Water Consumption And Effluents

As a company operating in a water-scarce region, Qatar Steel aims to reduce water consumption to the best of its ability, for the benefit of operations, as well as of the community and environment. Qatar Steel uses water in the form of freshwater, seawater, and recycled water in its operations as a cooling agent.

Qatar Steel’s water management approach focuses on three objectives:

• Decrease Freshwater Consumption;
• Reduce Wastewater Discharge;
• Increase the Recycling Rate of Processed Water.

In 2017, Qatar Steel successfully increased the quantity of recycled or reused water by 112.8%, from 151,565 m3 in 2016 to 322,519 m3 in 2017.

In line with the guidelines released by the Qatar Ministry of Municipality & Environment (MME), Qatar Steel aims to minimize the amount of waste water discharged to the sea. In 2017, a project for achieving a Near Zero Liquid Discharge (NZLD) system began, with the provision of a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system. Qatar Steel hired consultants to conduct a feasibility study for recycling process waste water from DR2 plant.

The treatment plant for NZLD is being created to recycle the wastewater generated from the DR2 plant, by treating this water to the desired quality and then pumping the treated effluent to the process water sump. The NZLD process aims to maximize wastewater recovery and achieve NZLD in the plant.

In 2017, Qatar Steel’s operations consumed 1,641,604 m3 of freshwater. The freshwater consumption is being controlled in-house; however, this control program is affected by the need to sustain production requirements. With the implementation of the Qatar Steel’s NZLD/ZLD project, a further reduction of freshwater use by as much as 40% is expected.

Water Management