Petrochemists present RAS scientists their developments in environmental improvement

State of the art

The first acquaintance of petrochemists and scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences took place in the city administration. A working meeting on environmental protection and ecological safety took place here. The country’s leading academicians brought developments to monitor the environment.

“Sensors will probably be installed somewhere or there will be an opportunity to detect contaminants remotely. We have a number of specific proposals, for instance, about how to treat sewage, dispose of some emissions. We have brought specific proposals, we will compare them with real problems and look for common intersection points, make a road map of contamination,” Mikhail Yegorov, an academician of the Department of Chemistry and Material Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the director of the Zelinsky Institute for Organic Chemistry, said in a talk with journalists.

During the working meeting, Vice Chief Engineer on Environmental Protection at Nizhnekamskneftekhim Andrey Rubezhov was given the floor. He told the guests from the capital about environmental protection projects implemented in the enterprise. The latest development is a new automated air monitoring system.

“It forecasts emissions literally from one to three days considering all emissions of the enterprise. The system allows including available geographic information resources: the direction of the wind, its speed, humidity and so on. It is possible to model a situation with emissions with the data that was obtained.”

Andrey Rubezhov explained to the scientists that the process was in test mode. The system will go the environmental protection department within two weeks. It will take another two months to tune, adjust equipment, train specialists.

“The programme will enable to model a situation linked with the development of our enterprise. So, by plotting new plants, new sources of emissions into the atmosphere on the map, we can forecast their environmental impact. The system is a computing programme, which is legitimate, confirmed by all state ministries. I think it is a very good tool for the future,” the vice chief engineer on Environmental Protection at Nizhnekamskneftekhim shared.

“You’ve done a good job”

The main environment protecting facility in Nizhnekamsk made a strong impression on the Russian academicians — the biological treatment facilities of Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC. Here industrial and municipal sewage is treated. The enterprise allocated over 3 billion rubles for the BTF’s large-scale reconstruction. The scientists from the RAS think it is one of the latest and highly effective treatment facilities in Russia.

“Nizhnekamsk has very good treatment facilities. Last week we were in treatment facilities in Sochi, in Olympic venues. I can say that the Nizhnekamsk BTF don’t give way to them, but here the task is much more complicated because there is industrial sewage too,” noted Yevgeny Kuznetsov, the head of the Water Supply and Water Disposal Department in Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical Company.

During the excursion, the guests saw first-hand what transformations took place when industrial and urban sewage was treated. They visited the updated chemical laboratory of the BTF where the quality of incoming household and chemically contaminated sewage, surface and groundwater is controlled, the number of microorganisms is daily monitored. Sewage’s analytic monitoring is shown on a video panel in real time.

“Your treatment facilities are cutting-edge, not what we have in Troitsk, I would say. You can be an example follow. They must be better in our Troitsk. In general you did a good job. I think we will find common points for cooperation,” Mikhail Korensky, the director of the Physics Instrumentation Centre of Prokhorov General Physics Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, shared his impression of what he saw.

Main environment protecting facility in Nizhnekamsk

By the way, the biological treatment facilities of Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC were put into operation in 1966. Over 80% of sewage comes from industrial enterprises, including those that belong to Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC, TGC-16 JSC, TAIF-NK JSC, KAMA TYRES PJSC, Nizhnekamskcarbonblack JSC, SG-trans JSC, Prettl-NK CJSC, Chelny-Broiler CJSC, Pioneer Industrial Park CJSC, Nizhnekamsk Ironwork Factory CJSC, Nizhnekamsk PATP-1 JSC, Nizhnekamsk PATP CJSC and others (about 60 enterprises and organisations in total).

19% of sewage comes from the city’s flats, organisations and enterprises: petrol stations, car washes, garages, car services, medical establishments, shopping malls. Enterprises in Stroiteley settlement and in the vicinity of Base of Construction Goods also dispose of their sewage to the urban tank.

The city was built together with Nizhnekamskneftekhim, this is why for economic and geographical reasons it was decided to treat industrial and urban sewage together in one place. Nizhnekamskneftekhim has maintained, serviced, monitored the quality of treated sewage for over 50 years.

At the end of the visit of the academicians from the RAS to Nizhnekamsk, business and science agreed to look for better solutions to improve the ecological situation in the region.

“Now we are going to collect and analyse all feed data and present technical solutions that the client will approve, and we will be able to introduce then,” Yevgeny Kuznetsov, the head of the Water Supply and Water Disposal Department in Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical Company, explained.