September 26, 2024
Creation of an industry for secondary use of raw materials requires technological solutions and quality training of specialists. The top priority is to solve the problem of the insufficiency of inert materials and technologies for processing ash and slag from coal-fired plants.
Construction of plants at coal mines and introduction of waste quality control will improve the situation significantly. Priority use of ash and slag in public procurement and regional support can create the necessary infrastructure for processing these materials. Joint production and exchange of experience between regions will help resolve the problems of technological sovereignty. So, accelerating regional programmes for using secondary material resources could be key to the country's economic growth and environmental security. This conclusion was reached at the session ’The Dawn of the ‘Ash and Slag’ Century: Technological Sovereignty’ at the Russian Energy Week 2024 (REW).
KEY CONCLUSIONS
Regions, energy companies and federal authorities are closely engaged in involving and using ash and slag in the stream of commerce
“Our part of the work is, of course, the regulatory framework, which allows us to engage these resources in the stream of commerce, helping from both sides – from that of suppliers of the resource as ash, and from that of its utilization. [...] We have already mentioned the Government decree on mandatory use of ash and slag. Now what our colleagues have mentioned, of course, we are trying to bring it to the end and, this year, we will try to issue a document on priority use of ash and slag in public procurement,” Andrey Maximov, Head of the Department of Electric Power Development of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.
“We have moved from the stage of what can be done to that of how to do it. [...] Today we have a fundamentally new level of dialogue. We are not just talking about creation, about involving ash and slag in the stream of commerce. We are already talking about creating a whole industry of secondary use of secondary raw materials in the stream of commerce, secondary raw materials of power plants, ash and slag,” Irina Zolotova, General Director of the National Association of Secondary Material Application.
Joint production and exchange of experience will help resolve the problems of technological sovereignty
“We have established very good relations in the sphere of bulk materials processing. This concerns various products of the mining and chemical industries, including ash and slag. Here we have already established strong relations and a certain platform for exchange of contacts and technologies, for work of specialists in this sphere. There are already a number of projects,” Wen Peng, Chairman of SRON Silo Engineering.
Regional programmes for introduction of secondary material resources must be backed up by liability
“We understand that the mandatory share is not backed up by liability for failure to apply that mandatory share. We, on the Federation Council, are already concerned about this issue. Believe me, we have the resource. And we have discussed this matter with the Accounts Chamber. We understand what mechanism could be used to ensure that this government decision actually works,” Andrey Yatskin, First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
PROBLEMS
Shortage of technologies for processing ash and slag waste from coal-fired plants
“Today, the question is: what's next? We have created a special structural subdivision ‘Irkutsk ash and slag product’, we have mastered some technologies for producing ash products - curb products, curb stone and some paving tiles. But it seems to me that this is still not enough, it has a minor effect,” Vladimir Kolmogorov, General Director of En+.
Implementation of regional programmes for using secondary material resources must be speeded up
"In 2022, when the bill ‘Use of secondary material resources’ was prepared, our era seemed to have dawned. Yet, this is not the case. Inertia is so strong and, judging by this audience today, we are still few but we are strong, we must overcome this inertia,” Andrey Yatskin, First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
Lack of technology for deep processing of ash
“Owing to such new ideas, we have opened a department and a laboratory for deep processing of ash at our institute. Now we are developing and will build a laboratory reactor to extract rare earth metals and valuable light metal oxides. We hope this will work out. But, of course, we are still at the laboratory level when it comes to these technologies. And whether it will be possible to scale them up, we will really need to go a very long way,” Dmitry Belyaev, Director of the Strategic Transactions Department of RusHydro.
“We have old Soviet-era ash dumps, millions of tonnes. How can we extract it all? [...] We are now mulling over the idea of simply redeveloping these facilities,” Dmitry Belyaev, Director of the Strategic Transactions Department of RusHydro.
SOLUTIONS
Regional support and coordination of activities
“This year, a Russian delegation was sent to visit Chinese enterprises processing ash and slag. China’s experience is particularly attractive. We looked specifically at low-cement and cementless concrete, and technologies that have a huge commercial potential in Russia. Today, we are discussing whether the market is ready to embrace such new products, especially in the context of technological sovereignty. Meanwhile, China is known for being able to strengthen significantly its manufacturing competencies,” Vadim Kovalev, Deputy Chairman of the Commission on Economics and Labor Relations, Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.
Analysis of infrastructure and investment is required for producing a new development strategy
“In any case, the government today already realizes that we are becoming an energy-deficient region. We would like to put everything related to mining on pause, to sort out what we actually have, social infrastructure, housing construction, and everything related to the investment component. We have to suspend it for a year; we have to sort it all out for a year and then develop new agenda. [...] We need to look for ways, different ways, and find solutions. In 2019, we set up such a working group, and we included science, education and, of course, business, the community, those who have such waste on their sites today,” Igor Kobzev, Governor of the Irkutsk Region.
Building a big plant at a coal mine and fully recycling the waste
“The big problem is ash and slag waste. We still believe we need to switch to something different. In terms of coal utilization, the company plans to build a plant at a coal mine because ash and slag waste removal is also a big problem, transportation and so on. Having looked at how things work in China, we are planning to build a big plant and use this coal-fired plant not only to generate electricity but to fully process this waste. In this case, it will be a very profitable project from both the economic and the environmental point of view,” Vladimir Kolmogorov, General Director of En+.
Exchange of ash and slag processing and environmental protection experience
“We are now at the stage of the journey where there are prospects ahead. We just need to detail some areas, to see what we can do better, how we can better address issues related to environmental protection. This is very important. How we can share experience, important experience we need in the field of ash and slag processing,” Wen Peng, Chairman of SRON Silo Engineering.
Discussing and implementing legislative initiatives to involve secondary material resources in the stream of commerce
“We will be holding the Nevsky International Ecological Congress in St Petersburg next May. Here we are and here you are. You have implemented projects and you will be heard there by those who have so far been afraid and reluctant to use this procedure,” Andrey Yatskin, Senior Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
* This is a translation of material that was originally generated in Russian using artificial intelligence.
For more information, visit the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System at roscongress.org.
