Nornickel completes gas duct assembly at Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant’s main shop as part of Sulphur Programme

The Company has completed installation of a titanium gas duct in the main shop of Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant as part of the Sulphur Programme, Nornickel’s key environmental project to implement sulphur dioxide capture and recovery technologies. The largest piece of the assembly is as big as four metres in diameter. The gas duct is a key process chain element for the future production of sulphuric acid from gases generated during ore concentration.
The system of titanium gas ducts weighing more than 75 tonnes will occupy most of the shop’s area and will cover nearly all stages of the gas conversion into sulphuric acid.
The process chain involving the gas duct will have several stages. First, the gas from the furnaces will be pumped through a stainless steel pipe to the cooling tower to cool down to 60 C. Then it will go to the evaporative cooling tower through a fiberglass pipeline to cool down further to 40 C. At the tower’s outlet, the gas will get into to the titanium gas duct and then to the wet electrostatic precipitators for further treatment. After that, the gas duct will take it further to the mixing tower to be mixed with oxygen, and then to the drying towers for the final dehumidification followed by a chemical reaction with the catalyst in the catalytic converter and with the absorbent in the absorbing towers. From there, the end product (the sulphuric acid) will be fed to a special tank.
Assembly and installation of metal structures and concrete works on the main acid plant’s site are more than 90% complete, and the equipment installation progress is now at 75%.
Along with these works, the Company is putting in place piping for heat exchangers of pumps, utility networks, recycled water mains, with gas duct works also underway. Installation of tanks is continuing, with catalytic converters assembled and welded and the installation of all the nine towers of the drying and absorption sections nearing completion.
Two years into construction, the Sulphur Programme at Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant is entering its final phase. Installation of metal structures is almost 80% complete, and the concrete works progress is close to 100%. The project has involved some 3,500 people and more than 350 units of machinery and equipment.
It is less than a year until the launch of the sulphuric acid production at Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant, where it will secure a 45% reduction of sulphur dioxide emissions. With the project’s completion at Copper Plant, the Company’s sulphur dioxide emissions are expected to be reduced by up to 90% in total.

Vladimir Malakhov, Rough&Polished