Sabre Industries, Inc. Galvanizing Plant Development, Alvarado, Texas 2010
The Property consists of a 42,239 square foot galvanizing facility on 15.57 contiguous acres of land. This facility is one of the largest and most efficient hot-dip galvanizing plants in North America. The galvanizing plant provides steel fabricators with a high capacity, state of-the-art, and environmentally friendly facility that yields outstanding finished galvanized products.
Eco-Friendly Galvanizing
In contrast to its peers, the Property has uniquely placed environmental safety as its top priority in every step of the galvanizing process. Based upon the Property’s environmental standards, the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued the Property an operating permit by rule. The galvanizing plant strictly adheres to these standards, keeping HCL (hydrochloric acid) fumes and particulate matter under 5 ppm (parts per million), with zero acid waste disposal. In addition, the Property preheats steel with waste heat to conserve energy and reduce COÇ emissions, and recycles and regenerates pretreatment materials to provide zero hazardous waste generation. The non-hazardous dry waste material is collected and sold to fertilizer companies to be recycled.
Sabre’s pretreatment area has also been designed to be environmentally friendly. The entire pretreatment area, which consists of 5 acid tanks (each holding 47,000 gallons), 2 water tanks and 1 zinc ammonium chloride flux tank, is housed in a negative pressure enclosure. This prevents dangerous hydrochloric acid fumes from reaching the atmosphere.
Unlike existing galvanizing facilities, the remaining acid is then recycled, rather than hauled to waste facilities or dumped into the ground. Recycling the acid is not only environmentally safe, but also financially sound, as it eliminates the high disposal and hauling expenses incurred by other facilities.
The Sabre Galvanizing plant houses one of the world’s largest operating kettles. With 20 ton lifting capacity, the Property can easily galvanize the largest steel fabrications. Sabre’s kettle measures 65’ long x 11’ deep x 9’ wide and contains approximately 6,435 CF of molten zinc weighing almost 2.6 million pounds, while most of the galvanizers in Sabre’s immediate area have an estimated kettle size of 2,550 CF or less. Furthermore, Sabre’s kettle holds almost three times more zinc and can process steel up to three times faster than its peers. This provides for greater heat sink and substantially reduces the need for “double-dipping,” an expensive yet common practice that requires an additional handling step and increases the risk of distortion. In addition, the Property’s drier/preheater (one of the largest in the world) greatly reduces the cost of utilities, improves quality, and increases production.
