One of the most important goals of NLMK Group’s “Environmental Protection Programme 2020” is termination of industrial discharge of all the Group’s companies into water bodies. This goal can be achieved. Specific discharge of NLMK Group companies was reduced practically to zero. The Lipetsk site stopped discharging waste water into the Voronezh River in 2009.

Termination of industrial discharge into water bodies is possible by means of a closed loop water system where the water used in the production process is cleaned and returned into the process cycle.

NLMK Group’s VIZ-Steel in Sverdlovsk Region was the first steel company in the global steelmaking industry to develop and implement a zero waste water system in 1973. Commissioning of the closed loop water system eliminating water discharge into natural water bodies solved the environmental safety issue for the production facility located on the bank of the Verkh-Iset basin, Yekaterinburg’s major source of drinking water.

In 2008, NSMMZ in the city of Beryozovsky launched a rolling shop waste water treatment unit which is still a model eco-friendly approach to the use of water and energy resources.

The rolling shop waste water treatment unit is a complex using the latest developments in the water usage field. The system operates based on the “closed loop cycle” principle: several thousand cubic meters of water circulates inside the system in a circle. The complex consists of two cycles. The water in the first “clean” cycle is not in contact with the products and is used to prevent the rolling shop equipment overheating in the rolling shop. The water in the second “dirty” cycle is used to cool the rolling mill stands and the valves after rolling. The water heated in the two cycles is cleaned, cooled and returned to the system. Purified melt and rain water is also used to make up the closed loop circuits. Such an arrangement allows to eliminate the discharge of industrial effluents into natural water sources.

Novolipetsk Steel completely stopped the discharge of industrial effluents into the Voronezh river in 2009. At the same time its river water consumption was reduced 3 times. The environmental impact is lowered thanks to a major overhaul of the water-supply facilities and the implementation of a new production flow chart.

The project included construction of a new pipeline system and launch of new pump stations, as well as renovation of the existing ones. The measures resulted in the improved quality of industrial waste water, which made it possible to substitute the fresh river water with it for further use.