The growth of the population leads to the increase of food consumption and the reduction of farm lands, which requires the intensification of agricultural production and in turn is ensured by increased fertilizer consumption. Thus, there will be steady demand for the products of JSC “Grodno Azot” on foreign and domestic markets.
At a meeting on the prospects for the development of JSC “Grodno Azot” on 10 May 2018, the President of the Republic of Belarus instructed the Grodno Regional Executive Committee and other interested organizations to ensure the implementation of the project for the construction of a new nitrogen complex at JSC “Grodno Azot” along with the revamp of the existing facilities taking into account economic feasibility.
Construction of the nitrogen complex at JSC “Grodno Azot” will allow to fully meet the demand for urea on the domestic market of the Republic of Belarus (consumption level of 800 thousand tons by 2025), at the same time ensuring permanent presence on foreign markets. It is planned to export extra urea to Ukraine, Poland, the markets of Western Europe, Africa, North and Latin America, Asia. The competitive advantage of JSC “Grodno Azot” is its geographical position and proximity to the Baltic Sea port, which provides a benefit on each ton due to its logistics.
As of today, JSC “Grodno Azot” is on the verge of capital construction. Before taking this important and serious decision the specialists of our company have studied a number of documents, carried out a lot of export and raw material markets researches, held numerous meetings, dealt with controlling and governing authorities of Grodno Region and the Republic of Belarus. The project underwent an environmental impact assessment, a stage of public hearings with media coverage allowing the citizens to make suggestions and amendments.
The turnkey construction of an ammonia production complex with a capacity of 875,000 tonnes per year, granular urea of 1,225,000 tonnes per year and a number of auxiliary facilities at Grodno Azot will result in the following:
Q4 2018 - announcement of the biding procedure for selecting the EPC contractor for the project implementation inviting the world's leading engineering companies.
Q4 2025 - planned commissioning period.
Leading engineering companies representing the best world technologies in the field of services for licensing, design and construction of ammonia and urea production facilities have been invited to implement the project. Each licensor offers high-tech and energy efficient production with high performance characteristics. Сoefficients of natural gas сonsumption for production of one ton of ammonia provided by the represented companies are about 0.75-0.87 thousand Nm³/t, total energy consumption is at the level of 7.00 Gcal/t versus 1.1 thousand Nm³/t and 8.85-9.02 Gcal/t at the company's operating facilities.
One of the main requirements for the EPC contractor is mandatory approval of equipment suppliers by the company's specialists and the process licensor. Thus, the possibility of delivery of poor quality and unproven equipment is excluded. When the equipment arrives at the site, strict quality control will be ensured by specialists of the company and the EPC contractor, as well as supervision by representatives of the licensor will be carried out.
It is well known that JSC “Grodno Azot” is a giant of chemical industry of the Republic of Belarus, which handles harmful chemicals. It is important to note that harmful chemicals are used, but not emitted into the atmosphere and are not discharged into rivers and lakes.
Minimization of any types of emissions is an environmental priority of the company!
Local environmental monitoring is carried out by observation of:
The quality of atmospheric air at the border of the sanitary protection zone and the nearest residential area is also monitored. Measurements are taken daily at six fixed air quality control stations, which are located along the entire perimeter of the sanitary protection zone. In addition, a sanitary laboratory in the sanitary protection zone and the nearest residential development carries out the so-called "underflare monitoring". This type of control is performed four times a month. Sampling points are selected at a distance of approximately two kilometres from emission sources taking into account the wind direction.
In addition, every year the control of air emissions of JSC "Grodno Azot" is carried out by the Grodno Regional Laboratory of Analytical Control called the State agency "Republican center of analytical control".
For reference: according to the data of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, in 2017 emissions from stationary sources in Belarus came up to 36.55% (including JSC "Grodno Azot", as well as the site of the branch "Khimvolokno Plant" - 0.6%), and emissions from mobile sources - 63.45%.
The company JSC "Grodno Azot" is constantly increasing its capacity, but at the same time it is also introducing the latest systems of waste water treatment and capturing emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere with their return to the process. A number of rationalization proposals and innovative ideas have been implemented with this regard. Thus, if in the 80s of the last century the atmospheric emission was more than 20 thousand tons, today it has been three times reduced, at the same time the company has significantly increased its capacity of the production of mineral fertilizers.
JSC "Grodno Azot" takes an integrated approach to maintaining its high environmental standards, carrying out activities in the field of environmental protection and the implementation of such a large-scale project as the construction of a new nitrogen complex. This includes control over compliance with the requirements of environmental legislation in the course of production activities, as well as application of highly efficient environmental protection equipment in order to reduce the environmental impact.
For example, application of advanced technologies in ammonia and urea production, as well as equipping the main emission sources with modern gas purification systems will allow reducing the emission share of pollutants tons/tonne of ammonia from 0.0016 to 0,0009 (reduction by more than 40%), pollutants tons/tonne of urea from 0.0013 to 0.0008 (reduction by more than 35%), which will ensure compliance of harmful substance concentrations at the border of sanitary protection zone with hygienic standards of atmospheric air quality in residential area. According to the requirements of the technical specification, developed by the specialists of the company, the maximum possible amount of process waste water will be treated, processed and returned to the process to obtain boiler water and steam for the needs of the complex. Creation of a modern automation system based on microprocessor technology will ensure the optimal performance and improve the occupational safety. This will allow to minimize emergency shutdowns and eliminate accidental emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.
Having put forward such strict, but at the same time reasonable requirements to EPC contractor, JSC "Grodno Azot" will commission the plant with breakthrough, new, energy efficient and "green" technologies. Undoubtedly, it leads to an increase in construction costs, a reduction in the number of participants who know how to apply these technologies, but at the same time it guaranties occupational safety and the cleanliness of our region, air, rivers and lakes. The management of JSC "Grodno Azot" made a decision to apply only the best process technologies in the construction and environmental protection.