Big River Steel awards Russula water treatment complex for Flex Mill™ expansion
In January 2019, Big River Steel awarded Russula a contract to supply the water treatment solution for Big River Steel’s Flex Mill™ expansion that will double the hot-rolled steel production capacity to 3.3 million tons annually. Russula designed and supplied the 154,000 gpm water treatment complex for the first phase of Big River Steel, delivered in 14 months from the contract award date.
This expansion was contemplated in the original layout of the water treatment complex which is divided into four areas to treat water from the meltshop, continuous caster, hot strip mill, and cold mill. Part of the existing installations will be expanded and other areas entirely built from scratch. In order to double capacity, BRS will be adding a new meltshop and continuous caster, which will require three new water treatment areas, for the meltshop, continuous caster and waste water. The existing make up water and HSM areas will be expanded. In total, the new expansion will treat an additional 92,000 gpm of water critical to the steel process. Energy efficiency, water preservation, and environmental stewardship are the considerations at the forefront of the expansion design basis.
The basic engineering for the water treatment expansion began in January of this year. The startup is estimated for the fourth quarter, 2020.
About Big River Steel
Big River Steel invested $1.3 billion to build and start up the world’s first Flex Mill™. The mill produces a wide product spectrum of advanced automotive steels and motor lamination and semi-processed non-grain oriented electrical steels. Since operations began in early 2017, Big River Steel has provided steel products to nearly 200 customers in the automotive, energy, construction and agricultural industries. The expansion will permit BRS to produce higher grades of electrical steels that can be used to improve energy efficiency in hybrid and electric vehicles.
About Russula
Russula is a global engineering company serving the largest steel producers in more than 35 countries. With its headquarters and workshop located in the province of A Coruña, Spain, the company has major offices in Brazil, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia and two offices in the USA. Russula has implemented over 190 electrical and mechanical upgrades and greenfield water treatment plants in the United States and Canada alone.
