Stages in the reconstruction of existing ferroalloys shop No. 2

Abstract

Since there is little hope that the construction of ferroalloys shop No. 3 at the Chusovoi Metallurgical Plant will be completed anytime soon, it is important to focus on the rebuilding of ferroalloys shop No. 2. Shop No. 2, which has been in operation since 1964, is the final stage in the vanadium production cycle at the plant and yields ferrovanadium as the commercial product.The reconstmctsion program for the existing shop should be based on the following measures: -bringing shop capacity up to 7500 tons of 38% ferrovanadium per year, to ensure that the shop will be able to process at least the increasing volume of converter slag being formed in production operations at the plant;-increasing the amount of vanadium recovered by 10-12%, with a corresponding increase in the output of ferrovandium; -reinforcing the buildings and installations of the shop, which have been in use since 1964;-expanding the range of vanadium-bearing products made in the shop;-introducing new production processes and modernizing existing equipment; -mass-producing various pieces of equipment. The modernization must be carried out while the shop continues to operate, with no adverse effects on output or performance indices. Thus, the amount of work that must be done in the reconstruction and the complexity of the design changes should be evaluated in several stages. The actual reconstructsion work should also be done in stages.The order of the stages will be determined by the priority assigned to the various objectives, the financial impact, the degree to which the design changes are ready to be implemented, and whether or not the necessary planning and budget documentation has been completed. The optimum sequence for the stages in the reconstructsion program is as follows: conceptualization/setting of objectives; scientific research and experimental design work (preferably done on a competitive basis); design of the rebuilt shop, including determination of the main design features, determination of the composition of the equipment, and evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the changes; finalization of the investment plans; development of the specifications; construction. This scheme can be modified to speed up the completion of the project, i.e., some of the stages may be executed simultaneously.Proceeding on the basis of the above scheme and an analysis of the means by which it might be implemented, we can identify the following stages and establish the following tentative schedule for reconstruction of the ferroalloys shop at the Chusovoi Metallurgical Plant.First stage: organization of the new section for filtration and leaching of the vanadium pulp, which is intended to eliminate a bottleneck in the production process and will significantly improve the performance indices of the shop in the production of vanadium pentoxide; construction of a section for removing vanadium and manganese from the waste water, in order to solve the main environmental problem facing the plant. One feature of this stage is that work on it was begun bef...