Environmental problems of metallurgy. Environmental problems of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy and ways to solve them Environmental problems of non-ferrous metallurgy

On July 10, 1976, a terrible disaster occurred in the small Italian town of Seveso. An accident at a local chemical plant producing trichlorophenol released a huge toxic cloud containing more than 2 kg into the air. dioxins are one of the most toxic substances on earth. (This amount of dioxins can kill more than 100 thousand people). The cause of the accident was a failure in the production process, the pressure and temperature in the reactor sharply increased, the explosion-preventing valve operated, and a deadly gas leaked. The leak lasted two to three minutes; the resulting white cloud began to spread to the southeast with the wind and stretched over the city. Then it began to descend and cover the ground with fog. Tiny particles of chemicals fell from the sky like snow, and the air was filled with an acrid, chlorine-like smell. Thousands of people experienced attacks of coughing, nausea, severe pain in the eyes and headaches. The plant management believed that there was only a small release of trichlorophenol, which is a million times less toxic than dioxins (no one imagined that they could be contained there).
Plant managers provided a detailed report on the incident only on July 12. Meanwhile, all this time, unsuspecting people continued to eat vegetables and fruits, as it turned out later, from areas contaminated with dioxins.

The tragic consequences of what happened began to fully manifest themselves on July 14. Hundreds of people who were seriously poisoned ended up in hospitals. The victims' skin became covered with eczema, scars and burns, and they suffered from vomiting and severe headaches. In pregnant women, there has been an extremely high rate of miscarriages. And doctors, relying on the company's information, treated patients for poisoning with trichlorophenol, which is a million times less toxic than dioxins. Mass death of animals began. They received lethal doses of poison much faster than humans due to the fact that they drank rainwater and ate grass, which contained large doses of dioxins. On the same day, a meeting of the mayors of Seveso and nearby Meda was held, at which a priority action plan was adopted. The next day, it was decided to burn all the trees, as well as the fruits and vegetables harvested from the contaminated area.

Only 5 days later, a chemical laboratory in Switzerland found that as a result of the leak, a large amount of dioxins was released into the atmosphere. All local doctors were notified about the contamination of the area with dioxins, and a ban was established on eating foods from the contaminated region.
On July 24, the evacuation of residents from the most contaminated areas began. This area was fenced with barbed wire and police cordons were placed around it. After that, people in protective overalls entered there to destroy the remaining animals and plants. All vegetation in the most contaminated area was burned, and in addition to the 25 thousand dead animals, another 60 thousand were killed. Healthy human existence is still impossible in these areas.

Scientists from the University of Milan conducted a study to study the incidence of cancer in the population of settlements nearby the city of Seveso.
More than 36 thousand people were monitored and a significantly higher incidence of cancer was detected in them. From 1976 to 1986, about 500 people died from cancer in the disaster area. In 1977, 39 cases of congenital deformities were recorded there, which is significantly more than before the disaster.

The largest Hungarian industrial and environmental disaster occurred on October 4, 2010 at an aluminum production plant (Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt) near the city of Ajka (150 km from Budapest). An explosion occurred at the plant, destroying a platform that held a container containing toxic waste. As a result, 1,100,000 cubic meters of highly alkaline red mud leaked. The territories of the regions of Vas, Veszprem and Gyor-Moson-Sopron were flooded. There are 10 known victims of the accident (one more is considered missing); in total, more than 140 people received chemical burns and injuries due to the accident. Most of the local flora and fauna died. Toxic waste has entered many local rivers, significantly affecting their ecosystems.

Chronology of events:

October 4 at 12.25 – dam destruction. Leakage of 1.1 million cubic meters of toxic chemical - red mud.

October 7 – the norm for alkali content in the Danube was exceeded (according to the Hungarian Water Resources Control Service). A threat is created to the entire Danube ecosystem.

October 9 – the evacuation of the population of the affected city of Kolontar begins due to the existing threat of a repeated sludge spill.

October 12 – a decision was made to nationalize the company that owns the plant. All victims will receive compensation. According to monitoring data, the amount of toxic substances in the soil is decreasing, although their level still remains at a dangerous level

Perhaps the most important environmental problem of the Nile River is the overpopulation of the countries located on the river. The life of the population of these countries completely depends on the Nile. Every year people's needs are growing. The river provides the people with water and electricity resources. Many wars in the old days were fought over oil, but in the modern world they can be fought over water. It is the Nile, the great river of the world, which has passed through the history of mankind through its streams, that will find itself at the epicenter of the conflict.

