POSCO ICT : builds up Smart Ecological Plant for SIMPAC

POSCO ICT has established a smart ecological plant that minimizes air pollution sources and maximizes energy efficiency at its Pohang plant operated by Simpac.

Simpac Pohang Plant 1, which mainly produces manganese-based alloy iron, an auxiliary material used in steel mills, was a site where air pollutants were generated in the manufacturing process and had a problem of low energy efficiency of major facilities in operation. To solve this problem, POSCO ICT participated in the "Smart Ecological Factory Construction Project" program in April last year, a project supported by the Ministry of Environment, and recently began full-scale operation.

Through this program, Simpac expects to reduce pollution emissions compared to the previous one, improve dust resource recycling by more than 25%, and save 230 million won annually through energy savings. As such tangible results are expected, Simpac plans to push for smartization for manufacturing businesses in the group.

POSCO ICT improved the existing electric furnace dust collection system to a high-efficiency system to reduce pollutants emitted and save energy. At this time, the dust collected through the dust collector was reprocessed and zinc (Zn) was recovered, so resource recycling could be expected.

In addition, it has a data-based factory operation system by applying its smart factory control system, PosMaster, to collect and analyze data on product production and energy consumption. Using this, Simpac plans to further improve work efficiency by promoting data-based work standardization and power cost improvement projects, implementing maintenance systems through real-time facility monitoring, and automatically aggregating performance. POSCO ICT plans to expand its smart ecological plant business to similar manufacturing sites based on its experience through carrying out the Simpac Pohang plant project.

Meanwhile, PosMaster, a smart factory control system developed by POSCO ICT, has the advantage of integrating PLC(Programmable Logic Controller) and HMI(Human Machine Interface) functions that control facilities in the field. This reduces management costs and increases operational convenience, and provides a foundation for developing into a smart factory by linking data collected from on-site facilities to higher systems such as MES(Manufacturing Execution System).