5 September
Moscow,
Press Release

UC RUSAL has announced that it has developed a unique process for waste recycling. This new technology is applied at the company’s smelting operations in Bratsk (BrAZ), the largest aluminium facility in the world, and allows saving over USD 2 million every year. The new technology helps to reduce quantities of solid waste from the smelter’s operational facilities stored in the disposal area by 5,500 tonnes less of waste. 


The innovation is based on continuous processing and a return of fluorine-rich saline slag into the production process. This waste is formed when cells are disconnected for maintenance. Statistics reveal that every year the world’s aluminium industry generates a total of five million tonnes of so-called ‘black’ or saline waste slag. The introduction of new technology will ease the environmental impact of the aluminium operations. In addition, the technology does not have any ammonia emissions, which improves the health and safety conditions in potrooms.

This effective waste processing method was jointly developed by BrAZ engineers and the Engineering and Construction Division of UC RUSAL, and has no equal in the world. Over time, the company hopes to introduce this technology to other aluminium smelters of the company.

Works on implementing the new technology form part of the environmental modernisation programme at BrAZ, which is expected to cut hazardous emissions by 40%. The programme includes the installation of alumina point feeders at all the smelter’s cells; commissioning of 24 dry gas scrubbers, which will ensure that the maximum technically possible fluoride filtration coefficient (up to 99%) is reached. In addition, all the potrooms will be equipped with modern ventilation, new electrical equipment and automated control systems. 

UC RUSAL environmental initiatives

Since 2000, all the production sites that were part of RUSAL, have had over USD 1 billion invested in their environmental programmes. Between 2007 and 2013, the company will spend another USD 1.4 billion on the environmental modernisation of its assets. UC RUSAL has proposed a comprehensive redevelopment plan for its aluminium operations, which will lead to a reduction in emissions and ensure improved production efficiency. This programme will encompass the world’s two largest aluminium smelters located in Bratsk and Krasnoyarsk, and also smaller operations including the smelters in Irkutsk, Novokuznetsk, Bogoslovsk and Kamensk-Uralsk, where projects teams are currently preparing their reduction areas for conversion to the pre-bake anode technology. As a result of these efforts, UC RUSAL intends to slash its total emissions level by 35% by 2015. 

In 2007, UC RUSAL adopted the Paving the Way to a Safer World strategy, which laid out the actions required for a reduction in the environmental impacts of its operations and plans to minimise climate change risks. In the same year and part of this strategy, UC RUSAL signed the Memorandum of Understanding on joint projects aimed at the minimisation of greenhouse gas emissions and became the first Russian company to join the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to develop and take part in a series of international projects that will help to prevent any threat posed by global warming.