waupaca foundry: leading sustainability

WAUPACA FOUNDRY:
LEADING SUSTAINABILITY
Foundries are the ultimate recyclers. For generations, Waupaca Foundry has created new products out of
recycled steel scrap and iron, and reuses many of the raw materials used in creating iron castings. However,
foundries are also energy-intensive businesses and it is imperative that Waupaca keeps finding smarter ways
to use and preserve the planet’s natural resources. Waupaca Foundry, the largest iron foundry in the world,
meets and often exceeds environmental regulations. Our strategic plan includes continuous improvement
targets and objectives to be met by the year 2020. Those goals include:
• Reduce energy use by 25 percent.
• Promote state-of-the-art pollution control technologies.
• Reduce spent foundry sand by 30 percent to reuse/recycle sand used in the metalcasting process.
• Reduce water use by 80 percent.
Foundry Sand Reused for Environmental Benefits
Historically, foundry sand was disposed of in landfills,
but Waupaca Foundry sand is being reused as a
replacement for native clay. Annually we recycle
800,000 tons of sand, but eventually some may
no longer be used. Rather than sending these
byproducts to a landfill, Waupaca Foundry repurposed
the materials to create a clean, nontoxic product
that can be used in a variety of applications and
industries. When cleaned and compacted, the
product demonstrates low hydraulic permeability
and blocks environmental contamination and waste
runoff, ensuring groundwater, soil and surface water
remain clean.
During a near-three-year study conducted by the
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
and Waupaca Foundry, this material was tested
as a replacement for clay used to construct lowpermeability barriers in landfills. As a result, select
foundry sand byproducts were approved as a suitable
alternative barrier layer in landfill liner construction.
Waupaca Foundry will reduce landfill construction
costs, extend the life of their landfill, reduce the
landfill’s environmental impact and improve the
sustainability of its operations.
More than 75 percent of the sand byproducts generated
from Waupaca Foundry processes are now being
incorporated into a multitude of beneficial reuse projects
in lieu of landfill disposal. Examples of such uses include
geotechnical fill, road construction, mine reclamations,
agricultural projects, cement manufacturing, concrete
products, commercial blasting media and asphalt.
Air Pollution Controls
Waupaca Foundry began retrofitting plants
with elective sophisticated air pollution controls
beginning in 1999. Both air emission controls
and leak detection technology have surpassed
regulatory requirements and created new
industry benchmarks in pollution control. We
voluntarily installed bag leak detection probes
into the baghouse collection systems at six
plants. The baghouse air filtration systems
use hundreds of specialty socks that remove
particles in the air before possible discharge
into the environment. The probes are sensitive
enough to detect dust migrating through
microscopic holes in the filters that might allow
particles to escape. When probes alert us to a
potential problem, we are able to quickly and
effectively optimize baghouse performance
before it is ever an environmental issue.
Energy Conservation by Reusing Heat
Since December 2008 Waupaca Foundry has used the
heat from the cupola iron-melting process at Plant 1 to
provide approximately 70 percent of the plant’s space
heating requirements for a typical winter, as well as
heat for 100 percent of the plant’s
hot water needs.
The closed-loop heat recovery system creates
annual heating savings and an annual reduction of
4,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide. The reduced
energy use is equivalent to removing approximately
3,200 passenger vehicles from U.S. highways. After
two years, the project has paid for itself and earned
Waupaca Foundry the 2009 Wisconsin Governor’s
Award for Excellence in Environmental Performance.
Water Conservation
In the casting process, Waupaca Foundry uses an
average of 750,000 gallons of water per day to cool
running machinery. As a result of improvements at
Waupaca Foundry, contaminated process water
requiring wastewater treatment and discharge has
been completely eliminated. Where installed, our
closed-loop water cooling systems have cut plant
water cooling demands by 80 percent or more and
reduced our daily water use by 225,000 gallons.
We are currently in the process of designing
additional closed-loop systems so Waupaca
Foundry can be removed from the water
discharge cycle forever.
Visit us at NEWCAST 2015: Hall 14, Stand A03
Executives will be available for interviews the afternoon of June 18.
Please contact Sara Timm to schedule an interview: +01 715 701-1970