‘One feels the care about the staff, development of the enterprise’

The first visit of the new board

This is the first visit of the new team of municipal managers to Nizhnekamskneftekhim. The board of managers changed with the coming of new head of Nizhnekamsk Municipal District Ramil Mullin. An excursion was organised at the weekend not to distract them from everyday issues. The exchange of experience and best practices is aimed at a joint and effective resolution of environmental and other important issues of the city’s life.

“We want to show the scale of the enterprise to the city managers. They are busy with urban problems and don’t always have the time to be interested in what happens in the factory. The delegation includes newly elected managers who have never been to Nizhnekamskneftekhim. Also, we want to tell them about our environmental protection programmes, about what we do to improve the environment in the region,” said Aide to the Director General on Municipal Affairs at Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC Elvira Dolotkazina said.

Before the excursion started, the delegation was briefed about safety rules and put special equipment on. Then, the guests went to the first plant Central Gas Fractionation Unit 1 where the first product was made.

“Here Nizhnekamsk petrochemistry began in 1967,” Elvira Dolotkazina said proudly and explained that the first monument dedicated to the birthday of the Nizhnekamsk petrochemical factory was conserved here.

The managers took a group photo with the historical stele and headed to Plastic Plant. Here Director of the plant Ruslan Borodin welcomed them. He told them about key products. It is shock-resistant and general purpose polystyrene, ABS plastics, polypropylene, polyethylene.

“We make a total of 730,000 tonnes of plastics a year. Our plastic is used both in construction and the food industry. The product is very popular, shipment is carried out around the clock,” Ruslan Borodin noted.

Gas treatment units to catch rubber crumbs

Synthetic Rubber Plant became another point on the route. The petrochemists told the guests about the gas treatment unit in the lithium-based SBR production. It was put into operation in 2012, in nine years, it has shown 100% efficiency, there haven’t been registered malfunctions.

“This unit is necessary to catch small particles when drying rubber. All crumbs remain in the tank, only steam is emitted into the air. Polymers don’t produce any emissions into the atmosphere,” stressed vice head of Shop. No 1532 at Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC Irek Nasibullin.

“There are no chemical smells on the territory, one can feel that a lot of attention is paid to safety, the production culture,” noted Vice Chair of the Nizhnekamsk Executive Committee Alfred Nigmatzyanov.

The city managers wondered how the enterprise minimised environmental risks, reduced emissions of harmful substances in the atmosphere.

“Nizhnekamskneftekhim pays a lot of attention to environmental protection,” said Vice Chief Engineer, Director of the Environmental Protection Office at Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC Oleg Grishakov. “The 4^th environmental programme of the enterprise designed for seven years ended in the company in 2020. 490 measures for 7,96 billion rubles were taken.”

Due to this, it became possible to prevent the emission of 3,600 tonnes of harmful substances into the atmosphere, protect water bodies from the discharge of 8,7 million cubic metres of sewage and 6,200 tonnes of polluting substances. Also, the production of 15,200 tonnes of non-recyclable and 46,500 tonnes of recyclable waste was prevented. According to Oleg Grishakov, the enterprise has units for waste management and disinfection and landfills. This activity was fully certified. In 2020, Nizhnekamsneftekhim disposed of 78,5% of waste.

“There is constant job done to raise the efficacy of water recycling thanks to the introduction of advanced technologies. 16 cooling towers were reconstructed from 2014 to 2020, which allowed saving up to 16,1 million kWh/y,” Grishakov said.

He also noted that the reconstruction of biological treatment facilities (BTF) became one of the biggest and important projects. They are designed to treat sewage not only from Nizhnekamskneftekhim but also from the whole industrial hub, including the sewage of Nizhnekamsk. There was built a new 15-km external tank. It is hermetic, equipped with biofilters to prevent smells and, what is especially important, is located outside the city. The total cost of the reconstruction of the BTF was over 3 billion rubles.

18 flares

The guests learnt about the operation of flares that are needed in all enterprises to burn exhaust gases. They prevent process leaks into the open air. It is a whole system including a network of pipelines, flare stacks with tips, burners, traps, automated management and control equipment.

Workers of Nizhnekamskneftekhim noted that burning with smoke during start-up and commissioning works, which often concerns citizens, is envisaged by technical regulations and doesn’t pose an environmental threat.

