10 years ago this holiday was founded in Ukraine and it is celebrated on the third Saturday of April. On the eve of this holiday a delegation of Zaporizhstal workers headed by our main ecologist, Nikolai M. Silin, returned to the Works from Kiev. There they had to participate in two important events: International exhibition-fair “Ecology-2008”, organized by the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Ministries of Environment Protection and emergency cases and protection of the population from the after-effect of the Chernobyl accident; and the Third International Conference on the aspects of industrial waste handling and consumption, the organizers of which, besides the corresponding Ecological Ministry, were also the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the social organization “Zhivaya priroda”.
Nikolay Silin, during the opening of the exhibition, addressed the audience with a sensational statement, which appeared in many publications. He informed about the decision of the Works, in the framework of the complex programme on production modernization and transfer from the open-hearth furnace production to the converter production, to reduce emissions of harmful substances into atmosphere from 17.4 kg to 9 kg per 1 ton of steel, i.e. approximately 2 times. It’s quite natural that it was hard to ignore such news. The main points of Nikolai Silin’s speech regarding the environmental protection work carried out at the Works were also mentioned in the publications. Especially he stated that emissions of harmful substances into atmosphere at Zaporizhstal in 2007 reduced by 1000 tons in comparison with 2006. At the same time the production of steel increased. Dust emissions among the total volume of emissions occupies 8-10%, the rest is gaseous emission.
The largest environmental protection installation has been put into operation in the sintering plant, i.e. the aspiration unit from the tail parts of the sintering machines Nos. 1-6 and the places where sinter is loaded into hoppers. This complex of equipment includes 2 electric precipitators, air pipelines with contaminated and pure gas, equipment for preparation and removal of caught gas. Electric precipitators are capable of cleaning 800 thousand m3 per hour of dusty air, catch and return to production approximately 2.5 thousand tons per year of iron containing dust, which totals to 25% of dust emissions at the Works.
– It can be said with confidence, stated N. Silin, — that the ecological situation in the city is improving. Last year we invested more than 300 million UAH into ecological protection measures. The project regarding introduction of the hydrochloric acid pickling line in the rolling production, in which the pickling solutions will be in a closed cycle, is in the stage of realization. The introduction of this technology will permit to exclude discharge of drainage water into the Dnieper River.
It should be noted that at this exhibition Zaporizhstal workers are old-timers. Though, this time their colleagues from Krivoy Rog kept Zaporizhstal company. The visitors were highly interested in the developments of the Works on sinter gas cleaning with the help of electric precipitators. Zaporozhstal workers thoroughly described the work of the precipitators, exchanged operation experience, the possibility of using caught dust during the process of production, reliability of work and convenience in operation.
Many were interested in the achievements of the Works in the field of water basin protection. Down South from us is the Black Sea, which does not want to become “black” due to industrial drainage water. Zaporizhstal will not allow such a thing to happen. The visitors found out about our recycling systems and return of caught slime to production.
It’s quite natural that the highlight of the exposition became the decision to sign a contract on construction of the oxygen-converter shop with the well known Austrian firm. Anybody who wished could find out what the region gained in the field of environmental protection, and also find out what the mentioned 300 million UAH were spent on last year in respect of environmental protection. Life makes it necessary to pay more attention to the problem of handling of waste not only in our country but in the world too. The West has been working in the field of resource saving for a long time. At the last conference great attention was paid to the report of Roman Kiryanov. Waste should not only be stored but used too. Dumps are growing like metastasis becoming a problem of national security. If it is to be taken into consideration that the Zaporozhye region is an industrial one, then for us it is an extremely important problem.
The report of the specialist from Zaporozhye caused extensive discussion. Instead of the planned 20 minutes discussions went on for an hour. For colleagues from other cities this became a good motive for communication in the framework of legislation, normative acts and laws, technological and practical problems. Representatives of the Ilyich Works actively supported Zaporizhstal workers. Mariupol is facing similar problems…