TECHNOLOGIES TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT

Environment is one of priorities for URALCHEM and the enterprises owned by the company. In 2008 Mineral Fertilizer Plant of Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Works (MFP) spent over 600 million roubles in order to protect the environment. In 2009, despite the financial crisis, the company plans to assign 140 million roubles more.

A representative at URALCHEM said reduction of waste is one of the key tasks their enterprises, including MFP, continually address. “We have so far reached success – for the last year we’ve seen the waste significantly reduced. We are now introducing a cutting-edge membrane wastewater treatment technology. In fact, only a limited number of modern plants apply that”.

This concerns substantial modernization of workshop 71 where desalted and chemically purified water is prepared. This is the first step in the long and complicated technological process of mineral fertilizer production. Reconstruction began here in August last year. By now, the enterprise has replaced obsolete equipment and communications and brought steam condensate unit here from another workshop to concentrate equipment used to treat the water in one building. Steam condensate is a by-product in ammonia and complex fertilizer production. Being applied, it has reduced the consumption of river water almost by a quarter. This produced both positive economic and environmental effect. Sewage has considerably reduced. So this is already a closed water circuit which engineers and ecologists seek and stand for.

At the end of 2008 MFP won a prize for the Best Environmental Project of 2008 in the category for Ecological Efficiency of the Economy awarded by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation. The Company’s project was called “A System of Ecologically Effective Investment Solutions, Based on the Application of Membrane Methods for Water Treatment System Reconstruction”. Yuriy P. Trutnev, Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology presented the certificate to Dmitry Osipov, Chief Executive Officer of URALCHEM. Waste disposal from the MFP KCCW, CJSC production site into the Yelkhovka River has decreased by 56% since the project was launched. Additionally, the reconstruction of the water treatment system will make it possible to cease the recycling of highly mineralized drainage at the subsurface refuse disposal by 2012. Expenses associated with the operation of the underground disposal tank will also be reduced once the system is retired.

In April this year Yuriy Trutnev, the Governor of Kirov Region Nikita Belykh and general director of management company URALCHERM Dmitriy Osipov made a working visit to workshop 71 at MFP where the said project is being implemented. The guests saw that the works comply with the schedule, and environmental conditions in the region are under constant control.

Needless to say that Mineral Fertilizer Plant is also developing and implementing other cutting-edge technologies to provide maximum protection to the environment. In 2008 MFP launched projects under Kyoto protocol – global agreement to protect the environment and reduce emission of greenhouse gases. Also, a unit to separate purge gases that evolve during production will significantly decrease consumption of natural gas. Purge gases contain 60% of hydrogen, as well as nitrogen, methane and argon. The unit will be used in order to apply the gases for technological purposes instead of just burning them, and improve environmental conditions. Another project is associated with utilization of low-heating-value steam, which was previously discharged in the air, and now will be applied for internal heating at MFP and to warm up heating water. In general, the plant actively applies cutting-edge technologies to protect the environment.