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- NLMK achieves zero wastewater discharge, stops all effluents into the Voronezh River
NLMK achieves zero wastewater discharge, stops all effluents into the Voronezh River
NLMK has eliminated all domestic-type effluents into the Voronezh River from the site’s showers, laundries, canteens and other amenities. NLMK is the first company in Russia to reuse treated domestic wastewater for steel production.
The site’s industrial effluents have not been discharged into the Voronezh River since over 15 years. Treated industrial effluents are returned into the closed-loop water supply system. Such reuse has already enabled a 5-time reduction of water intake from the Voronezh River. With the reuse of domestic wastewater, the consumption of fresh river water will decrease by another 6.5 million cubic metres per year.
The treatment before reuse in the technical water supply system is carried out is stages. Domestic wastewater enters the collector, undergoes settling, which includes mechanical purification and clarification as the heavy impurities settle out, followed by the biological treatment that makes use of specific microorganisms, and finally the UV disinfection and an additional purification stage.
In addition to NLMK’s effluents, the system will process municipal sewerage from the Levoberezhny District of Lipetsk. The project will cut the city’s municipal effluents by 15% and NLMK’s closed-loop system will be reusing the local residential wastewater in addition to the site’s own secondary resources. The integration required laying of 12 km of pipelines and installing two additional pumping stations.
NLMK Group is a global steelmaker leader in water efficiency. The Group’s sites operate 80 closed-loop water supply systems, and the share of recycled water supply is consistently above 97%, with cascading reuse of wastewater following treatment. The remaining 2,5% is lost to evaporation and made up with fresh intake.
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