Fresh running water has always nourished life on our planet, but now its value is greater than ever. It is expected that over the next 20 years, the amount of water available to each person will be reduced by three times. We are talking about Egypt. Since Egypt is located downstream from Ethiopia, the issue of rational use of the Nile’s water resources is of a conflicting nature. The situation is extremely serious and Egypt has already announced the possibility of war, referring to Ethiopia.

The Nile in Egypt flows almost all the time through the desert, not counting the narrow strips of green irrigated lands bordering the river on both banks, the entire territory of the country is a homeless desert. In the struggle for survival in this desert, the river plays a key role.

Giant platinums were built upstream of the Nile in order to satisfy the need for electricity, but they also began to delay the flow of the river and ruined the lives of Egyptian peasants. This country used to have some of the best soil in the world, but the construction of dams has disrupted the silt deposition that has naturally enriched the land for many thousands of years. Now the fields are producing an extremely meager harvest.

A direct result of modern dam construction methods was the decline of agriculture in Egypt for the first time in history. The peasants are forced to abandon the way of life that has supported the nation for many thousands of years. As the river approaches the southernmost point of Egypt's border, it becomes difficult not to notice that this people is rapidly modernizing and that tourism is displacing agriculture as the mainstay of the Egyptian economy, while the old way of life is gradually becoming a thing of the past.

The construction of a giant dam in Ethiopia can solve many problems for the population of this poor country, including providing full electricity. If the outcome of this project is positive, it is planned to build several more dams, which in turn will reduce the flow of water resources located downstream in Egypt by approximately half.

Undoubtedly, every country wants to use the priceless wealth of the Nile to the maximum. If a compromise is not found, the future fate of the Nile will be sad. Be that as it may, the river acquired such a specific environmental problem due to population growth, its modernization and increased needs.

It's no secret that metallurgical production does not have a significant impact on the environment. Products from the processing of various types of fuel are released into the atmosphere every day. The environment is poisoned by such dangerous substances as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, dust containing graphite, as well as compounds of light and heavy metals.

According to environmental experts, about 100-150 million tons of sulfur dioxide are released into the atmosphere every year, resulting in the formation of so-called acid rain. This phenomenon causes enormous damage to flora and fauna, damaging various structures and architectural monuments.

Wastewater, saturated with various chemical compounds that are formed during the smelting process of metals, pollute the environment no less than the rest. Water plays an important role in metallurgical production, which is why industrial plants are built in close proximity to water bodies. In addition, special water-storing hydraulic structures are being created.

It is known that 20-50% of food products contain toxic chemicals, nitrates and heavy metals in concentrations that are hazardous to health. All of these factors listed above cause irreparable damage to health population, worsening it and reducing life expectancy. Therefore, maintaining environmental safety is the main goal of the state.

Great possibilities and solution reserves environmental problems are concluded in the complete processing of raw materials and the comprehensive use of the deposit and its useful components. In 1994, the President of the Russian Federation published the Concept “On the State Strategy of Russia for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development.”

“Ferrous metallurgy of the world” - Upper (USA). Factors influencing the location of ferrous metallurgy enterprises. Ferrous metallurgy. The largest iron ore basins. Export, import of iron ore. Raw materials Fuel Transport Consumer. Largest steel exporters, 2003 (million tons). Largest importers of steel, 2003 (million tons).

"Ferrous metallurgy" - Iron Fe. Pollution of the environment with hazardous waste. Repetition. What raw materials are needed to produce iron and steel? Structure of a blast furnace. Open hearth furnace. What groups of enterprises are part of the ferrous metallurgy? Coking of coal. Metal smelting. What is metallurgy? Chemistry of the open-hearth process.

“Ferrous metallurgy of Russia” - Steel smelting and rolling. Small metallurgy. Types of metallurgical enterprises. Russia's share in the world in iron ore reserves and production. Lesson objectives: Ore beneficiation. Production of rolled products. Production of ferroalloys. Factors for locating full-cycle enterprises. Ferrous metallurgy is characterized by: Metallurgical complex - a set of industries producing a variety of metals.

“Aluminium Production” - Creation of a leader in the global aluminum industry. 6. 3. Economic logic and importance of the transaction. 12. 8. Ownership structure of United Company RUSAL Limited. 4.

“Non-ferrous metallurgy” - Product production volumes with distribution by main geographical regions. The most important cargo flows. Main countries (regions) for importing products. Environmental and ecological problems arising in connection with the development of the industry. Non-ferrous metallurgy of the world. Light non-ferrous metals: Titanium gold copper tungsten zinc lead aluminum tin.

