Start-up and commissioning tests of the innovative complex of biological treatment facilities “Biosphere” have started at the Gazprom Neft Moscow Oil Refinery.

The new production facility of the Moscow Refinery was visited by the Mayor of Moscow S. Sobyanin and the Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Neft A. Dyukov.

Completion of the construction of the Biosphere is the final stage of work to minimize the impact of the enterprise on the aquatic environment as part of the environmental modernization program of the Moscow Refinery.

Moscow Mayor S. Sobyanin emphasized: “The Moscow Refinery is implementing a large-scale environmental program, as a result of which the level of the enterprise’s impact on the environment should decrease by approximately 4 times. Today the next stage of modernization has been completed. The Biosphere treatment plant has been built, which will ensure the most complete purification of wastewater. In addition, the enterprise will reduce water intake from the Moscow River by 2.5 times by reusing purified water in a closed cycle. This is good news for all residents of the capital and Moscow region. Especially for those who live near the plant and go for walks in parks located in the lower reaches of the Moscow River.”

Indeed, a unique technological system developed by domestic engineers will complete the formation of the plant’s water treatment complex and increase the efficiency of wastewater treatment to 99.9%. Besides this:

75% of the water used will be returned to the production cycle.

The consumption of fresh river water will decrease by 2.5 times and the load on the city treatment facilities of Mosvodokanal will be reduced.

These are enormous indicators that directly affect the growth of environmental friendliness of water consumption of the enterprise.

Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Neft A. Dyukov noted: “The Moscow Refinery is far from the only petrochemical enterprise operating within the boundaries of Moscow, but today it is the undisputed leader in terms of the scale of changes and the dynamics of production modernization. The projects that Gazprom Neft is implementing at the Moscow Refinery solve the company’s priority tasks of minimizing the impact of production on the environment, increasing the technological level and operational efficiency of the refinery. By investing in innovative environmental solutions and introducing modern digital production management technologies, we are setting new standards for industrial and environmental safety that will determine the further development of all Russian oil refining.”

Let us remind you that the construction of the Biosphere began in October 2015. This is an environmental project of a comprehensive program for modernizing the oil refining assets of Gazprom Neft.

By order of the Government of the Russian Federation, the construction of the “Biosphere” is included in the federal action plan for the Year of Ecology in Russia.

Investments - more than 9 billion rubles.

According to the associate professor of the Department of Biotechnology of the Russian Chemical-Technological University named after D.I. Mendeleev, Ph.D. Kuznetsova A.E., despite the high cost compared to other options, the MBR treatment technology is promising primarily for the treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater, especially in urban environments, since it can significantly increase the productivity of treatment facilities, increase their compactness and reduce occupied areas.

He also noted that in the world, due to the advent of a new generation of membranes and the increasing cost of urban land, there is a rapid growth in purification installations with MBRs - by 10-30% annually.

The complex includes a 2-stage flotation unit, a carbon filter, a membrane bioreactor, as well as reverse osmosis and dehydration systems.

In March 2016, the installation of steel tanks RVS-1000, intended for preliminary treatment of wastewater, began.

In June 2016, the Moscow Refinery began installing RVS-10000 tanks to collect industrial wastewater and balance it in composition before feeding it into the treatment system.

In August 2016, installation of a block of carbon filters began to remove organic compounds and petroleum products from industrial wastewater.

In December 2016, installation of flotation system equipment was completed (using pressure flotation technology, in which contaminants are removed from water using an air flow). In total, 6 devices were installed with a total capacity of more than 5 thousand m3/hour.

Specialist of the industrial water treatment project department at NPK Mediana-Filter M. Zavyalova spoke about the uniqueness of the project: “Biosphere biological treatment plant is designed to purify the production waste of the Moscow Refinery, and is a whole complex of new generation facilities. All wastewater passes sequentially through flotation units, biological treatment units, membrane and carbon filters, and a reverse osmosis unit. All equipment is designed to maintain stable operation under different operating conditions.

