OREANDA-NEWS. As part of the regional Green Lounge activities, waste treatment facilities were opened at A.D. Ruban Colliery operated by SUEK-Kuzbass. The facilities were constructed using an innovative German technology.

The equipment by the German company EnviroChemie GmbH installed in just 3 months purifies 350 cu. m of water per hour. The waste treatment facilities cost 300 mln rubles.

The technology is based on a multiple step process. Waste waters undergo preliminary treatment and get cleaned of coarse impurities using a backwashed pre-filter. A flotation plant also includes an automatic chemical dispensing station. Here the waste waters are saturated with air under pressure, the impurities rise and float with air bubbles, then the resultant flotation slurry gets dehydrated and the purified water undergoes automated post-treatment.

The level of purification makes the industrial waste water cleaner than that in a surface water body; the water actually becomes potable.

The equipment includes a filter press for briquetting coal content deposits to be used as additives to run of mine coal. With the waste treatment facilities in place, the sedimentation reservoirs taking up 13 hectares of land rented by the company are no longer needed.

The station is constructed only from corrosion-resistant aluminum and plastics. The process is highly automated: all information flows to the control panel of the operator who runs the station.

Delivering a speech at the opening ceremony the Technical Director of SUEK-Kuzbass Anatoly A. Meshkov observed: “By launching the waste treatment facilities we have solved two problems at once. Firstly, any used water to be dumped into a river is going to be potable only. Secondly, part of the purified water will be returned to the mine to be used in the technology process.”

The completed facilities were highly acclaimed by the Kemerovo Oblast Governor's Deputy for Natural Resources and Environment Ms. Nina Yu. Vashlayeva: “This is a milestone for Kuzbass, particularly in the Year of Environmental Protection. The company sets good real-life examples of environmental protection, effective use of environmentally friendly technologies.”

During the station opening ceremony all Green Lounge meeting attendees planted a tree alley.

The waste treatment facilities at A. D. Ruban Colliery are part of a large-scale environmental project to be run by the Siberian Coal Energy Company till 2020. In early 2014, one modern transportable station is to be set up at Kotinskaya Colliery while the other will be launched at Taldinskaya-Zapadnaya-1 Colliery in 2017.