NLMK Group, an international steel producer with operations in Russia, Europe and the USA, has put Blast Furnace No.6 (BF-6) back into operation after a scheduled overhaul at the Group’s main production site in Lipetsk.

The overhaul enables uninterrupted operation of the blast furnace and excellent product quality for the long term. It also increases the maximum output of the furnace by 7%, from 2.9 million to 3.1 million tonnes per year.

Additionally, a new gas treatment system has been introduced at BF-6, which provides a five-fold increase in the efficiency of blast furnace gas treatment. The overpressure produced by blast furnace gas is to be utilized by the top-pressure recovery turbine, a ’green‘ energy generating facility with a 14MW capacity.

Sergey Filatov, Novolipetsk Managing Director, said:

“The successful completion of the overhaul of Blast Furnace No.6 and the early achievement of its performance targets will help NLMK Group’s Novolipetsk to increase the efficiency of blast furnace operations. Our goal is to reach new productivity milestones while cutting costs.”

The overhaul of Blast Furnace No.6 began in August 2016 and involved 11 contracting agencies and 15 corporate business units. The 33-day overhaul included installation of new components in the cooling system; the introduction of the most advanced blast furnace control technologies; and partial replacement of the furnace shell. More than 550 tonnes of steel structures and 20 km of cables were replaced, along with components of the dust collector and charging device.

A drop in hot metal output during the overhaul did not affect Novolipetsk’s production schedule as the scheduled shutdown of the furnace was performed during maintenance of steelmaking operations.

In addition to Blast Furnace No.6, Novolipetsk operates four other blast furnaces: BF-3 (1.6 million tpa), BF-4 (2million tpa), BF-5 (2.9 million tpa) and BF-7 (4.2 million tpa). Blast Furnace No.7, commissioned in 2011, is one of the most productive blast furnaces in the world.