"Metallurgical complex of Russia" - Copper ore. The metallurgical complex of Russia is a set of industries producing a variety of metals. Lithosphere pollution: Solid waste Waste rock dumps. Development of new technologies. Factors of production location. Iron ore. Type of energy. Low-waste production The direction of development of waste-free processes.

There are 10 presentations in total

Rational and reuse of non-ferrous metals is the need of the hour.

14.1. ECOLOGICAL FEATURES OF NON-FERROUS METALLURGY

TO non-ferrous metals include all metals and their alloys, except iron. Non-ferrous metals are divided into noble(gold, platinum, silver, palladium, iridium, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium), heavy(copper, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt, manganese, antimony, tin, chromium, bismuth, mercury, arsenic), lungs(lithium, potassium, sodium, rubidium, cesium, calcium, magnesium, beryllium, aluminum, titanium) and rare metals (tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, vanadium, selenium, tellurium, indium, germanium, zirconium, thallium, etc.). Modern society cannot exist without metals such as copper, lead, zinc, nickel, chromium, aluminum, etc. The use of many other components of ore raw materials of non-ferrous metallurgy has ensured the creation of a number of areas of the latest technology, such as semiconductor, radio electronics, production of superhard materials , heat-resistant and other materials. Special attention is paid to the issue of rational, careful use of non-ferrous metals all over the world.

Non-ferrous metallurgy compared to ferrous metallurgy is a much more complex and difficult object from the point of view of organizing environmentally sound, low-waste and waste-free production due to the historically established inherent features of the technology. It is one of the industries characterized by an extraordinary variety of fundamentally different production, methods, processes, equipment design with a wide variety of types of initial mineral raw materials.

In non-ferrous metallurgy, as a rule, the waste output per unit of production is very high, which is due to the nature of the raw materials used. The only exception is the raw material for the aluminum industry: the content of the main substance in bauxite and nepheline is at the level of 20-30%. In most cases, to obtain 1 ton of metal, it is necessary to process on average 100-200 or more tons of ore, and in some cases even thousands of tons. At the same time, the ballast, practically unused, part of the raw material turns into solid, liquid and gaseous waste. In addition, in non-ferrous metallurgy there is a more pronounced tendency to involve increasingly poorer natural raw materials in the processing, which inevitably sharply increases the relative and absolute yield of gaseous, solid and liquid waste.

Non-ferrous metal ores are often valued using the so-called geochemical coefficient(GK) the ratio of the average metal content in the ore to its Clark's content. This ratio is steadily decreasing. For example, for copper ores in 1900 it was 2600, whereas now it does not exceed 300. Accordingly, the copper content in the processed ore decreased from 4 to 0.5%.

Another feature of non-ferrous metallurgy, associated with the technologically complex nature of the raw materials, is a large number of toxic substances contained in raw materials and polluting waste. These are, first of all, compounds of sulfur, arsenic, antimony, selenium, tellurium, etc. The residual non-ferrous metals themselves (lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, mercury, etc.) are also toxic.

Unfortunately, forecasts for the development of non-ferrous metals production in the world do not give reason to hope that radical ways will be found in the coming years to eliminate the above-mentioned objective causes of the formation of large amounts of waste. Creating waste-free and even low-waste production of non-ferrous metals faces great difficulties. 1 Therefore, at present, much attention is paid to partially solving the issues of waste-free technology and introducing its principles. This refers to individual processes, individual enterprises and individual sub-sectors, where there are already partially realized opportunities to significantly reduce the output of a number of wastes, the disposal of which is very important from the point of view of environmental protection and rational use of natural resources. In our country there are non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises where the constant extraction of up to two or more dozens of valuable elements of processed ore raw materials into finished commercial products has been steadily mastered.

By the middle of the twentieth century and especially in recent decades, as a result of the rapid development of industry, transport, and energy, the anthropogenic load on nature sharply increased, and the danger of depletion of natural resources, irreversible pollution and environmental change became obvious. Statistics show that about 1 billion tons of fuel equivalent are burned annually on the planet, tens of millions of tons of nitrogen and sulfur oxides are emitted into the atmosphere (some of them return in the form of so-called acid rain), more than 400 million tons of ash and soot and dust. Pollution of atmospheric air, fresh water, and fertile soil has become global. At the same time, the scale of pollution is so great that the natural abilities of the biosphere to neutralize harmful substances and self-purification are practically exhausted.

