OREANDA-NEWS. November 12, 2010. Byelorussian Steel Works entered into a contract with Water Group, Finland, for revamping of the dedusting system. This will allow considerable decrease of harmful substances emission into the atmosphere. In order to feel the full scale of this planned ecological “operation”, the journalists were told the details of the signed contract on the spur of the moment in the plant’s conference hall. Anatoli Savianok, general director, said that the contract costs over 5 million euros and in the nearest 5 years about 17 million euros will be invested in the environmental constituent of the enterprise, reported the press-centre of BMZ.

These measures will help to decrease emissions, improve the quality of waste waters. "I would like to understand how important this is", — said an inexperienced journalist who set himself to feel the cogency of this action. Let us analyze how cool it is describing this half-an-hour press conference in the format of the five main questions based on the contract signed.

1. What will the new dedusting unit correspond to?
According to Aliaksandr Sotnikau, BMZ chief engineer, we will get a possibility to automatically control carbon monoxide afterburning, i.e. carbon monoxide will be continuously controlled in the chimney. Besides at present only 2 or 3 companies in the world have an evaporation cooling system similar to the one to be installed.

The new project contains ideas to maximize the efficiency of the use of waste-gas heat and get 20-atmosphere steam pressure to be further used for energy generation. It means that there is a task not only to clean gases from dust but to decrease CO emissions to a considerable extent and minimize the use of natural gas.

2. Will this large-scale ecological reconstruction at BMZ be implemented according to certain patterns used all over the world?

This question was answered by Yevgeny Tyupa, technical director of Agbor Engineering, a Ukrainian company which will propose technical solutions for implementation of the tasks set forth. He assured that an individual project will be furnished for BMZ taking into consideration its electric-arc furnaces because this plant in Zhlobin has a quite different range of products compared with other similar enterprises and, accordingly quite different chemical content in the waste gases. "We are going to include the most advanced systems in this project, ? said Yevgeny Viktorovich. ? They will automatically control the whole process of gas removal and visualize the required information on the control panel".

This Ukrainian company has a large experience of working with big steel-making companies in Russia and Ukraine. The latest project they implemented was at Krivorozhstal integrated works.

3. What financial benefit will BMZ derive from the implementation of this project?
Both the general director and the chief engineer of the plant pointed out that they must not wait for financial efficiency of the environmental project and added that the main profit in this situation is decrease of environmental load. For instance, Buderus, a German company, managed to save about 3,8 cubic meters of gas per year after installation of the new equipment and carbon monoxide emissions dropped by 7 thousand tons. BMZ plans to achieve similar results.

Installation of the new equipment will involve temporary stoppage of the furnace. Taking this into consideration it is planned to combine installation with maintenance and repairs of the production units. To kill two birds with one stone as the proverb says. Introduction of the new technological process will not increase the environmental impact. One of the tasks is to decrease consumption of electric power by 8 — 12%, decrease the duration of melting under current and, consequently, increase the production output by 15 — 20%. This means that it will be possible to combine business with pleasure, if desired, i.e. environment and economy. "Today we make more than 2,5 million tons of steel per year, ? said the general director. ? And after revamping of the first furnace we plan to exceed a three-million boundary.

4. What are the time limits for the project implementation?
Mr. Seppo Makinen, president of Water Group, is sure that the project will be implemented according to the contract by the end of the next year. The process will consist of several stages, the first of which is considered the most important. This is designing where all required equipment and the project itself is determined. Required works will be done by foreign partners with immediate participation of BMZ specialists. Within the next stage it is necessary to purchase and manufacture the required equipment during half a year.

5. Why was the contract signed?
BMZ started to search for a company to implement this environmental project a year and a half ago. At that time BMZ completed investment into the pipe mill. Some time later when the estimated capacity was reached and a certain amount of money was earned, the plant started realization of a new project. Water Group made the most attractive complex proposal to the Byelorussians.