Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Plant will start to process own wastewaters

The Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Plant (KCKK, part of Uralchem) won’t dispose of industrial wastewater in the underground landfill anymore.

To reduce the burden on the environment and reduce expenditures on the rent of the landfill for underground disposal of industrial wastewater, the management of KCKK decided to stop using it. Works on its elimination have been carried out since 2018.

To exclude waste emissions, KCKK has introduced three wastewater treatment schemes. Two more schemes have been implemented to process regeneration wastewater from the production of demineralized water.

The first scheme allowed using alkaline reclaimed water in the production of complex fertilizers after preliminary treatment at an autonomous evaporator. The second provided the use of acidic regeneration solutions for the production of nitric acid extract of magnesium-containing raw materials and nitric acid. The third, involving ion-exchange groundwater treatment, allowed the use of treated groundwater in the release of chemically treated water.

“The activities of our company comply with the principles of sustainable environmental development. Refusal of the landfill for underground disposal of industrial wastewater is one of the most significant environmental projects in recent years. Due to implemented schemes, the processing of industrial wastewater will be carried out within the enterprise. Moreover, they will allow us to reduce the volume of consumption of river water for industrial purposes,” said Marina Melnik, deputy chief engineer for ecology at the Kirovo-Chepetsk Chemical Plant.