NLMK Group, an international steel company with facilities in Russia, Europe and the USA, boosted its spending on environmental projects and initiatives by 12% in 2016, to RUB 7.05 billion.
The majority of funds were used for projects and initiatives to improve air quality. For example, NLMK Lipetsk upgraded gas cleaning systems at the refractory shop and sintering plant; and installed a new dedusting system for blast furnace No. 4. As a result of these efforts, the Lipetsk Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Agency did not record a single breach of the acceptable dust level during 2016.
NLMK Group’s other facilities used their allocated funds to finance projects aimed at reclamation of former landfill sites, construction of sewage treatment plants and noise pollution reduction initiatives, among others.
Galina Khristoforova, NLMK Group Director for the Environment, said: “We adopt new technologies and solutions in an effort to reduce our environmental footprint. Major investment in hundreds of environmental projects and initiatives over the past five years, totaling close to RUB 26 billion, has delivered a significant boost to the company’s environmental performance. The company has ramped up its steel output by almost 50% during this period, while specific emissions have been reduced by 25%.”
NLMK Group’s specific emissions have been cut by 45% over the past decade, to approach the level of best available technology of 18.9 kg per ton of steel.
Projects designed to reduce air emissions are underway across NLMK Group. NLMK Lipetsk, for example, has more than 4000 state-of-the-art gas-cleaning units that capture more than 98% of dust for recycling back into production.
A new pelletizing plant was put into operation at Stoilensky in 2016, featuring a gas-cleaning system that captures 98% of emissions and returns them to the process flow. NLMK Ural’s facilities completed a number of initiatives in 2016 to establish a sanitary protection zone.
Most of the companies that make up NLMK Group, such as NLMK Lipetsk, Altai-Koks, VIZ-Steel, NLMK Kaluga and Stoilensky, employ state-of-the-art closed loop supply systems for their process of water. These systems delivered a 2% reduction in specific water consumption across the group to 4.8 cubic meters per ton in 2016, while this figure has been brought down by 63% over the past decade. This is far superior to the best available technology level, which stands at 7 cubic meters per ton/t. Specific discharges into water also dropped by more than 6%, to 1.38 kg per ton of steel in 2016. A wastewater treatment plant was built at an NLMK Ural facility in 2016 to eliminate wastewater run-off.
NLMK Group’s recycling rate has increased to 14.5%, while total waste output dropped by 5.4% YoY. This is largely overburden rock and beneficiation tailings from Stoilensky, which are not generally viewed as waste elsewhere in the world. NLMK Group uses production waste efficiently, with more than 75% recycled. NLMK Lipetsk reduced accumulated waste by 2.8 million tons over the past ten years, including through recycling of the slag dump. VIZ-Steel has recovered 4.1 ha of land thanks to the reclamation of the Lesnoy landfill. (NLMK/Ukrainian metal)