On the eve of Metallurgist's Day, Pavel Shilyaev, CEO of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) briefed Alexey Teksler, Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, on the implementation of several investment projects at MMK.

One of them is the reconstruction of the gas-cleaning plant complex for capturing secondary emissions at the oxygen-converter shop.

With an annual capacity of over 10 million tonnes of steel per year, MMK's oxygen-converter shop is one of the most powerful of its kind in the world. It was commissioned in 1990. The main task of the reconstruction project at the dust and gas collecting units and gas exhaust ducts of converters No.1, 2, 3 and cast-iron overflow unit is to reduce emissions into the atmosphere and into the oxygen converter shop’s working space through more efficient collection and cleaning of flue gases generated during iron transfer from mixer to ladle, iron pouring into the converter and smelting blowdown.

Within the framework of project’s realisation, in February 2020, Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH (Austria) was contracted to supply basic engineering and equipment for the reconstruction of the gas cleaning units at the oxygen converter shop. The construction cost is RUB 3.5 billion.

As a result of the reconstruction of the dust and gas collecting units, the efficiency of dust and gas treatment will increase and emissions from the converters will be completely eliminated in all operating modes. As a result, the negative impact on the environment will be minimised. Gross dust emissions from the oxygen converter shop will be reduced by at least 500 tonnes per year.

An equally important environmental project is being implemented in the electric steelmaking shop. By May 2022, a new gas-cleaning unit will be built for arc electric steelmaking furnace No. 1, with a capacity of 2,400,000 mS/h. The project will reduce dust emissions by 300 tonnes per year. The construction costs RUB 2.7 billion.

A real breakthrough for Magnitogorsk's blast furnace production will be the construction of blast furnace No. 11. MMK and Paul Wurth (Luxembourg), a subsidiary of SMS GmbH Group, signed a contract at the end of June to implement this investment project. The project will be implemented over 3 and a half years. The cost of constructing blast furnace No.11 will be RUB 61.3 billion.

The working volume of the new blast furnace will be 3.8 thousand cubic metres and its capacity will be 3.7 million tonnes of pig iron per year. The new blast furnace will be built using the world's best technology.

The use of advanced technologies and cutting-edge equipment designed for environmental protection at the blast furance, as well as the decommissioning of obsolete furnaces, will enable MMK to reduce atmospheric emissions of harmful substances by 6.6 thousand tonnes per year and ÑÎ2 emissions by 1.1 million tonnes per year on this project alone.

Alexey Teksler also inspected the progress of the new PVES-3 recycling unit investment project. MMK signed a contract with ZDAS a.s. (Czech Republic) for the construction of a combined heat and power plant.

The recycling unit is designed to provide air blast for the new blast furnace No. 11, recover up to 500,000m3/h of blast furnace gas and generate up to 100MW of electric power.

This project started in May 2021 and construction work is scheduled to start in December 2021. The implementation of the project will take three years, with the first facilities of PVES-3 scheduled to be launched in January-February 2024. The construction cost is RUB 21.6 billion.

Due to the development of MMK's facilities, there is also a need to increase capacity to produce air separation products. In the next three years, a new oxygen unit will be built at MMK’s oxygen plant. The unit manufactured by Hangzhou Oxygen Plant Group (PRC) can produce 60,000 cubic metres of oxygen and 60,000 cubic metres of gaseous nitrogen, as well as 2,000 cubic metres of argon per hour for MMK's needs. The air separation unit is to be built by November 2023; the oxygen storage system is to be completed by June 2024. The construction cost is RUB 18.9 billion.