Diffuse emission to atmosphere on 11th of February
On Saturday, 11th of February diffuse emission took place at Kraków steel plant.
A frozen drainpipe wasn't able to handle all of the dust transmitted through it. As a result, the efficiency of the dedusting system decreased by 30 percent. The majority of dust was transmitted into the treatment installation, but part of it unfortunately was emitted into the atmosphere- diffuse emission took place. Our employees immediately stopped the converter. We have informed WIOŚ and as per the expectation of residents Centre of Crisis Management. On Saturday, inspectors from WIOŚ were present. The dust emission was calculated at 18 kg, main components were iron and calcium oxide.
The failure was removed as soon as on Saturday, and the converter was relaunched.
Flashes over Nowa Huta following the publication on rmf24
On Monday, 13th of February, RMF FM published recordings of flashes over Nowa Huta. Date of publishing of recordings was to suggest that flashes are related to Saturday failure at the plant. ArcelorMittal Poland addressed RMF to make the recordings available to the company in better quality and without the time lapse effect. However the radio does not have any other version available. Specialist of ArcelorMittal Poland watched the recordings many times. Due to bad quality of recordings, it is difficult to state explicitly what is the source of flashes. As per the specialists’ opinion the effect of flashes might be visible during the slag pouring process. This process is part of operation since the plant exists and it is part of integrated permits for it. Slag pouring takes place 24h a day not only at night. ArcelorMittal Poland since 2004 invested in Kraków plant, 3 bln PLN. These projects and installations shutdowns l translated into notable reduction of emissions. Emission from 2016 was only 10% of emission of 2004.
