Optimization and evaluation of steel industry’s water-use system

In the steel industry, water is mainly used for cleaning and cooling. All these different tasks produce wastewaters that differ not only in quantity but also in quality. This study integrates all water-use processes into a system and applies substance flow analysis to build up an optimization model and an evaluation index system for the water-use network of a steel enterprise. Based on the index system, water-use status of large steel enterprises in China is evaluated and problems in the present water consumption are identified. A contrast analysis between present and optimized water-use is conducted, which then serves as the basis for the network optimization and countermeasure articulation. Finally, an analysis has been made on one of the most important and largest steel enterprise in China. The results indicate that after optimization fresh water consumption can be decreased by 11.1% and wastewater discharge can be decreased by 94.54%.