A Roof System to Arrest Fugitive Emissions

In a time when manufacturers are looking for any avenue to help reduce global emissions and their overall carbon footprint, industries with aggressive environments are often surprised to learn one of the easier ways to reduce emissions is already over their heads –?literally.

Fugitive emissions are a severe problem for manufacturing industries with high heat and aggressive environments. When harmful emissions find their way outside of intended containment areas, they can have a major influence on local air pollution levels and cause further environmental harm. So what measures can these manufacturing companies take to further reduce emissions that are escaping? Facility managers and maintenance personnel should start with securing their building’s roof systems, according to Thermal-Tec President, Robert Siterlet.

Fugitive Emissions On the Rise

Manufacturing facilities use specialized dust and particle vacuum equipment to collect and move compromised air through a system of filters meant to recycle and safely disburse harmful exhaust fumes. But that’s only the first line of defense against emissions. It’s also suggested that routine maintenance on older, legacy equipment be performed to reduce emission leaks at the onset. The same concept should be applied to your building envelope, says Siterlet.

The next line of defense against fugitive emissions is to appropriately secure the building that houses the equipment responsible for emitting unwanted fumes. Appropriate fixes, modifications, and scheduled facility maintenance on the very assets that contain your equipment are the best ways manufacturers can get a tighter grasp on reducing the harmful emissions that might otherwise escape.

“Metal buildings inherently adapted into manufacturing were never meant to be emissions capsules,” says Siterlet.??

Building Remediation to Stop Emissions?

One such example of a successful yet complicated facility remediation to significantly reduce fugitive emissions took place in the summer of 2023 at a steel rolling mill in Mississippi. The facility belongs to one of the country's largest steel producers and metal recyclers. The company produces high-grade steel using electric arc furnace (EAF) technology with recycled ferrous scrap as the primary input. An operation with a production capacity of over 6 million tons of hot roll steel sheet annually indicated the company needed to keep producing to meet high market demand.

The primary target of the project, a 25,000 Sq. Ft. area experiencing issues with the pre-engineered metal structures located directly above their arc furnaces. The sheet metal roof had become compromised over the years and was showing signs of failing. Understanding they needed to get ahead of the problem and contain the arc furnace emissions, they called Thermal-Tec Roofing.? ?

As mentioned earlier, pre-engineered steel buildings were not designed to be emissions capsules. However, these buildings have been absorbed into every facet of manufacturing because of their adaptability and the speed at which they can be built. They need to be adapted appropriately to suit the needs of the companies’ manufacturing processes. That’s where Thermal-Tec’s expertise came into play.??

Project Challenges?

Pre-engineered metal structures have thousands of seams and tens of thousands of penetrations. All of these are subject to failure if not maintained appropriately. A lot can go wrong over time. The nature of how metal panels react from years of weathering is well documented. Thermal expansion and contraction will pull fasteners out of place - creating gaps in seams. This, in turn, lets moisture in and leads to leaks that continually expand the ports of entry. These gaps then allow emissions to escape.

Additionally, heavy manufacturing, like the steel industry, intensifies the destructive characteristics of thermal expansion and contraction. Steelwork requires the use of chemicals and corrosives coupled with extreme temperature fluctuations. All of these things consequently speed up the failure of metal roof panels exponentially.

There were safety concerns to be addressed as well. The charging process (adding metal to the arc furnace) is exceptionally dangerous due to the heat and chemical reactions of the material. Arc furnace temperatures can reach 3200 degrees F while simultaneously emitting carbon oxides, Sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter, dioxins, and furans. The Mississippi facility’s furnaces are housed in separate enclosures with steep, angled, canopy-style roofs not intended for foot traffic. The structures are positioned 190 Ft in the air and are only accessible by elevator. The canopy roofs extend even further – approximately 230 Ft above the manufacturing floor.

?

Another concern to be addressed was the arc furnace process itself, often catapulting liquid metal and shrapnel upward and outward, where it inevitably lands on the roofs. The very roofs that needed remediation. The ejected material remains on the roof as it smolders and experiences physical and chemical changes. Having been on the receiving end of the charged material for years, the sheet metal canopy structures directly above the furnaces were in need of an industry-appropriate remediation. Part of the scope of work required a watertight envelope with a Class A fire rating.

The final challenge to be met was the angles of the canopy roofs themselves. At 230 Ft. in the air, Thermal-Tec crews would be battling high winds as well as installation on steep angles that couldn’t be walked on. The use of specialized scaffolding had to be employed and built up around the entire structure to safely reach the areas needing remediation.

The Solution

Having worked with businesses in aggressive manufacturing environments for 40 years, Thermal-Tec understood what they were up against and how they could help. The job would be completed in four weeks. A host of things needed to happen to effectively contain the emissions once and for all. The first thing was a round of specialty contractor safety training that was required before Thermal-Tec crews could perform the work. The next was to coordinate with the client to arrange a safe window of time to schedule when the arc furnaces could be paused to prevent any discharged material from being ejected onto the roof while crews were performing work.

The project began with safety meetings to establish protocols that included safe entrance and exit points to be utilized when crew members accessed the roofs for installation. Moreover, daily safety meetings would take place before anyone stepped onto the roof. Thermal-Tec worked with company engineers to provide the required scaffolding that resembled an exterior lattice structure. This ensured crew members safe, 360-degree access around each canopy-style roof.100% tie-off protocol is a consistent standard for all Thermal-Tec projects and was an absolute necessity as they worked to install the MR Multi-Ply Roof? System over the entirety of the canopies.

The structures’ metal panels and seams needed to be re-covered and sealed with Thermal-Tec’s MR Multi-Ply Roof? System. In fact, Thermal-Tec double-plied their roof system for maximum strength and stability effectively creating between 80,000 – 100,000 pounds of additional tensile strength to the canopies. The crews worked in tandem with client personnel as they removed and replaced mechanical obstacles to achieve complete monolithic coverage. This would ensure the succession of any fugitive emissions trying to leave the canopy features.

Job Well Done

Over the past 40 years Thermal-Tec has helped hundreds of manufacturing companies in a wide variety of industries to meet the demands of their aggressive environments. Commercial roofing has always been a rewarding business, according to Siterlet. At the same time, the company takes great pride in knowing its flagship, multi-layered roofing system is one of the only products 100% made in the USA while holding a class A fire rating and doesn’t have to be torn off. The entire system is renewable, giving businesses the option to continually protect their roof systems for generations. In this way, the Thermal-Tec team is thankful to have the opportunity to act as environmental stewards in pushing the boundaries of renewable, reusable roofing solutions designed for heavy industries with aggressive environments.??