“18 flares are used in the enterprise. The staff, dispatcher service control emissions at the flares with the help of control and measurement instruments and visually,” Oleg Grishakov said. In general, the enterprise pays a lot of attention to the environment. Moreover, all the information about the state of the air is available not only for specialists but also for all citizens of Nizhnekamsk. For this purpose, the employees of the IT Department of Nizhnekamskneftekhim together with colleagues from the Automation Centre developed Environment service. It allows learning about the air in real time mode from one’s smartphone. My Neftekhim app needs to be downloaded for this purpose. A separate window shows data from five stations of the automated air control system. They are installed on the perimeter of the industrial zone and in the BTF. While the control in residential areas of the city and neighbouring settlements is done by a modern mobile station.

The job done to reduce environmental risks in the enterprise will go on. In 2021, Nizhnekamskneftekhim started the fifth environmental programme designed from 2021 to 2025. The third stage of the BTF’s reconstruction began within this programme. It is planned to reequip pre-treatment and disinfection stations. It will have the world’s latest technologies. Sewage will be disinfected with the help of ultraviolet lamps.

“The fifth environmental programme includes 255 measures and is estimated at billions of rubles. They will be designed to reduce emissions in the atmosphere, decrease the pollution of sewage and conserve the soil. Nizhnekamskneftekhim in particular is going to replace burners in furnaces, reconstruct the landfill of industrial waste and revegetate sludge maps near Borok village. Trees are going to be planted there in the future,” Vice Chief Engineer, Director of the Environmental Protection Office at Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC Oleg Grishakov stressed.

Eco-friendly EP-600

On that day, the municipal managers also went to Ethylene Plant and EP-600 complex, which is under construction. The new plant will annually produce 600,000 tonnes of ethylene, 272,000 tonnes of propylene, 248,000 tonnes of butadiene, 88,000 tonnes of butadiene.

The launch of the plant will allow decreasing exports of gas and petrochemical feedstock. This will have a positive impact on import substitution, enhance the economic stability of the enterprise and increase payments to all budget levels. The ethylene complex will become a real driver of the development of the region, Nizhnekamsk and its social infrastructure.

“Germany’s Linde AG is the licensor of the project, Turkey’s Gemont company is the contractor general. Nowadays 4,000 people are working on the construction site. Ironworks are assembled, large equipment is installed,” Director of EP-600 Plant Lenar Nagimullin told them about the course of construction works.

The construction is done in accordance with environmental safety and protection rules. The production will comply with all the latest safety requirements, for instance, more than 70,000 alarms and locks are envisaged to prevent emergency situations. Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems are designed at pollution sources providing online control and sending data to management stations and supervisory agencies.

The state-of-the-art effective flares with two burning zones are used to reduce the production of nitrogen oxides. Efficient decocking cyclones are utilised to prevent suspended particles and cock from ending up in the atmosphere.

Their own local treatment facilities will be located here too. This will allow reducing water consumption from the Kama River: process water will be treated and reused in the plant. The flare will operate without smoke: hydrocarbon will be burnt, and only carbon dioxide will go into the atmosphere.

After the excursion, the managers thanked the petrochemists for the opportunity of seeing the production inside. It became a discovery for many that there weren’t chemical smells on the territory of the enterprise, it was clean and neat. The representatives of the Nizhnekamsk city administration assessed process safety and workers’ working conditions too.

“Today we have come with a new board of managers of the city and district. When you have a chance of personally seeing this production power, you start seeing things differently. Today we have seen a number of plants, discussed environmental programmes the enterprise has, seen working conditions. One feels the care about the staff and development of the enterprise,” Vice Mayor of Nizhnekamsk Marina Kamelina shared her impressions.

“Many thanks for the excursion. It has been useful. Thanks to such events, we start to know the enterprise better, understand how it works, what important role it plays for the city and the country,” said Yevgeny Borisov, the head of the Economic Development for Entrepreneurship of Nizhnekamsk Municipal District.

“The organisation has been top. I liked the content of the excursion. The most important thing for me was to know what job is done to improve the environment. Nizhnekamskneftekhim cooperates with city schools, does career guidance activity. The enterprise develops the city’s infrastructure, it is also very important,” head of the Education Office of Nizhnekamsk Municipal District Aydar Garifullin highlighted.

The city managers were surprised that SIBUR had an environmental strategy that envisaged the introduction of closed-loop economy principles. This concept means recycling and reuse of plastic. It is a great opportunity to use it for the good of the city. It is necessary to switch to separate waste collection and make street furniture from the same plastic,” concluded Vice Mayor for Improvement Affairs Aynar Yarmiyev.

After the excursion, the managers of the city and industrialists agreed on further cooperation. The information they learnt will allow uniting efforts in solving common problems designed to develop the region.

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