Metinvest Group’s Yenakiieve Steel installed a new blast air turbine and compressor unit to provide additional blast air to the plant’s blast furnaces.
“The metallurgical industry is now focused on reducing costs”, said Aleksandr Podkorytov, Yenakiieve Steel general director. “Blast furnace productivity depends a lot on the stability of blast air. This highly effective blast-air generator will allow us to reduce coke consumption, which increases hot metal output and, in turn, raises continuously cast billet production.”
With a capacity of 5500m3 of air per minute, the turbine and compressor unit will be the most powerful of its kind at the plant. It was built by the companies that installed a similar unit at Blast Furnace #3. The equipment will be supplied by ČKD Nové Energo (Czech Republic); the automated process-control unit was made by Siemens (Austria). Civil works were performed by Spetsenergomontazh (Ukraine).
Installation of the unit’s steel structures (platforms, stairs and other facilities) and reconstruction of the electricity supply unit is still in progress. Relevant infrastructure is also under construction, including a recycled water supply system and process-related sewage system. The USD 22.6M project is being implemented as part of Metinvest Group’s initiative to modernise its enterprises, according to its Technological Strategy.