On May 26, 2021, at Zaporizhstal of Metinvest Group, a visiting session of the environmental committee of Zaporizhzhya Regional Council was held with the representatives of the relevant departments of the city and regional councils, as well as the regional laboratory centre of the Ministry of Health. The functionality of the online monitoring system at the enterprise was demonstrated to the representatives of the regional authorities and the deputy corps, they were familiarized with the environmental modernization facilities and informed the status of the memorandum of cooperation between Zaporizhstal and Zaporizhzhya Regional State Administration aimed at improving the environmental situation in the region.
“Zaporizhstal undertook an additional obligation to provide the public with the data on online emissions monitoring, fixing this step in environmental memorandums with the region and the city. Today the enterprise is one of the first to fulfil this requirement. There is another project from the memorandum in the finishing straight – equipping the tail parts of sintering machines with an additional dedusting system. In 2022, Zaporizhstal will start a major overhaul of blast furnace No. 5, which will be completed with a new dedusting system. For Zaporizhstal and Metinvest, it is extremely important not to declare, but to confirm by real actions their intentions to reduce the environmental impact on the region,” said Aleksandr Mironenko, General Director of Zaporizhstal.
The head of the mill informed the participants of the meeting about the principles of the automated online monitoring system, which generates data on emissions for making them publicly available. The company’s environmental function specialists accompanied the guests to Zaporizhstal environmental modernization facilities, demonstrating how the environmental equipment and emission control devices work at each modernized unit.
“By providing the data of the online environmental monitoring system in free access for all residents, Zaporizhstal is responding to several challenges. On the one hand, it responds to the public’s request for awareness of the real environmental situation, and on the other hand, it actively modernizes production to reduce the impact on the environment. In Zaporizhzhya, there are only two companies that measure and control the ambient air condition – a meteorological centre and a regional laboratory centre. Having provided access to its data on the air condition, the mill makes it possible to use more reliable and professional information obtained with the latest technologies,” said Igor Chumachenko, head of the standing commission for the environment, subsoil and environmental management of Zaporizhzhya Regional Council.
The members of the environmental commission visited the sinter plant, where each of the six sinter machines is equipped with modern primary dedusting systems. Bag filters at each dedusting plant provide exhaust air cleaning up to 50 mg / m3 for dust and up to 400 mg / m3 for sulphur dioxide. The mill has invested UAH 1.2 billion in the environmental modernization of the sinter plant.
On the example of the dedusting systems of blast furnace No. 3, the guests were shown the operation principle of treatment facilities at Zaporizhstal’s blast furnaces, providing dust cleaning up to 20 mg / m3. At the mill, three of the four blast furnaces were reconstructed, including the dedusting systems. For these purposes, the mill has allocated more than UAH 4 billion.
Since 2012, Zaporizhstal has invested more than UAH 15 billion in environmental modernization. In addition to the new gas cleaning units of the sinter plant, blast furnaces No. 2, 3, 4 were reconstructed and equipped with modern dedusting systems. An environmentally friendly hydrochloric acid pickling line was built, which made it possible to eliminate the discharge from the cold rolling shop No. 1 in the Dnieper River and sulphuric acid vapours into the atmosphere.
Metinvest Group is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2021. Metinvest is an international vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. It comprises steel and mining enterprises in Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S., as well as a sales network in all key global regions. The company controls the entire production chain from the mining of ore and coal to the production of semi-finished and finished products. Since 2012, Metinvest Group enterprises have reduced their emissions by one-third. Over the past ten years, the Group has invested $ 344 million in envi-ronmental projects, and by 2025 another $ 413 million will be invested in them.