In Russia, the source of intense environmental pollution is, among others, enterprises in the metallurgical industry of the domestic heavy industry. The construction of most of them took place in the first half of the last century, when environmental issues of enterprises were, at best, secondary. They started thinking about ecology a little later, only in the last decades of the last century (for example, the history of Norilsk Nickel indicates that metallurgical production in Norilsk was founded in 1935, but the first sulfur recovery facilities appeared only in the early 1980s). The current situation requires the search for new ways and approaches to solving environmental problems associated with industrial production. Obviously, this should be a whole complex of organizational and technical measures aimed at preventing or significantly reducing the adverse impact of production activities on the environment and, as a consequence, on human health.

Problematic issues of ecology of domestic metallurgical enterprises

A feature of domestic metallurgical production is its negative impact on all components of the environment. This is soil pollution due to the massive storage of waste, the discharge of insufficiently treated industrial waters into natural reservoirs, as well as the release of large amounts of harmful substances into the atmosphere. For example, for metallurgical enterprises the problem of processing man-made formations is relevant. It is known that to produce one ton of steel using the traditional method, more than three tons of primary natural raw materials are involved in production. Blast-furnace slag formed after steel smelting accumulates in dumps and sludge dumps, taking away urban and agricultural land and creating an additional burden on the territory (for example, more than 6 billion tons of such waste have accumulated in the metallurgical enterprises of the Ural region alone). Metallurgy uses 25% of all water consumed by Russian industry. However, in most cases, after industrial use, this water is not properly treated and the contaminated water ends up in surface and ground waters. Heavy metals, oil waste, phenols and a number of other elements present in discharged water make it unsuitable for further use, and sometimes cause mass destruction of biological resources in nearby water bodies. Obviously, the most important points of environmental programs of metallurgical enterprises should be a reduction in the volume of fresh process water intake and a reduction in the volume of production water discharge. It has been established that ferrous metallurgy enterprises emit into the atmosphere up to 25% of metal-containing dust and carbon monoxide from the total amount of these substances released into the atmosphere as a result of industrial processes. Metallurgy accounts for the distribution of almost 50% of sulfur oxides that are not utilized by industry into the atmosphere (the enterprises of the Polar Branch of Norilsk Nickel alone emit 979 thousand tons of sulfur per year into the atmosphere). In addition, the technological cycle involves the release into the atmosphere of a whole range of substances toxic to the human body, including benzopyrene, fluorides, manganese, vanadium and chromium compounds.

Such air pollution has an extremely negative impact on the health of the population living in close proximity to metallurgical enterprises, many of which have city-forming status. Thus, the city of Norilsk, with a population of 214 thousand people, is, in fact, located in a triangle of factories, which is the direct reason for the increase in the number of pathologies among people living here. In the Murmansk region, where several large metallurgical plants are located, including Kola MMC, a subsidiary of MMC Norilsk Nickel, an increased incidence of malformations in children is recorded. Statistics provided on the website of the regional administration indicate that the infant mortality rate from cancer in this region is 1.9 times higher than the national average.

It should be noted that in recent years, enterprises of the metallurgical complex have done a lot of work in the interests of reducing the harmful impact of production on the environment. The experience of Izhstal OJSC is noteworthy, where, through the successful implementation of a number of environmental measures, it was possible to reduce the volume of production water discharge into the Izh River by 514,000 m2/year. However, this figure represents about 10% of the total discharge volume. More significant results in this direction were achieved by the metallurgical company Severstal, where they managed to close the water circulation cycle by 98.2% and close 5 drains into natural reservoirs. Currently, environmental issues are the focus of attention of the management and public organizations of the metallurgical complex, however, eliminating the problems that have accumulated over decades will take a certain period of time. Thus, even existing regulatory documents need clarification, since metallurgists quite often have to deal with a complex of unresolved legal issues.

Requirements of governing documents in the field of ecology of metallurgical industry enterprises

The current legislative framework in the field of environmental safety of metallurgical production is based on the Law of the Russian Federation “On Environmental Protection”. It formulates general requirements obliging enterprises to take the necessary measures to comply with technological regimes and carry out environmental protection measures. In addition, the current sanitary rules and regulations of the Ministry of Health (SanPiN 2.2.1/2.1.1.1200-03) require the creation of sanitary protection zones (SPZ) around enterprises. The size of the sanitary protection zone depends on the class of the enterprise, which is determined based on an assessment of the potential danger of its production activities to human health, which may result in air pollution.
Table 1
|Sanitary classification of enterprises |Dimensions of sanitary protection zone (m) |
|First class enterprises |1000 |
|Second class enterprises |500 |
|Third class enterprises |300 |
|Fourth class enterprises |100 |
|Fifth class enterprises |50 |

At the same time, the boundaries of the sanitary protection zone (see Table 1) indicate the value of the optimal sanitary gap between enterprises and residential buildings and are a guarantee of atmospheric air quality even in the event of the release of harmful substances without purification. The most important document in the field of environmental protection activities of metallurgical enterprises in the Russian Federation is the environmental standard GOST R ISO 14001, developed on the basis of the international system of standards ISO 14000, which, in turn, is followed by the countries of the European Union, Japan, the USA and many others. The peculiarity of this system of standards is that it is focused not on specific technologies or quantitative and qualitative indicators (volume of emissions, concentrations of substances, etc.), but on the environmental management system (EMS) (or EMS - environmental management system - as amended by GOST R ISO 14001). It should be noted that environmental management is considered the highest priority for industrial activity in the 21st century, which was declared at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992).

