Puławy, July 19th 2007 

ASH TO GO TO CONSTRUCTION SITES RATHER THAN TO DUMP YARDS

ZA PUŁAWY’S COOPERATION WITH ENERGO MINERAL BRINGS FRUIT

Zakłady Azotowe Puławy S.A. (“ZA Puławy”) has commissioned a state-of-the-art unit for storing and loading ash. The unit was built by Energo Mineral of Katowice, a subsidiary of the German conglomerate Steag. It will facilitate the management of ash produced as a result of coal burning in ZA Puławy’s combined heat and power plant. Thanks to the new unit the ash can be used in the construction industry instead of being deposited on the local dump yard.

The unit consists of a 2,000 cubic metre ash bunker, loading equipment, compressed air pipelines and auxiliary installations. It will enable fly ash to be stored and loaded directly from under electrostatic precipitators. The expenditure on the project amounted to around EUR 1.3m. The agreement between Energo Mineral and Azoty was concluded for 10 years. It is projected that Energo Mineral will collect and utilise the entire dry ash, which is to be used in the construction industry.

ZA Puławy uses 700 thousand tonnes of coal annually. When burnt, this amount of fuel generates around 150 thousand tonnes of ash. The agreement with Energo Mineral brings two benefits to Azoty. First, it will enable the ash to be utilised without expensive storage. Second, the ash blowing issue will be minimised.

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ENERGO Mineral Sp. z o.o. of Katowice is a wholly-owned subsidiary of STEAG Entsorgungs-GmbH, a part of the STEAG AG conglomerate of Essen, Germany. STEAG AG is in turn a member of the RAG conglomerate, whose business rests on three pillars: specialist chemistry, basic chemistry (Degussa), and power sector.