MMK commissioned the key facility of the new oxygen station No. 6 for 16.5 billion rubles.
The air separation plant was launched in the oxygen workshop of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. It is designed to separate pre-compressed, purified and cooled air into its main components: nitrogen, oxygen and argon. The main consumers of air separation products are blast furnace and oxygen converter workshops.
The air separation unit has also become a new art object of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Photo: MMK.
The general designer of the project is JSC Magnitogorsk GIPROMEZ, the contractor is JSC Rental.
The new air separation plant will provide approximately one fifth of the current oxygen production at the plant (60,000 cubic meters of technical oxygen per hour) and half of the currently produced nitrogen gas.
The launch of the oxygen unit, which is unique in terms of performance and technical equipment, will meet the current and future needs of the MMK Group for air separation products, reduce their cost and improve quality, as well as decommission equipment that has reached its end of life, said Viktor Rashnikov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MMK PJSC.
"Oxygen production will increase by 20%, while electricity consumption for its production will decrease by 7%. We will also be able to obtain mixtures of rare gases for sale to third-party consumers."In terms of its power and efficiency, the complex corresponds to the latest trends in cryogenic technology. The equipment used here has no analogues in the country. In fact, the new VRU is practically an entire plant, the equipment of which is installed in the oxygen workshop, at the MMK thermal power plant, in the workshop of the electric grid and substations of the combine.
The new VRU will increase the production of pure nitrogen by 50% and argon by 150% - up to 60 thousand cubic meters and 2000 cubic meters per hour, respectively. Nitrogen is used in coke dry extinguishing plants used on the new coke oven battery No. 12. This technology, unlike wet extinguishing, is more environmentally friendly and allows the use of secondary resources. Argon will find application in the implementation of the bottom purge converter project in the MMK oxygen converter shop.
The equipment used has no analogues in the country. The VRU complex includes three air compressors with a capacity of 150 thousand cubic meters per hour, as well as three nitrogen compressors, each with a capacity of 30 thousand cubic meters with an average pressure of 30 atmospheres. In addition, the complex includes storage and gasification systems for oxygen and liquid argon.