Environment: Improvement options for iron and steel

The focus of the downloadable document is on the production of iron and steel in blast furnace. It first describes the production of steel and iron. After that, the most important environmental effects of the production process are described together with several improvement options. One should keep in mind that the options for improvement as air-stream filtering, waste-water treatment and waste management are second best options or end-of-pipe measures. The first target of reducing the environmental impacts of industrial processes is prevention by reducing the use and release of hazardous compounds. These measures, the so called source-oriented measures, include good housekeeping, administration of chemicals, process optimisation, substitution of hazardous compounds and process-integrated measures.