Rustam Minnikhanov: ‘Waste is disposed of or buried under the guise of specialised companies’

“A lot of equipment will be needed at once in the next two or three years”

At another board meeting of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding, the panel continued looking for the best Russian solutions and technologies that can replace foreign products. There is endless room to launch new Russian technologies, which means many new Russian brands have every chance of finding a sport in the most unpredictable niches of the republic, though training equipment. Seemingly, the need is so urgent that the head of ATP R&D Company — a VR equipment producer from Ufa — was given an amazing opportunity to open the meeting.

VR equipment is an important component of process safety, dispatchers in energy or oil production operators improve their skills. This training is obligatory for hazardous industrial facilities, which is controlled by Russia’s industrial safety watchdog, head of the company Dmitry Shevchenko reminded the audience. According to him, nowadays Western suppliers that have dominated in the Russian market until recently are leaving the country.

“This means not only the loss of new developments but also the impossibility of keeping the current fleet of equipment,” he specified.

Russia has about 80.000 hazardous facilities, and many professional skills need to be improved. “The situation will seriously aggravate in the next two or three years. A lot of equipment will be needed at once, moreover, those that replaced imported devices,” the speaker forecasts.

Head of APT Dmitry Shevchenko presented his own automatic design system allowing enriching training equipment with new functions — compared to foreign “too expensive” imitators. Oil production operators can improve their skills, raise professional rating with this equipment. Moreover, the Ufa company offers hybrid equipment that is combined with on-site equipment. The hybrid equipment allows achieving a fall in the accident incidence. “Make a mistake, accumulate statistics,” this is the slogan of the training. Russian oil and gas companies Transneft, Rosneft, Gazprom are among clients of the Ufa developer. However, Tatneft hasn’t used the equipment yet. “Colleagues, take a closer look, perhaps, our proposal will seem interesting to you,” the speaker concluded his speech. However, the price of the equipment wasn’t made public.

The Tatarstan rais brushed off possible doubts immediately. “This is a necessary job. We underestimate the meaning of simulators and equipment, we will cooperate,” Rustam Minnikhanov assured them. According to him, the training equipment is very important because it is necessary to improve professional skills to work on autopilot. Also, he ordered to consider the possibility of buying it for the republic’s educational centres.

Turnkey costs of 300 million will pay back in two years

The waste reform or, more precisely, hazardous waste disposal technology turned out to be the next sphere of import substitution. Development Director at Rosnano management company Ivan Ozhgikhin presented a plasma chemical destruction technology 2.0 that allows disposing of hazardous biological, medical and industrial resides. The destruction process doesn’t lead to harmful emissions into the atmosphere and has the lowest residual content, he specified. The total amount of dangerous waste in the world is over 15 billion tonnes, while existing technologies do not allow recycling them eco-friendly.

“In fact, we are taking our Soviet scientists from the shelf. They have the lowest ash content. The highest efficacy is shown in the recycling and disposal of hazardous residues that have no chance of being reused — medical and biologically dangerous waste. Moreover, it shouldn’t be buried,” Ozhgikhin said.

According to him, nowadays two test units are being tested in two towns near Moscow — Zhukovsky and Voskresensk. Director General of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding Rafinat Yarullin personally looked them over a week ago. Also, Sirius scientific town where it is planned to build a medical cluster is interested in the waste disposal experience, said Ivan Ozhgikhin.

He offered to build a third unit — to dispose of residues in health care of Tatarstan. Nowadays there is about 22.000 tonnes of waste here. “We are ready to choose a site before 1 April. The turnkey costs total about 300 million, they will pay back in two years with current tariffs,” he said.

“I am sure that waste is disposed of or buried under the guise of specialised companies,” Rustam Minnikhanov was indignant. “We need waste to be really disposed of, not pay to shady companies. We will take somebody’s business away, they collect and throw it away somewhere, come on, work.”

Minnikhanov: asphalt quality always matters

Plastkor company offered completely Russian modifiers for road construction. Executive Director of the ecompany Denis Fomin presented two polymer products — universal modifiers for concrete mixes and asphalt coating. According to him, the know-how is in the registry of the best technologies of Russian Road Scientific Research Institute. The modifiers are produced from Russian components in Kaliningrad Oblast. Three kilograms are needed per tonne of concrete mix, he clarified.

Rustam Minnikhanov started to ask a myriad of questions not the speaker but Tatarstan Minister of Transport and Road Farit Khanifov had to answer. Denis Fomin just said that the development was new, start to be mass produced in 2020. The supplies in three years have amounted to about 7.5 tonnes, of which 485 tonnes have been shipped to Tatarstan.

The minister said that Alexeyevskdorstroy and Volga-Avtodor road construction companies already started using the modifier during the construction of a new toll highway from Shali to Bavly. “We started to test the material with our contractors as early as last year. It would come in handy on big roads where we place new asphalt plants,” he said.

“Did you lay roads? How is it?” the president asked.

“We will see in spring and summer, it will be a year,” Khanifov replied evasively.

“The asphalt quality always matters. We have different concrete. Create a task force,” Minnikhanov ordered.