UrBC, Yekaterinburg, July 28, 2016. EVRAZ Holding’s Nizhniy Tagil Integrated Metallurgical Works (NTMK) completed the construction and installation of a benzene top-filling unit at its coke and by-product process department and is now working on startup and commissioning.

The new equipment is expected to reduce benzene emissions and enhance overall production efficiency, the company press service reports.

The upgrades cost 75m RUR and took ten months to complete.

‘The new top-filling unit is to be used for leakproof discharge of benzene into tanks that will be dispatched to EVRAZ Holding’s West-Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works without any additional treatment. This Russian equipment is very durable, allows for remote control of the loading process, and ensures workers’ safety and better working conditions,’ the press service says.

EVRAZ NTMK makes some 24,000,000 kg of raw benzene a year; the stuff is used to produce refined benzene, toluene, and xylene. Xylene is used in the paint and coating industry to make paints and thinning agents, toluene is used in the mining industry to make explosives, and refined benzene is used in the chemical industry to make synthetic materials and plastics.