Final environmental information volume for the coke oven gas cleaning project at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation Sparrows Point Plant

Abstract

Bethelehem Steel Corporation (BSC) is planning to conduct a demonstration project involving an integrated system that can be retrofitted into coke oven gas handling systems to address a variety of environmental and operational factors in a more cost-effective manner. Successful application of this technology to existing US coke plants could: (1) reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, cyanide, and volatile organic compounds (including benzene) (2) reduce the cost and handling of processing feed chemicals, (3) disposal costs of nuisance by-products and (4) increase reliability and reduce operation/maintenance requirements for coke oven gas desulfurization systems. The proposed system will remove sulfur from the coke oven gas in the form of hydrogen sulfide using the ammonia indigenous to the gas as the primary reactive chemical. Ammonia and hydrogen cyanide are also removed in this process. The hydrogen sulfide removed from the coke oven gas in routed to a modified Claus plant for conversion to a saleable sulfur by-product. Ammonia and hydrogen cyanide will be catalytically converted to hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide. The tail gas from the sulfur recovery unit is recycled to the coke oven gas stream, upstream of the new gas cleaning system. The proposed demonstration project will be installed at the existing coke oven facilities at BSC's Sparrows Point Plant. This volume describes the proposed actions and the resulting environmental impacts. 21 refs., 19 figs., 9 tabs.