WCA November 2018

From the Americas The response was that, under the provisions of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the US was unfortunately unable to share the reasoning behind its decisions on steel and aluminium imports.  Mr Darabshaw pointed out that the USA has more use for the World Trade Organization in some circumstances than in others. In March of this year, it appealed to the WTO to challenge India’s export subsidies, arguing that these programmes give Indian companies an unfair competitive advantage that harms American workers. The waste gases generated in a Belgian steel plant will be used to produce an eco-friendly transport fuel About 40 per cent of the carbon used in steelmaking exits as carbon monoxide (CO) gas. Generated in blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces, the waste gas is either flared or used to produce electricity for steel mills. In either case, the CO is burned and CO 2 is emitted. According to CORDIS (the Community Research and Development Information Service), the European Commission’s primary public repository, an innovative process developed in the EU-funded Steelanol project has demonstrated a new, greener use for steel waste gases. CORDIS disseminates information on all EU-funded research projects and their results. As reviewed in Phys.Org (“New, Greener Prospects For Steel Waste Gases,” 9 th August), the project, coordinated by steel and mining company ArcelorMittal Belgium, has shown that these gases can be recycled and fermented to produce bioethanol, a fuel used as an eco-friendly petrol substitute. It is expected to be used mainly in petrol blending, but also to produce such products as jet fuel. In a pioneering gas fermentation process, anaerobic bacteria feed on the CO in steel waste gases to produce bioethanol. The process reportedly has no impact on water, food, land use, or biodiversity. The environmental benefits derived from recycling waste streams are significant. Reduced emissions at source lead to a smaller direct carbon footprint for steel mills. Beyond that, producing fuel but not from oil keeps fossil fuels in the ground. The new facilities are being built at the ArcelorMittal site in Ghent, Belgium. Gases produced from the blast furnace in the Ghent steel plant will be used to make bioethanol in what will be Europe’s first-ever commercial-scale production facility. If successful, the project could open the way to significant reductions in the steel industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.  Phys.Org noted that, currently, about a quarter of the global manufacturing sector’s CO 2 emissions are generated by the iron and steel industry. Every metric ton (mt) of bioethanol produced in the new plant is

expected to supplant approximately 219 gallons of petrol and reduce ArcelorMittal’s CO 2 emissions by 2.3mt. Once completed, the Ghent facilities are expected to produce around 21 million gallons of bioethanol annually. According to Phys.Org , the greenhouse gas impact of this production is believed to be more than 65 per cent lower than that of oil-derived fuels. It can be equated with putting 100,000 electric cars on the road each year. Bioethanol production at Ghent is expected to start by 2020. The gas conversion technology was developed by carbon recycling company LanzaTech (New Zealand), a project partner. Older employees are found likelier to follow company cybersecurity policies than younger ones As reported by Alison DeNisco Rayome of Tech Republic (1 st August), the Ponemon Institute has found that negligent insider actions caused 64 per cent of all insider cybersecurity threat incidents over the past year. Ponemon Institute (Traverse City, Michigan) conducts independent research on privacy, data protection, and information security policy. Ponemon’s “2018 Cost of Insider Threats: Global Organizations” asserts that, since 2016, the average number of incidents involving employee or contractor negligence increased by 25 per cent. The cost to contain an incident in North America rose to $11.01 million, and the risk posed by such threats will only grow greater by the year. Of equal interest was a report from ObserveIT , also noted by Ms Rayome, that correlates an insider threat and the age of a given employee. According to the New York-based insider threat management software provider, Generation X and Baby Boomers were the least risky cohorts within the workplace, with 90 per cent of 45 to 54-year-olds and 55 to 64-year-olds saying that they follow their companies’ cybersecurity policies. Meanwhile, Generation Z (those born after 1995) was found to pose the highest cybersecurity risk to organisations, with 34 per cent of 18 to 24-year-old respondents saying that they either do not know or do not understand what is included in their companies’ cybersecurity policies. This group was also reported to be the most likely not to follow a company’s security policies, even when well understood. To ObserveIT CEO Mike McKee, the company’s latest research demonstrates that, when it comes to Cybersecurity

46

Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2018

www.read-wca.com