology remains central to Bluescope’s plans given that the day before the latest MoU was announced the proposed Dendrobium coal mine extension was given State Significant Infrastructure status on the basis that the coal was essential to Bluescope’s Port Kembla steelworks. Yet the NSW Independent Planning Commission had rejected the mine extension proposal back in Feb 2021 on the basis that it risked damaging the Sydney water supply. It would seem utterly irresponsible to risk our water security when the need to move to EAF production is urgent.
3. Biochar – the concept of using biochar as a replacement for a fossil fuel is significantly flawed given that burning a wood product also produces GHG emissions. The use of forest “waste” as a raw material is a great concern in that it would stimulate demand for forest material and contribute to prolonging the life of native forest logging. Our forests must be urgently protected and restored to enable them to reach maturity, or old growth status, to maximise their ability to sequester carbon. Bluescope must make a commitment to eliminate the concept of using wood products as a raw material for iron and steel production.
4. Water containment on site – the 2021-22 floods on the east coast of NSW and Queensland have seen catastrophic breaches of a range of waterways and water storage facilities. Has this EIS factored in extreme rainfall events (given that these are going to increase in intensity into the future) when assessing the adequacy of the drainage network, and capture and containment provided by the on-site storage basins?
5. Dust – I note the EIS mentions measures to control dust from vehicles leaving the site during the relining project, however I cannot find mention of strategies to address airborne dust generated by the demolition and rebuilt of 6BF. What strategies are to be implemented to address this significant concern, especially given that airborne dust has the potential to affect large parts of the surrounding residential and commercial area and is highly damaging to human health?


Thank you for enabling me to participate in this community consultation. I attended the Open Day on 12 April 2022 and found it very informative.


Anne Marett

*Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis: Is there scope for faster decarbonisation of Australian steel?

I support the project

This project is critical for Australian steelmaking and will have a positive impact on the Illawarra and NSW economy. The investment BlueScope is making to ensure the project and ongoing furnace operations are as green as feasibly possible is extremely constructive and a testament to the businesses commitment to sustainability.

I have lived in the Illawarra for fifty years. I have intimate knowledge of the capability of No 6 Blast Furnace in its original 1996 configuration having been a senior ironmaking technologist during the full span of its first campaign. The furnace was at that time one of the very best furnaces in the world, incorporating several world leading and inovative technologies that promoted process efficiency, safety, environmental performance and plant longevity. Those features (particularly in matters of raw material preparation and charging) are fully retained and will be enhanced by the comprehensive suite of developments proposed in the project.

Demand for steel, both domestically and globally cannot be met by recycling of scrap iron and steel. Technologies that allow large scale ironmaking from virgin ores witout the use of fossil fuells are not yet available. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that the necessary breakthroughs for that goal will be achieved within the next two decades (at least).
In this circumstance, retention of a viable steelmaking industry in The Illawarra, and indeed in Australia, through the next decades will require that No 6 Blast Furnace be relit when No 5 Blast Furnace reaches the end of its current campaign.

Blast furnace campaign life is usually determined by the condition of the refractory lining in the hearth at the bottom of the furnace. I was engaged by Bluescope to assess the condition of No 5 Blast Furnace hearth in 2018. After nine years of service, I found the hearth to be in good condition with every probability that it could remain in service for a further similar period. I understand that some wear has occurred since but that this is within the bounds of normal expectation. This means that the current time frame of Bluescope's aspirations to prepare No 6 Blast Furnace for relighting is very sound.

The stock house arrangement of No 6 Blast Furnace was inovative in that it provided excellent ability to separate both sinter and coke into small and large size fractions. This allows a higher voidage of the burdencolumn to be achieved after charging to the furnace. In turn, this increases permeability to the furnace gas stream with consequent benefits for productivity and fuel efficiency. These improvements were also enhanced by the increased intimacy of mixing of the ferrous burden materals within each charged batch. Again this was the result of inovative design. These features will all be retained.

At the furnace top , where raw materials are actualy charged to the furnace an inovative arrangement of the bins that receive and discharge the prepared ores and coke allowed excellent circumfrential consistency of placement at the furnace stockline after discharge. In addition to further promoting productivity, fuel efficiency and process consistency this feature is the best possible means to promote longevity of the furnace cooling system.

The above stockhouse and furnace top features are not available at No 5 Blast Furnace. At No 6 Blast Furnace they will undoubtedly be combined with copper cooling staves in appropriate levels of the furnace lining. Bluescope haad considerable difficulties with copper staves during the early years of the current campaign at No 5 Blast Furnace but their understanding of this technology is now very well advanced.

The combination of such excellence in the design of the stock house and furnace top with copper staves will maximise the ability of the relined No 6 Blast Furnace to achieve a safe, productive, efficient and long campaign. A campaign life of greater than twenty years is quite realistic and this will secure local steelmaking well into the future. This will hopefully also allow proper opportunity for the assessment of alternate or breakthrough technologies for future adoption.

In addition to these issues which are of paramount importance to the performance of the furnace proper, I am aware of a number of significant improvements that will be made to promote environmental performance and reduce greenhouse gas intensity of the process.

The provision of a top gas energy recovery turbine will rectify an omission made in 1996 due to budgetary constraints. This is established technology and prevents minimal risk while also improving energy efficiency and also improved top pressure control for the process. Escape of small volumes of blast furnace gas to the atmosphere will also be eliminated by replacing the existing duscatcher with updated technology.

The adoption of waste heat recovery on the hot blast stove system will allow considerable reduction in blast furnace and especially coke ovens gas requirements and result in reduced release of both greenhouse gases and waste heat to the environment.

Greenhouse gas intensity of the blast furnace process can be reduced by increasing the proportion of high hydrogen content gases in the fuels that are injected at the furnace tuyeres. Theoretically, pure hydrogen would be best but this technology is presently unproven at rates required for realistic practicality. The challenges associated are related both to safety specifics and to the esoteric matter of process flame temperature.

Coke ovens gas contains both significant hydrogen (> 50%) and methane - as such it is environmentally more attractive for injection use than natural gas (methane only). Bluescope has past experience with the injection of compressed coke ovens gas at No 5 Blast Furnace on a previous campaign and their proposal to inject both coke ovens gas and coal is very sound. The ability to addmix hydrogen to the coke oven gas should be possible and can be assessed as a separate matter if appropriate controls are proven viable.

I believe that the reline scope proposed by Bluescope is excellent and I strongly commend its approval . It will provide a highly productive and fuel efficient furnace to consistently produce low cost mot metal for downstream steelmaking processing. I also believe that the proposal has selected the most appropriate combination of technologies currently available for adoption in the Illawarra and will secure the steelmaking industry long into the future.

I am delighted to endorse the scope.

R.J. Nightingale B.Met., M.Sc., PhD.

I have lectured at the McMaster University Ironmaking Course in 2012, 2014, 2016 ,2018 and will again 2022. I lecture on the subjects of Blast Furnace Reactions and on Blast Furnace Control - Measurement, Control and Strategy.

I have also lectured with the German Stahl Institute in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 on Blast Furnace Hearth Dynamics.

I am also the recipient of the Josef S Kapitan Award from the American Iron and Steel Society in 1999 and the Thomas L Joseph Award from The AIST in 2016.

I support the creation of 250 local jobs and the continuation of more than 10,000 jobs.
This project creates an opportunity for sovereign capability of local steelmaking for decades to come, supporting a variety of industries.

I support the continuation of local jobs in the region and sovereign capability to create steel manufacturing in Australia for all purposes.

I support the future manufacturing of steel this additional blast furnace will offer for the future of our economy and the future of our children.

Great project to keep employment going