UrBC, Yekaterinburg, June 21, 2018. EVRAZ Holding’s West Siberian Integrated Metallurgical Works launched a new slurry thickening unit meant for processing blast furnaces’ byproducts. Thanks to this new appliance, the plant will be able to cut its manufacturing water discharge and fresh water spending (into and from the River Tom, respectively) by nearly 3,000,000 m3, the holding’s press service reports.

‘The plant keeps working on its green projects in order to reduce its negative impact on the local waters. We managed to decrease our manufacturing water discharge by more than 15m m3 in the last six years alone. Our green program will get implemented through 2022, and we intend to allocate around RUR 1.8bn for the purpose,’ says the plant’s Managing Director Alexei Yuriev.

Prior to the launch of the new equipment, the water that had been used for blast furnace gas cleaning used to get directed to the plant’s slurry pit. Now the water goes to the slurry thickening unit to get the slurry particles separated and dried up. The purified water goes back to production to ensure a full cycle at the blast furnace department. The unit’s capacity is estimated at 500 m2/hour.