The membrane bioreactor planned for this installation will provide effective biological treatment of wastewater, and a unit for deep post-treatment of wastewater based on reverse osmosis units will produce highly purified water for reuse by the enterprise. After the launch of the complex, the volume of wastewater will be significantly reduced and, as now, will flow directly to the treatment facilities of Mosvodokanal. "Biosphere" waste treatment facilities are unique treatment facilities and have no analogues in Russia."

Throughout the entire period of construction of the complex, the Moscow Refinery systematically increased its water use efficiency indicators. Now Biosphere will begin to operate at full capacity, and further modernization of the Moscow Refinery will continue as planned until 2020.

The launch of the most modern Euro+ combined oil refining unit is ahead

Photo: Press service of the Mayor and Government of Moscow. Denis Grishkin

Thanks to the new Biosphere treatment facilities, the plant will be able to purify water from contaminants by 99.9 percent, and also reduce water intake from the Moscow River by two and a half times through the reuse of purified water.

The Moscow Oil Refinery (MRP) in Kapotnya launched new wastewater treatment facilities “Biosphere”. The project was implemented as part of a large-scale environmental program to modernize the enterprise.

“Since 2011, we have been implementing a large-scale program to improve the environment and quality of refinery products. Your products have made it possible to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere from cars, which hit the streets by the millions every day, by 20 percent, due to the high quality and environmental friendliness of the petroleum products you produce,” he said during an inspection of the new treatment facilities.

Another important project of the enterprise concerns the discharge of water into the Moscow River. The mayor of Moscow explained: “Today we are launching an installation that will ensure complete water purification, so that the wastewater will be generally cleaner than today in the Moscow River.”

The environmental modernization program of the Moscow Oil Refinery has been in effect since 2011 and includes five main projects. This is increasing the efficiency of wastewater treatment, reducing harmful emissions into the atmosphere, increasing the environmental class of automobile fuel and, accordingly, reducing the harmful impact of cars on the environment, reclamation of the plant territory, as well as the creation of an environmental control and monitoring system.

At the first stage of modernization, from 2011 to 2015, about 50 percent of environmental projects were implemented. This made it possible to reduce the plant’s harmful impact on the environment by approximately half. At the second stage, from 2016 to 2020, it will be reduced by another half.

The general director of the enterprise, Arkady Yegizaryan, said that the refinery is to build a combined Euro+ oil refining unit, which will reduce gas emissions into the atmosphere by another 15 percent. “We have now completed the construction of the Biosphere and are launching it. As Sergei Semenovich said, this is almost complete purification - 99.9 percent - of our wastewater; the water will be very clean. We will return 75 percent of it to the recycling cycle, thereby reducing the intake from the Moscow River by two and a half to three times and, accordingly, the discharge into the Moscow River,” he specified, adding that the river embankment near Kapotnya will be improved by July next year.​

Clean water

Last year, the liquidation of obsolete open-air treatment facilities and oil sludge storage facilities was completed here. They were replaced with closed mechanical treatment facilities. A major overhaul of the water supply and sewerage systems was also carried out.

As a result, the enterprise completely eliminated the discharge of untreated wastewater and eliminated surface evaporation from treatment facilities. The level of purification was increased to 95 percent, and the content of petroleum products in wastewater was reduced by six times.

This fall, the plant completed the final stage of creating a wastewater treatment system. The plant built new biological treatment facilities “Biosphere” with a capacity of up to 1,400 cubic meters of water per hour. They consist of a two-stage flotation unit, a membrane biofilter, a reverse osmosis system (purification of impurities at the molecular level), carbon filters and centrifuges for dewatering activated sludge and oil sludge.

The wastewater from the Moscow Refinery enters here after passing through closed mechanical treatment facilities. First, they are mixed to average the composition in tanks with a volume of 10 thousand cubic meters. Then, in the flotation unit, all mechanical impurities and petroleum products are knocked out of the wastewater with a powerful air flow.

