KCC MMK celebrates its 30th anniversary

The transition from open-hearth to oxygen-converter steelmaking was an important milestone in the history of MMK. The decision to build and commission the first stage of the BCC with a capacity of 5 million tons of steel per year, followed by the commissioning of the second stage with a total capacity of 9 million tons of steel per year, was made by a joint Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR Council of Ministers in 1985. In January 1986, the construction of the BCC on Magnitka was declared an All-Union Komsomol construction site, and already in April of the same year, the first concrete was laid in the shop's foundation. Installation of the first converter began in 1988. The construction of this large-scale production facility was carried out at an accelerated pace. On August 27, 1990, the lining of the first converter was completed, and on November 2, a shop consisting of converter # 1, a steel finishing unit, a continuous casting machine # 1 and a department for preparing cast slabs was put into operation. The estimated cost of the 1st stage of the workshop was 737 million rubles, including 400 million rubles - construction and installation work. The second converter and CCM No. 2,3,4 were built by 1994. By this time, the first stage of the rather intense development of the technology of converter melting and continuous casting of steel was completed. In 1999, the third converter was put into operation at KKTs. Today KKTs is the main steelmaking division of MMK, in which about 80 percent of all steel of PJSC MMK is smelted. The BCC includes a batch preparation section, a converter section consisting of three high-performance 370-ton converters with top blowing and iron desulfurization units, a continuous steel casting unit from five continuous casting machines and an out-of-furnace steel processing unit, which includes two steel vacuum treatment units, two units A ladle furnace, two steel finishing units, an electric arc heating unit for steel, and a steel blending unit. The existing equipment of the KKTs PJSC "MMK" has a maximum utilization of production capacities and allows to produce a wide range of brands. Last year, the shop produced 9,859 thousand tons of steel, and in its 30-year history, the oxygen-converter shop produced about 235 million tons. Steel produced by the Magnitogorsk Steel Works can be found in the pipes of the largest oil and gas pipelines, in the bodies of modern cars, and in the hulls of modern sea and river vessels. In recent years, the oxygen converter shop of PJSC MMK has been developing in the direction of improving technology and mastering the production of new grades of steel. In 2016, a large energy-efficient project for the modernization of control systems for smoke exhauster motors was implemented at KKC - its cost was about 400 million rubles, and the annual economic effect was more than 100 million rubles. As part of the modernization, a set of measures was carried out to save energy and increase the efficiency of energy resources use on the drive motors of smoke exhausters of the converter gas utilization system. In 2020, MMK embarked on a project to reconstruct a complex of gas cleaning units to capture fugitive (secondary) emissions from the converter department of the BOF. The main task of the project for the reconstruction of dust and gas collecting installations and gas exhaust ducts of converters No. 1, 2, 3 and the overflow section of cast iron of the KKTs is to reduce the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere and into the working space of the converter department of the KKTs to standard values ​​due to more efficient collection and cleaning of flue gases generated when pouring cast iron from a mixer into a ladle, pouring cast iron into a converter and blowing a smelt. As part of the project, in February 2020, a contract was signed with Primetals Technologies Austria GmbH for the supply of basic engineering and equipment for the reconstruction of a complex of gas cleaning units of the converter department of the BCC. The total cost of the project will be about 2.5 billion rubles. The project is scheduled to be completed by June 2022. Gross dust emissions of the BCC after the project implementation will be reduced by at least 500 tons per year. The reconstruction of the CCGT converter department is not the only environmental measure at the BCC of PJSC MMK. In the near future, the plant plans to start the reconstruction of dust and gas trapping units and gas exhaust ducts of the units of the secondary steel processing section (UWOS) of the oxygen converter shop. This will ensure more efficient capture, cooling, transportation and purification of the entire volume of gases generated during the operation of ladle furnaces, electric arc heating units, steel finishing units and vacuum degassers. In addition, the plans of the management of PJSC MMK include construction in the oxygen-converter shop of the new evacuator, which will allow for serial casting of evacuated car body metal at CCM # 4 of the KKTs. Also, in order to reduce the cost of steel production and improve product quality, the possibility of introducing bottom blowing converters at the BCC is being considered.