The Ukrainian mining and steel producing group Metinvest has stated that it has signed a contract with Italy's Termokimik Corporation, a leading producer of environmental equipment for industrial companies, to develop the basic engineering to upgrade the sinter plant at its subsidiary Ilyich Iron & Steel Works of Mariupol (MMKI). Total investment in the project will amount to about $220 million.
The project to reconstruct the gas cleaning system at MMKI's sinter plant includes the replacement of existing equipment with state-of-the-art equipment to clean gas from dust to the maximum possible degree. Plants for cleaning sinter gas from sulfur oxide will also be built at the enterprise. The first phase of the project involves basic engineering and design, with manufacturing and installation of the equipment to begin in 2015.
The completion of all of the reconstruction phases is scheduled for 2020. As the project continues, the sinter plant will reach best international environmental standards for emissions treatment. Emissions of dust and sulfur oxide from the sintering zone will decrease by 85 percent and 30 percent, respectively, and emissions of dust from the cooling zone will decline by 90 percent.