Big River Steel awards water treatment plant to Russula
Russula is awarded one of the biggest contracts for Water Treatment Plants in the modern days of the steel industry. Planned to be operational by mid-2016, the new water treatment plant will treat and cool an average flowrate of 154,100 GPM of water from the meltshop, caster & hot strip mill, laminar and cold mill.
During April 2015, Big River Steel (BRS), located in Osceola, Ark., awarded the contract for the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) package for its state-of-the-art Flex Steel Plant to Russula Corp. of Dublin, Ohio.
This is one of the largest water treatment plant projects encompassing steelmaking, RH degasser, gas cleaning plant, casters, tunnel furnaces, CSP mill, pickling line/tandem cold mill, skin pass mill, continuous galvanizing line, batch annealing and all the auxiliaries involving a maximum total flow of approximately 35,000 m3/hour for the first phase of the project. The first phase of the brs project has an overall capacity of 1.6 million tons per annum (mtpa) which will be expanded to 2.5 mtpa and 3.0 mtpa during subsequent phases of the project.
Russula, headquartered in La Coruna, Spain, is a leading global supplier of electrical and automation systems for long product mills and reheat furnaces, green field and upgrade of long product mills and a specialist supplier for Water Treatment Plants specially designed for the steel industry. Russula has designed and supplied Water Treatment Plants for over 15 steel plants using its unique adaptation of the ring filter technology which maximizes the overall performance of the individual components and enhances the water quality to enable meet the stringent quality and discharge requirements set by the process supplier and statutory authorities respectively.
Russula has in-house capabilities for all aspects of the project and will design, supply, supervise, commission and integrate all the individual components of the non-contact and contact systems, including Scale Pits, Decanting Basins, Filtration Units, Waste Management including oil and sludge removal for this demanding process plant which includes many firsts, including the widest and thickest strip ever from a CSP, EAF mini-mill with RH Degasser for cleaner and more formidable steel, and several other aspects of innovative technology which will be a first for the industry.
Russula is responsible for all civil, mechanical and electrical design, mechanical and electrical equipment, installation supervision, commissioning and training. The project is on fast track for speedy implementation — a key aspect to attain this objective is supply of prefabricated piping, which will considerably cut down the construction period. Russula plans to commission the project within 14 months from the award date.