After this, the water passes into the central part of the “Biosphere” - a membrane biofilter. It is designed to remove suspended solids, organic compounds and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus). This is where wastewater mixes with sludge, which contains bacteria that can absorb and process the remaining petroleum products. The sludge is filtered from the water using membranes with pores finer than a human hair.

At the end of the production chain, pressurized water is successively passed through carbon filters and reverse osmosis systems. At these stages, wastewater passes through 200 tons of activated carbon and 1,440 special membranes, the cell size of which is no larger than a water molecule.

These treatment facilities guarantee almost complete, up to 99.9 percent, removal of all pollutants from factory wastewater, which significantly exceeds regulatory requirements and corresponds to the best global indicators.

In addition, up to 75 percent of purified water will be returned to the production cycle. Accordingly, water intake from the Moscow River will be reduced by two and a half times.

“Biosphere” is a unique ecological structure that has no analogues in our country. The project was developed in Russia on the basis of advanced technologies for domestic oil refining. More than 50 percent of the equipment is Russian-made.

According to experts, today no more than two thousand installations for the treatment of industrial wastewater are used worldwide using membrane bioreactors, since this is the most expensive, but at the same time the most effective technology. Investments in the project for the construction of treatment facilities at the plant amounted to more than nine billion rubles.

Clean air

To reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere, the Moscow Oil Refinery decommissioned a small bitumen unit. It was switched to closed bottling technology, which made it possible to eliminate the unpleasant odor that arose during the bottling of bitumen.

Sulfur production plants were reconstructed here, significantly reducing emissions of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide. All technological installations began to run on environmentally friendly gas fuel.

From 2011 to 2015, the plant reduced air emissions by 36 percent.

Currently, the Moscow Refinery is constructing a new combined oil refining unit “Euro+”, which will replace the obsolete equipment of the small technological ring from the 1960s (five facilities). Its projected capacity is six million tons of oil per year. “Euro+” runs on environmentally friendly gas fuel, it is more compact, energy efficient, with a minimum of communications, joints and connections. Thanks to the installation, the plant will be able to reduce emissions from each ton of refined oil by up to 11 percent.

In addition, productivity will be doubled, energy efficiency will increase, and the area occupied by the installation will be reduced by 15 percent. The depth of oil refining will increase to 85 percent. The interval between scheduled repairs will increase from two to four years, which will ensure more stable operation of the enterprise.

Completion of Euro+ construction is scheduled for 2018.

Pure land

By 2015, the plant eliminated production waste accumulated during the Soviet period (before 1991).

Pure gasoline

From 2011 to 2013, the plant built a catalytic cracking gasoline hydrotreating unit and a light naphtha isomerization unit. In addition, the diesel fuel hydrotreating unit was reconstructed.

In 2013, the Moscow Refinery switched to the production of motor fuel (gasoline and diesel fuel) of the Euro-5 environmental class. When using it, car engines emit five times less sulfur compounds compared to Euro-4.

Environmental control and monitoring

A comprehensive system for monitoring the state of air, water and the geological environment has been created on the territory of the enterprise and in its surroundings. Also, eight chimneys are equipped with automated systems for local environmental monitoring of industrial emissions. And in residential areas adjacent to the Moscow Refinery, air pollution is assessed at the Kapotnya and Golovachevo automatic monitoring stations.

Capital oil refining—80 years old

The Moscow oil refinery was put into operation in 1938. Next year the capital's largest industrial enterprise will turn 80 years old.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, partial technical and environmental modernization was carried out here.

Now the plant annually processes more than 11 million tons of oil. The processing depth is 72.3 percent. It produces 30 products and more than 60 brands of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. Since 2013, manufactured products have complied with the Euro-5 environmental standard. The Moscow Refinery's share of the ecofuel market in the capital region is 38 percent.

The Moscow Oil Refinery is the largest supplier of bitumen for road construction in Russia and the largest taxpayer among industrial enterprises in the capital. The workforce numbers about two thousand employees. The average salary is 103 thousand rubles.

