United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Industrial Environmental Research
Laboratory
Research Triangle Park NC 2771 1
Research and Development
EPA-600/S2-80-105 Apr 1981
Project Summary
Volatilized Lubricant
Emissions from Steel
Rolling Operations
C. J. Mackus and K N. Joshi
This report presents the results of an
investigation of the volatilization of
lubricants used in steel rolling opera-
tions. Data from nine steel rolling
operations were used to define the
volatilized portion of lubricants used
in rolling operations; and to prepare
total oil, grease and hydraulic fluid
material balances for actual and
"typical" cold and hot rolling opera-
tions. Estimates of the air pollution
resulting from both hot and cold
rolling processes were made from
data acquired by questionnaires, mill
visits, and emission source sampling.
Background information pertaining to
steel rolling operations, lubrication
practices, rolling mill lubricants, and
rolling emulsion application technique
is also presented.
This Project Summary was develop-
ed by EPA's Industrial Environmental
Research Laboratory, Research
Triangle Park. NC. to announce key
findings of the research project that is
fully docurrented in a separate report
of the same title (see Project Report
ordering information at back).
Introduction
In a previous study, entitled "The Use
and Fate of Lubricants, Oils, Greases,
and Hydraulic Fluids in the Iron and
Steel Industry," (EPA-600/2-78-101,
May 1978), it was determined that a
typical integrated steel facility may emit,
as air pollution, 10 percent of the total
quantity of oil, grease, and hydraulic
fluid used That study further demon-
strated that 80 to 90 percent of the total
oil, grease, and hydraulic fluid utilized
by an integrated mill were consumed by
the steel rolling and finishing opera-
tions
Lubricants, oils, greases, and
hydraulic fluids are potentially signifi-
cant sources of pollution in the iron and
steel industry because large quantities
are used and there are numerous appli-
cations of these materials Pacific
Environmental Services, Inc , was con-
tracted to investigate volatilized lubri-
cant and hydraulic fluid emissions from
the steel industry As in the previously
cited study, fuel oils, solvents, tars,
pitch, transformer oils, wash oils, and
quench oils were excluded from the
investigation That previous investiga-
tion revealed that the two major
potential sources of volatilized oils,
greases, and hydraulic fluids were the
rolling/finishing mills and sinter plants
Sinter plants have been and are being
considered by other EPA-supported
studies and therefore were not
addressed in this study
The purpose of this study was to
investigate volatilization of oils,
greases, and hydraulic fluids during
usage in the steel industry. A
determination was made of the quantity
and characteristics of the resultant
hydrocarbon emissions The mam
sources of volatilized oil hydrocarbon
emissions were identified and
described by equipment type and plant
area Lubricating and operating
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practices affecting oil volatilization and
hydrocarbon emissions were also
investigated. The four major goals were:
(1) to survey the steel industry and
collect data to perform oil, lubricant, and
hydraulic fluid mass balances around
individual mill operations; (2) to sample
representative mills to verify the volatil-
ization quantities calculated from the
initial mass balance; (3) to identify the
quantity of lubricant volatilized by
specific mill processes and determine
the resulting hydrocarbon species and
(4) to develop a standard methodology to
perform mass balances for typical mill
processes from the data compiled from
the previous three objectives.
The project consisted of the following
data gathering tasks The first was a
comprehensive literature search util-
izing the resources of several technical
libraries, trade journals, texts, hand-
books, technical papers, and NTIS
microfiche. Background information
was collected on processes and equip-
ment, lubrication practices, and waste
oil collection and reclamation Organ-
izations, societies and industries
supported by, knowledgeable of, or
composed of iron and steel personnel
were contacted to obtain information
useful for the study The second task
was conducted to obtain detailed and
current data on steel mill lubricants in
the rolling/finishing mill areas. In the
third task, a questionnaire was develop-
ed which was directed at specific mill
operations Data were received from
five plants, and four plant visits were
arranged. The purpose of these visits
was to obtain additional data, to inspect
equipment identified as significant
hydrocarbon emissions sources of
volatilized lubricants, and to discuss the
proposed sampling program
Task 5 was conducted at two steel mill
facilities- the Inland Steel Indiana
Harbor Works and the Gary Works of
United States Steel Stack samples from
two cold roll mills were obtained from
the Inland Steel facility Ambient (build-
ing) air samples were acquired from the
84-inch hot strip mill located at the U S.
Steel's Gary Works. Rolling oil samples
and wastewater samples were also
gathered from each of the locations. A
gas chromatographic analysis was
performed on each of the air samples
Each wastewater sample was also ana-
lyzed to determine the amount of oil
present m the water during the air
sampling period
Laboratory experiments of Task 6
were performed under controlled condi-
tions on a typical rolling oil to determine
the quantity of lubricant volatilized and
the resulting hydrocarbon species The
results of this laboratory simulation
were compared to the m-plant sampling
results and the material balance esti-
mates of the volatilized oil loss
The data gathered in Tasks 1 through
6 were reviewed and used to estimate
hydrocarbon emissions resulting from
volatilized lubricants and hydraulic
fluids. These estimates were applied to
the specific steel plants included in the
study, a "typical" steel plant, and the
domestic steel industry as a whole The
types of hydrocarbons produced by
those evaluated processes were identi-
fied and quantified wherever possible
Summary of Results
The findings of this study were in
general agreement with those of a
previous study which estimates a
typical integrated steel plant, with a raw
steel production capacity of 3 6 million
metric tons per year (4 million tons/
year), 6,530 metric tons per year (7,200
tons/year) of oils, greases, and hydrau-
lic fluids are used throughout the plant
Since between 80 and 90 percent of
these lubricants are used in the steel
rolling and finishing operations, this
study concentrated on those operations.
It was estimated that for a typical cold
strip mill, total hydrocarbon emissions
were 358 metric tons per year (395
tons/year). Therefore, the total hydro-
carbon emissions rate for all cold strip
mills within the U S. is estimated to be
7,1 60 metric tons per year (7,900 tons/
year) The confidence levels of
estimates of hydrocarbon emissions
from hot rolling operations are not as
high as those from cold rolling, primarily
because insufficient data were
collected to enable more direct and
precise calculation of these emissions.
(Two of the three methods used for hot
rolling estimates agreed relatively
closely, the third included two
estimated variables- one with a factor of
2 range and the other with an order of
magnitude range Incorporating the two
variables produced estimates with a
factor of 20 range ) Using these esti-
mates, total hydrocarbon emissions
from a typical hot strip mill were 94 7
metric tons per year (104 tons/year) or
2,460 metric tons per year (2,700 tons/
year) for all hot strip rmlls within the
U S It was also estimated that of the
total quantity of oil, grease, and
hydraulic fluid used by the various
rolling operations, approximately 125
percent of the lubricants purchased will
enter the environment as air pollution
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C. J. Mackus and K. N. Joshi are with Pacific Environmental Services, Inc., Santa
Monica, CA 90404.
J. S. Ruppersberget is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "Volatilized L ubricant Emissions from Steel Rolling
Operations," f Order No. PB 81-108 003; Cost $17.00. subject to change) will
be available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NQ 27711
!(JS aOVERNMENTPRWTMa OFFICE 1
757-012/7069
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Environmental Protection
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Information
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