Nov. 1, 2021 - NLMK Lipetsk has embarked on stove overhauls at Blast Furnace No. 4 with a capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of pig iron per year. The project will enable a 98% reduction in carbon oxide (CO) emissions.

The environmental upgrade will be completed without stopping the blast furnace. The project plan for 2022-2024 is to successively replace three stoves, units that reduce fuel consumption in pig iron production by heating up and supplying oxygen-enriched air into the blast furnace. The design of the new stoves and an improved fuel gas afterburning system will bring the furnace’s environmental performance in line with the best available technologies.

This project is a new stage in boosting the furnace’s sustainability following the completion of capital repairs at the beginning of the year. As part of the upgrade, the furnace was equipped with dedusting systems with a 99.9% purification rate. All the filtered dust is now reintroduced into the production process as ferrous raw material for pig iron manufacturing, and the purified blast furnace gas is used as a secondary energy resource.

Investment in the stove overhaul projects will exceed RUB 6 billion.