Test plant in Narva to extract calcium carbonate from oil shale ash
A pilot plant planned for an industrial park in the eastern city of Narva will refine calcium carbonate from oil shale ash, utilizing the plentiful slag heaps in the region.
The industrial park is considering building local power stations to keep electricity costs low enough to maintain competitiveness for the company, Ragn-Sells.
Ragn-Sells subsidiary R-S OSA Service has been studying the options for using oil shale ash for more than five years. Successful lab tests found extracting calcium carbonate as a valuable by-product is a viable process. Other by-product extraction may also be possible in the future.
"There is also silicon, iron, aluminum, potassium, magnesium, and all kinds of other compounds in the ash, though initially, we have concentrated precisely on reaching the commercial phase via calcium carbonate production," R-S OSA Service board member Alar Saluste said.
The pilot plant is aimed at assessing how practical mass industrial production of these raw materials will be. The facility will have an output capacity of 50 tons per year; any main plant could produce 10 times more than that.
"Our production costs in Estonia are perhaps most affected by the price of energy, which in my opinion is a concern for all producers today. One of the ideas behind this pilot plant is precisely that, if we see energy prices being a problem, then we can through this plant actually search for those solutions to make things more economical and to bring a competitive price to market," Saluste added.
Narva industrial park, which rents premises to the ash processing pilot plant, sees the solution to the energy question in building local power stations near larger factories.
IVIA, which aids manufacturing and logistics companies set up in Northeastern Estonia, is involved in the project.
"If electricity production takes place locally, then there is no need to pay network fees, meaning it is with a direct line – from the producer directly cable to the consumer. The other aspect is that if there is a company which consumes in large volume and a company which generates for that, then those two companies can always agree on the market and also on an agreed price," IVIA board member Teet Kuusmik said.
If the project turns out commercially feasible, Ragn-Sells says it has a very wide scope for similar industry in Ida-Viru County.
Over half a billion tons of ash have been deposited down the years in Ida-Viru County's ash slag heaps. This is enough for several centuries' worth of raw material, proponents say.
Calcium carbonate has a wide range of industrial applications, including construction, paper, plastics, paints, agriculture, environmental applications, and steel production.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Johanna Alvin
Source: "Aktuaalne kaamera"