Environmentalists from the public organization “Green Patrol” visited the Moscow oil refinery and took wastewater samples, which were sent for analysis to an independent state chemical laboratory. Already in the fall, the new Biosphere treatment facilities will be operational at the refinery: a modern biological complex will expand the composition of the plant’s water treatment units and will destroy almost all pollutants. After the launch of “Biosphere”, ecologists will come to the refinery again, take a new sample and analyze the wastewater - to compare it with the first sample. This will ensure the effectiveness of the new cleaning complex and the environmental technologies used at the plant.

The construction of the Biosphere treatment facility complex is one of the stages of modernization of the enterprise and an important part of the environmental protection program that the owner of the plant, the company Gazprom Neft, has been implementing since 2011. The territory of the plant where Biosphere is currently being built was previously considered environmentally unfavorable. But in recent years the situation has changed radically: according to the chairman of the board of the all-Russian public organization “Green Patrol” Andrei Nagibin, the Moscow Refinery may well qualify for a “Green Certificate”.

This decision will be made after studying the information and monitoring the operation of the installation. But the openness of the enterprise and the demonstrated technologies were already appreciated by us today,” said Andrey Nagibin. - The Moscow Refinery has been under our close attention for several years now. In the 90s, it posed a real environmental threat to the city. Particular concern was caused by air pollution and groundwater contamination by oil sludge accumulated over 70 years on the territory of the enterprise, in the so-called “Black Sea”. Today, on the site of this foul-smelling sludge reservoir, we see modern biological treatment facilities built. Already now there are no sharp unpleasant odors on the territory of the enterprise. There is absolutely no runoff into the river, all open evaporation surfaces have been eliminated, the water is purified with an efficiency of 95%, and after the launch of the “Biosphere” there will be an almost closed cycle of water consumption.

Biosphere will use multi-stage wastewater treatment technology, unique for domestic oil refining. First, the wastewater will be driven through reliable mechanical treatment facilities that are already in place. Then - through the “Biosphere”: the water will pass through flotation units, biological treatment units, membrane and carbon filters, and a reverse osmosis installation.

The Biosphere treatment facilities use special bacteria that are capable of absorbing and processing residual petroleum products, says Yuri Erokhin, head of the industrial safety and ecology department of the Moscow Refinery. - In the final, the purified water will pass through several hundred tons of activated carbon, as well as membranes whose pores are the size of a water molecule.

Plant experts have calculated that after the Biosphere is put into operation, the plant will reduce water consumption by two and a half times. Almost 75% of purified water will be reused in production - thus creating an almost closed cycle of its consumption.

Dramatic changes at the Moscow Refinery in the field of ecology began back in 2011 with the arrival of the new owner Gazprom Neft, says Roman Pukalov, director of environmental programs of the Green Patrol organization. “Over these years, emissions of pollutants into the air have been significantly reduced, a system of comprehensive control over their concentrations has been introduced, a huge buffer pond, the so-called “Black Sea,” has been completely eliminated, and a complex of closed mechanical treatment facilities has been built. The company does not discharge its wastewater into the Moscow River, but cleans it independently and then directly transfers it to the city wastewater treatment plants. After the launch of Biosphere, the load on city wastewater treatment plants should be significantly reduced.

By the way, the launch of the Biosphere wastewater treatment plant is included in the federal program of events for the Year of Ecology in Russia.

Practical measures, such as the launch of the “Biosphere” at the Moscow Refinery, are already bringing real, tangible benefits to the country’s ecology, says Andrei Nagibin, chairman of the board of the all-Russian public organization “Green Patrol”. - It is gratifying to note that the process of environmental modernization has been going on at the Moscow Refinery for several years, regardless of the Year of Ecology, and will continue in the future.

