In the new workshop of OJSC "Novolukoml Expanded Clay Gravel Plant", blocks will be produced, the analogues of which are not available in the republic and the CIS.
The production site, equipped with high-tech European equipment, can produce up to 70 thousand cubic meters of expanded clay concrete products per year. This is almost 5 times higher than the current production capacity of the plant. Currently, the workshop is operating in a commissioning mode, but serial production of products, including innovative findings in the construction industry mastered by Novolukoml industrialists, is planned to be launched there in April 2013.
– The implementation period of the investment project was determined to be 20 months and expires in the autumn of next year, – says the plant director Mikhail Lazarashvili. – But within 9 months, we have already erected the building, installed the equipment, and started commissioning works. We plan to commission the facility in the spring, which is six months ahead of schedule. In these areas, we are mastering the production of new types of products, including expanded clay blocks. With a wall thickness of only 40 centimeters, they have a thermal resistance that existing analogues in the republic provide with a thickness of at least 50 centimeters. In addition, the new workshop will use and is already installing expensive purification systems that ensure a dust emission concentration at the outlet not exceeding 5 milligrams per cubic meter of air.
The production of expanded clay is quite energy-intensive. Therefore, even before the workshop was put into operation, the plant employees provided for a number of measures aimed at the rational use of resources, and the extraction of additional heat and electricity for the new site.
Mikhail Guramovich reported that a cogeneration unit using Czech technologies is currently under construction at the plant. This will provide 90 percent of the electricity and 56 percent of the heat consumed annually by the entire enterprise.
It should be noted that the modernization of the enterprise is carried out in parallel with the reduction of not only energy costs, but also harmful emissions into the atmosphere. The plant has spent a considerable amount of money on numerous environmental protection measures, with the electrostatic precipitator alone costing almost 2.5 million dollars. In addition, the Novolukoml plant has passed ISO 14000 certification for its environmental management system, which automatically removes barriers to international trade and opens up new sales markets for the Pridvinsk manufacturer.