MMK implements major environmental project in steelmaking

The construction of the new plant will double the gas cleaning capacity (up to 4.6 million cubic metres per hour) and completely eliminate visible emissions. The air will be cleaned to a concentration of less than ten milligrams per cubic metre, which corresponds to the best available technology in the world. The environmental effect after the implementation of the project will contribute to a reduction of 300 tonnes of harmful emissions per year. Completion of the full cycle of construction and installation work and commissioning of the new equipment is scheduled for mid-2022.

The project, implemented jointly with Italian firm Danieli, which supplies contract equipment, started in 2020. The general contractor is Prokatmontazh JSC. Currently, all design and preparatory work has been completed on the reconstruction of the dust and gas collecting units of arc steelmaking furnaces No. 1 and 2. The first stage of the project, which includes dismantling old equipment and installing new dust-cleaning and dust collection systems, is in full swing.

This is not the first environmental project at MMK's arc-furnace shop. In 2017, two obsolete wet-type gas scrubbers No. 32 and No. 33 were replaced with modern dry-type scrubbers designed to capture, cool and clean flue gases generated by the operation of the twin-furnace steelmaking unit No. 32, as well as fugitive emissions that had previously not entered the gas exhaust duct.

The modernisation of existing and construction of new environmental protection facilities is an important part of MMK's environmental programme, which is implemented as part of the Company's Clean City strategic initiative. The aim of the measures taken is to introduce the best available technologies to reduce the plant’s harmful impact on the environment and to ensure the environmental safety of technological processes.