In addition, the ISO 14000 standard system provides for the creation of production facilities that must be waste-free, environmentally friendly technologies, manufactured products and high staff culture. For domestic metallurgical enterprises, such certification is an indispensable condition for marketing products on international markets, since the EEC has announced its intention to allow only ISO-certified companies into the market of Commonwealth countries.

The expediency of obtaining a certificate of conformity by an enterprise is also determined by the following factors: - an increase in the estimated value of the enterprise's fixed assets;
- the opportunity to develop new markets for environmental products;
- increasing the competitiveness of products in the domestic and world markets;
- improving the enterprise management system;
- the ability to attract highly qualified labor.
In addition, the presence of a reputable environmental certificate is a significant competitive advantage for an enterprise when receiving a government order.

Positive processes and foreign experience

Tobias Hahn, the author of a modern method for calculating the environmental efficiency of companies, believes: “The fewer natural resources a company uses and the more its activities are based on the know-how of its personnel, the higher the degree of environmental efficiency it has.” Let us note that many domestic metallurgical enterprises are currently already following this path. This is evidenced by certificates of environmental safety of production. The first Russian metallurgical company certified according to ISO 14001 was Severstal (2001). In 2006, Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant OJSC confirmed compliance with the requirements of environmental management standards ISO 14001. In 2005, the West Siberian Metallurgical Plant (ZSMK) passed certification of its environmental management system for compliance with the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard. The plant has an effective environmental management system activities aimed at solving environmental problems, involving all employees of the plant in this process: from the managing director to the worker. This system ensures the reduction of emissions into the atmosphere, discharges into water bodies and the prevention of soil pollution by increasing: technological discipline, introducing new technologies and technical re-equipment. In particular, only the transfer of steelmaking production to advanced technology of continuous steel casting can reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere by 5.3 thousand tons per year.

In the field of environmental protection, the example of metallurgical enterprises in a number of Western European countries - for example, Finland - is indicative. The leading metal producer in this country is rightfully considered the Ruukki Corporation (the largest European supplier of metal solutions for construction and mechanical engineering), which owns several factories in southwestern Finland, as well as the largest metallurgical plant in Raahe in the north of the country. Built in the early 60s with the involvement of Soviet specialists (the plant is a “twin” of Cherepovets), the Finnish plant is currently the main producer of metal and metal products (according to the results of 2006, 2.8 million tons of steel were produced here in total production by the corporation Ruukki 3.2 million tons). The enterprise is located almost in the center of a small town with a population of 22.4 thousand people on the territory of an international seaport. The rich historical heritage and cultural traditions of the city of Raahe, founded in 1649, attract thousands of tourists every year. At the same time, the proximity of the metallurgical plant does not cause phobia either among the local population or among numerous tourists, since the enterprise is equipped with the latest science and technology in the field of environmental protection. The best illustration of the high level of environmental safety of production is the direct proximity of the industrial sites of the plant to housing and social infrastructure facilities (clubs, restaurants, etc.). This is a convincing example that proximity to an industrial enterprise does not have a negative impact on the investment attractiveness of adjacent territories, and they do not need the status of a “sanitary protection zone” - there is no such concept in the West at all. The above example is not an isolated case, but a widespread practice in most European metallurgical plants.

It is obvious that the dynamic growth of the Russian economy increases the technogenic load on nature, and a large share of the “contribution” falls on the basic industry - metallurgy. In the interests of maintaining natural balance and minimizing harm to the environment, metallurgical enterprises are required to solve many environmental problems in the shortest possible time. The main ones should be an assessment of the actual state of the environment, identifying ways to reduce the negative impact on nature, reconstruction (construction of new) production facilities taking into account the requirements of environmental legislation and public opinion, the introduction of environmentally friendly technologies, the creation of an environmental management system with the understanding that environmental costs cannot be unprofitable. And the guarantee of this is the example of our northern neighbors.

Material provided by the RUUKKI press service