As part of the company's environmental strategy in 2015-2020. such large environmental facilities were commissioned as a new sulfur trapping unit No. 2 in the sinter shop, a gas cleaning unit for a twin-tank steel-making unit No. 32 in the electric arc furnace shop, aspiration systems for foundry yards and bunker rooms of blast furnaces No. 1, 2, 9, 10; dividing dam with culverts, which made it possible to switch to a closed circulating water supply system. In addition, it is necessary to note the new sinter plant No. 5, equipped with the most modern environmental facilities: its commissioning made it possible to decommission the outdated sinter plant No. 4. PJSC MMK's total investments in environmental protection during this period amounted to more than 24 billion rubles.
Thanks to the implemented measures, gross air emissions were reduced by 14,850 tons per year, including 8850 tons of dust, 5300 tons of sulfur dioxide and 700 tons of nitrogen oxides. In addition, the discharge of industrial wastewater into the Magnitogorsk reservoir was stopped.
In total, by 2025 it is planned to achieve a halving of gross emissions of pollutants compared to 2000, and specific emissions - three times. This will be facilitated by significant environmental investments in the coming years. Within their framework, it is planned to build a complex of a new coke oven battery No. 12, the start-up of which will allow decommissioning 5 old coke oven batteries and reduce gross emissions by 11 350 tons per year. In addition, in the by-product coke plant, a shop for catching and processing of chemical products and a biochemical plant will be reconstructed, which will increase the efficiency of coke oven gas treatment by 20%, reduce emissions of hydrocarbons from coke production by three times, and will greatly improve wastewater treatment at a biochemical plant.
In addition, a new blast furnace No. 11 will be built, which will allow the decommissioning of three old blast furnaces and thereby reduce gross emissions by 6,600 tons per year; Reconstruction of gas-cleaning plants of the steel-making processing with the utilization of converter gas will be carried out, measures will continue to reclaim disturbed lands, greenery in Magnitogorsk, as well as preserve and increase biodiversity in the Chelyabinsk region. Dust suppression measures are planned. Considerable attention will be paid to the development of the atmospheric air monitoring system, automated control of industrial emissions, industrial environmental control at the border of the sanitary protection zone of PJSC MMK.
According to the director of labor protection, industrial safety and ecology of PJSC MMK Grigory Shchurov, this year alone, the plant's expenses on environmental activities will amount to 9,344 million rubles, of which more than half - 4,872 million rubles - will be directed to the construction and reconstruction of environmental protection facilities for the protection of atmospheric air; the remaining amount will go to the construction and reconstruction of water protection facilities and waste disposal facilities. These indicators are one third higher than the environmental investments of 2020, when the plant allocated 7 billion rubles for environmental protection purposes. Such a significant increase is associated with the construction of environmental facilities at the coke oven battery No. 12 under construction and the reconstruction of gas cleaning units in the electric steel-smelting and oxygen-converter shops.
Information and Public Relations Department of PJSC MMK
