First Batch of Equipment for Nornickel’s Sulphur Program Arrives to Dudinka Port

Photo: Anosov Sergey/GeoPhoto.ru

First Batch of Equipment for Nornickel’s Sulphur Program Arrives to Dudinka Port

The equipment to be used under the Sulphur Program, a flagship environmental initiative being implemented by Russian-based metal giant Nornickel, has reached the port of Dudinka. Its first batch -- six ready-to-install massive shell-and-tube heat exchangers -- is being unloaded in the Arctic seaport. They were manufactured by the Komsomolets Machine Building Plant in Tambov on Nornickel’s special request.

The disassembled heat exchangers, weighing almost 200 tons each, were transported to St. Petersburg, where they were assembled and tested at a special site. The 19-meter-long units were delivered to Dudinka by an ice-class vessel. The whole journey took about a month. Five more heat exchangers are expected at the Dudinka Seaport in mid-March, and then four more later in the same month.

Arrangements were made in advance to prepare a route for the transportation of these massive units to the Sulphur Program site. Along the road connecting Dudinka and the Nadezhda Smelter (about 88 km-long) utility lines were relocated and passing bays and reload sites were constructed.

The Sulphur Program is part of the Clean Air federal project. Under this program, Sulphur dioxide capture facilities are to be set up at the Nadezhda and Copper smelters owned by Nornickel. The total program cost exceeds USD 3.8 billion.

The Sulphur Program will ensure that Sulphur dioxide emissions in Norilsk, world’s second largest polar city, are down by 90% after 2025. This is exactly what makes the program so important both in environmental and social terms -- it will help make the Norilsk Industrial Area a cleaner and a more comfortable place to live in.

Arctic Today is a column by PORA CEO Alexander Stotskiy analyzing major international, national and regional events and trends in the Arctic.
Alexander Stotskiy
25 January 2022
Arctic Today