Yellow River Ecological Tour, Into Inner Mongolia|Zero emission of rare earth industry, how does Baotou achieve it?
In the production workshop of the North Rare Earth Smelting Branch (Huamei Company) (hereinafter referred to as Huamei) in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the white salt grains are filled into bags by the machine and discharged neatly. "This is ammonia fertilizer produced by recycling wastewater from the rare earth separation production process. Liu Yongjun, an employee of the company, pointed to the production line and introduced to reporters, "Since 2015, we have invested 700 million yuan in wastewater treatment, and we have completely achieved zero wastewater discharge." ”
"The rare earth industry is special, and there are many reusable resources in production wastewater, mainly ammonia, nitrogen and other elements. Gao Chong, head of the Baotou Ecological Environment Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment, told reporters, "Baotou's rare earth enterprises are close to the Yellow River, and the wastewater treatment is not good, which is very harmful to the water environment." ”
Enterprises also understand this, but enterprises have difficulties with enterprises. The amount of wastewater generated in the process of rare earth production is large, taking Huamei as an example, the factory produces about 3,000 tons of ammonium sulfate wastewater every day, the cost of recycling is high, the process is complex, and it requires extremely high investment to truly achieve zero wastewater discharge. However, rare earth wastewater contains a large number of economically valuable substances, and reuse can create greater economic benefits.
To this end, based on the location characteristics of rich rare earth minerals, numerous enterprises and close to the Yellow River, the Baotou Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment promotes rare earth enterprises to increase energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental pollution control, and continues to promote the "three wastes" treatment and standard emission technology transformation.
Huamei is the first wave of "crab-eating" enterprises. With the help of Baotou Ecological Environment Bureau, Huamei has greatly improved the utilization rate of reclaimed water, and completed the transformation and construction of environmental protection projects such as ammonium sulfate wastewater treatment system, carbon sedimentation/saponification wastewater clarification and filtration system, fluorine-containing wastewater treatment system, magnesium sulfate wastewater treatment system, and waste acid recovery system.
In this process, Huamei is also constantly improving the purification method of industrial salt. The sodium chloride and sodium sulfate originally extracted using the sodium method could only be used for winter snow removal, and the demand was small, resulting in a large amount of industrial salt piling up in the warehouse. "At that time, when we went to the factory, what we saw when we opened the door was not rare earths, but the salt of white flowers. Gao Chong talked about the picture he had seen during the previous inspection.
Later, Huamei adjusted the purification process and used the ammonia method, and the extracted ammonia salt was turned into fertilizer. "The production line you see can sell 5 million ammonia every year. "The sound of the booming machine can't stifle the laughter of the employees, which is a lot of income for them.
Through resource utilization, Huameinian has treated a total of 1,291,600 m³ of ammonium chloride wastewater and ammonium sulfate wastewater, and recovered 36,400 tons of 70% sulfuric acid, 12,000 tons of 98% sulfuric acid, 18,400 m³ of hydrofluoric acid, 33,600 tons of ammonium sulfate, and 16,000 tons of ammonia.
There are also surprises along the way. "In the past, we had to take water from the Yellow River and groundwater for production, and through reuse of reclaimed water, we reduced underground water extraction by 954,100 m³ per year. Liu Junyong believes that recycling not only protects the environment, but also saves resources and increases profits, which is really a triple win.
Nowadays, zero wastewater discharge is also being promoted in the rare earth industry in Baotou City. "At present, the city's rare earth enterprises have implemented and completed the wastewater resource utilization project, and all of them have realized that the wastewater is not discharged, which fundamentally solves the wastewater pollution problem of the city's rare earth industry. Gao Chong said.
