Trade Port Posiet Constructs Windscreens
Trade Port Posiet (part of Mechel Group’s transport division administered by Mecheltrans Management Company) launched construction and laying down foundations for dust- and windscreens. Investment in the project will total 180 million rubles.
A contractor is due to bring construction and assembly works to turnkey readiness. Stage-by-stage installation of dust- and windscreens along the port’s perimeter will begin simultaneously. Ultimately, the screens will close off the port operations area from the village of Posiet and partly from the sea.
The protective structures will consist of concrete foundations and metal vertical braces that will support perforated wave-shaped sheets 1.5 mm thick. The structures will be five to 20 meters high, extending for a total of 550 meters. In order to choose the best optimal solution, taking into account wind strength and directions, local landscape and the specifics of coal transshipment, the port has ordered mathematical modeling of the windscreens’ efficiency.
The screens’ primary goal will be to diffuse airstreams and decrease wind velocity so that suspended particles that escape into the air due to coal storage and transshipment, did not go beyond the port’s territory and settled in the port’s operations area thanks to its stationary and mobile dust suppression systems.
The first 82 meters of dust- and windscreens will be unveiled in the second quarter of 2022. The installation of the windscreens in their entirety will be complete in 2023.
“We are committed to making our operations as ecological as possible and annually invest major funds into environment-friendly projects while assessing their efficiency and making additional measures if necessary. Windscreens are one of nine best available technologies for coal terminals, and it will be the eighth such technology we implement. Once this project is complete, the level of protection from dust for the neighboring territories will reach 90%, which will definitely contribute to improving the overall level of Trade Port Posiet’s ecological safety,” Mecheltrans Management Company’s Chief Executive Officer Alexey Lebedev commented.
Trade Port Posiet is consistently implementing an ecological program in line with the pentalateral agreement with Primorye Region’s government, Russia’s federal port authority Rosmorport, federal environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor and Russia’s transport ministry. The port implemented a complex of measures to reduce its impact on the environment. Coal is now unloaded by wagon dumpers in closed space equipped with an aspiration system, which eliminates the possibility of coal dust escaping into atmosphere. Coal transfer stations are also equipped with aspiration systems. Conveyor lines are now covered by steel galleries for environment protection. When transferred to storage, coal is dampened by a water dispersion system installed on transshipment aggregates. In this year’s second quarter, the port launched the second stage of its computerized dust suppression equipment in open storage areas. The port uses mobile water cannons to sprinkle its storage areas.
Mechel’s investment in creating a specialized coal terminal at Port Posiet totaled over 4.5 billion rubles. The port’s transshipment capacity enables it to export up to nine million tonnes of coal to Asia Pacific annually.