The Russian steelmaking company Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced that it has completed the reconstruction of gas exhaust ducts with a secondary emissions collection and cleaning system at the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) shop No. 1, which accounts for approximately 40 percent of steel output at its main production site in Lipetsk.
Accordingly, the reconstruction in question, undertaken at a cost of Ruble 6.6 billion (about $213 million) within the second stage of NLMK's technical upgrade program, will reduce the environmental impact of Lipetsk's steelmaking facilities by over 50 percent and enable the plant to use the collected gases for in-house power generation.
The reconstruction will play a vital role in allowing the expansion of steelmaking capacities, especially after the expected completion of blast furnace (BF) No. 7, with a 3.4 million mt capacity, which is currently under construction at the Lipetsk site.
From 2009, NLMK has been working on the step-by-step installation of a new aspiration system for its three BOFs.
Since the launch of NLMK's technical upgrade program in 2000, 12 large-scale projects involving highly-efficient environmental protection technologies have already been completed or are currently in progress. The total amount of investments in promoting the ecological program over this period has exceeded Ruble 13 billion (about $420 million). As a result, over the last ten years NLMK's emissions have decreased by 36 percent.
In 2010 NLMK is planning to direct over Ruble 4 billion (about $129 million) towards funding ecological projects at the main production site in Lipetsk.