Environmental management for sustainable growth in foundry industries

Traditionally foundries are considered to be hot, dusty and dirty place where foundrymen toil hard with hot metal to produce shaped castings. Foundries are most neglected metallurgical industries where very little work has been done to reduce pollution. The emissions from cupola furnaces for melting iron predominantly comprise suspended particulate matters (SPMj, sulphur dioxide. carbon monoxide and heavy metal fumes. In the early seventies, there was a move to level the foundries as smokestack and sunset industry. Thereafter awareness about the environment in foundries grew and stringent laws were enforced which led to the closure of a significant number of foundries in developed countries. As a result developed countries started fulfilling their requirements of castings from developing nations initially from Korea and Taiwan and later on from China, Indonesia, Brazil, and India. A process which needs a minimum energy is least polluting for the environment. It was therefore felt that an integrated approach involving both pollution control and energy conservation is best suited for environmental management. Only such energy and waste minimization technologies are to be adopted which are sustainable. The application of cleaner technologies is most important for environmental management and sustainable growth in foundry industries