Newsletter 19

WATER SOLUTIONS | Russula Newsletter No. 19 | November 2019
Big River Steel awards Russula water
treatment complex for Flex Mill
expansion
In January 2019, Big River Steel awarded Russula a
contract to supply the water treatment solution for
Big River Steel’s Flex Mill expansion that will double
the hot-rolled steel production capacity to 3.3
million tons annually. Russula designed and supplied
the 154,000 gpm water treatment complex
for the first phase of Big River Steel, delivered in 14
months from the contract award date.
This expansion was contemplated in the original
layout of the water treatment complex which is divided
into four areas to treat water from the meltshop,
continuous caster, hot strip mill, and cold
mill. Part of the existing installations will be expanded
and other areas entirely built from scratch. In
order to double capacity, BRS will be adding a new
meltshop and continuous caster, which will require
three new water treatment areas, for the meltshop,
continuous caster and waste water. The existing
make up water and HSM areas will be expanded.
In total, the new expansion will treat an additional
92,000 gpm of water critical to the steel process.
Energy efficiency, water preservation, and environmental
stewardship are the considerations at the
forefront of the expansion design basis.
The basic engineering for the water treatment expansion
began in January of this year. The startup is
estimated for the fourth quarter, 2020.
About Big River Steel
Big River Steel invested $1.3 billion to build and
start up the world’s first Flex Mill. The mill produces
a wide product spectrum of advanced automotive
steels and motor lamination and semi-processed
non-grain oriented electrical steels. Since
operations began in early 2017, Big River Steel has
provided steel products to nearly 200 customers in
the automotive, energy, construction and agricultural
industries. The expansion will permit BRS to
produce higher grades of electrical steels that can
be used to improve energy efficiency in hybrid and
electric vehicles.
Russula will be supplying the
water treatment solution for
the Big River Steel Flex Mill
expansion that will double the
hot-rolled strip production to
3.3 MTpy. The new expansion
will treat an additional 92,000
gpm of water critical to the
steel process.
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