NLMK Group Launches New By-Product Fuelled Facility

NLMK Group, a global steel company, a Metal-Expo regular exhibitor, has started hot testing at its briquetting plant, a facility to manufacture metallurgical briquettes for use in blast furnace operations. The project will enable the production of feedstock from blast furnace by-products, and the recycling of previously accumulated waste.

The production technology is NLMK’s in-house development. It was conceptualized by Ivan Kurunov, an honorary steelmaker of Russia, professor and former chief blast furnace operator at NLMK Lipetsk, who tragically died in 2017. He supervised the design of the plant. The new production facility has a total capacity of 700,000 tonnes of briquettes per year.

Briquettes are produced from Fe-containing waste, generated during blast furnace gas treatment, and coke and coal dust recovery. The technology is based on an environmentally friendly roasting-free pressing method. The resulting briquettes will be used as feedstock for hot metal production and will partially substitute primary iron ore and coal raw materials.

Grigory Fedorishin, NLMK Group President and CEO, said:

“The company has invested more than $1 bn in environmental projects since 2000. This enabled us to cut specific emissions by over 50% while growing production by 60%. We have achieved the best available technology (BAT) level in Russia, and we now review all of our upgrade and new construction projects from the BAT perspective. The briquetting plant is also based on the BAT and is a great example of environmentally friendly resource-saving operations that contributes to boosting our efficiency at the same time."

The new facility was equipped with a high-efficiency dedusting and gas treatment system that will prevent dusting when handling dry materials, and bring the level of air purification in line with best available technologies.

Investment in the project totalled RUB 3 bn. The project created around 200 new jobs at NLMK.