HELP "KP"

Gazprom Neft has invested 250 billion rubles in the modernization of the Moscow Refinery. Since 2011, thanks to the reconstruction of treatment facilities, the enterprise has reduced its production impact on the environment by 50% and reduced emissions into the atmosphere by 36%. It is planned that after the implementation of the next stage of environmental protection measures, by 2020 the plant’s impact on the environment will be reduced to almost zero.

At the Gazprom Neft Moscow oil refinery, commissioning tests of the innovative complex of biological treatment facilities “Biosphere” have begun. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Chairman of the Board of Gazprom Neft Alexander Dyukov visited the new production facility of the Moscow Refinery.

The construction of the Biosphere installation is an environmental project of a comprehensive program for the modernization of Gazprom Neft’s oil refining assets, one of the key priorities of which is the consistent reduction of the production load on the environment. By order of the Russian government, the construction of the Biosphere is included in the federal action plan for the Year of Ecology in Russia. Gazprom Neft's investments in the project amounted to 9 billion rubles.

Completion of the construction of the Biosphere is an important stage in the plant’s environmental modernization program and its final stage in terms of minimizing the impact on the aquatic environment. A unique technological system developed by domestic engineers will complete the formation of the plant’s water treatment complex and increase the efficiency of wastewater treatment to 99.9%. Through the use of modern technologies, Biosphere will provide a closed cycle of water consumption and significantly reduce the load on the city wastewater treatment infrastructure. The Moscow Refinery will reduce river water intake by 2.5 times, and 75% of treated wastewater will be returned back to production.

“The Moscow Refinery is implementing a large-scale environmental program, as a result of which the level of the enterprise’s impact on the environment should decrease by approximately 4 times. Today the next stage of modernization has been completed. The Biosphere treatment plant has been built, which will ensure the most complete purification of wastewater. In addition, the enterprise will reduce water intake from the Moscow River by 2.5 times by reusing purified water in a closed cycle. This is good news for all residents of the capital and Moscow region. Especially for those who live near the plant and go for walks in parks located in the lower reaches of the Moscow River,” said Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

Chairman of the Management Board of Gazprom Neft Alexander Dyukov noted: “The Moscow Refinery is far from the only petrochemical enterprise operating within the boundaries of Moscow, but today it is the undisputed leader in terms of the scale of changes and the dynamics of production modernization. The projects that Gazprom Neft is implementing at the Moscow Refinery solve the company’s priority tasks of minimizing the impact of production on the environment, increasing the technological level and operating efficiency of the refinery. By investing in innovative environmental solutions and introducing modern digital production management technologies, we are setting new standards for industrial and environmental safety that will determine the further development of all Russian oil refining.”

Reference

“Biosphere” is a multi-stage wastewater treatment system, where industrial wastewater enters after preliminary treatment at the existing mechanical treatment facilities of the Moscow Refinery. At the first stage, the water passes through a pressure flotation unit, where all remaining mechanical impurities and oil products are knocked out with a powerful air flow. After the flotators, the water passes into the central part of the installation - the membrane bioreactor.

Here, wastewater is mixed with sludge, which contains microorganisms that can absorb and process residual oil products. They are adapted to this environment and were grown especially for the “Biosphere” at the Lyubertsy wastewater treatment plant of the Mosvodokanal. After the sludge has fulfilled its function, it is filtered through thousands of membranes whose pores are smaller in diameter than a human hair. This is the most advanced water purification solution available. In addition, the tank is completely waterproofed, all exhaust gases undergo special cleaning at photoionization stations, which guarantee complete removal of odors and pollutants. The air is first purified using filters and then disinfected with ultraviolet light.

Finally, purified water under pressure is successively passed through 200 tons of activated carbon, and then through 1,440 reverse osmosis membranes, the cell size of which is no larger than a water molecule. Only after this the purified water goes back into production, and the filtered petroleum products go into processing. Part of the purified water is transferred through pipes directly to the city wastewater treatment plants. The enterprise has no open drains into the Moscow River. Even rainwater is collected in the storm drainage system and treated.