Qarmet continues the large-scale gasification of its metallurgical plant in Temirtau. The company is implementing the next stage of the program — expanding the use of natural gas to other technological processes of the enterprise. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
In 2025, Qarmet completed the first major stage of gasification. The blast furnace production and the methodical furnaces of sheet-rolling shop No. 1 were switched to natural gas. This made it possible to include natural gas in the enterprise's fuel balance and eliminate the use of more expensive and less environmentally efficient fuels. In particular, the conversion of blast furnaces allowed abandoning significant volumes of fuel oil previously used in the production process.
As part of the second stage, this year the plant plans to receive more than 10 thousand cubic meters of natural gas per hour. The gas will be used to further expand gasification of the enterprise's production units. One of the main areas of current work is the oxygen converter shop, where pig iron is converted into steel. Here, it is planned to replace coke gas and propane-butane mixture with natural gas.
Another important area is lime kiln No. 2. Under the project, shaft and rotary kilns are planned to be switched from coke gas and fuel oil to natural gas. At the most advanced sections of the project, certain types of construction and installation works have already reached 90% readiness.
"On the internal part of the facility, the degree of readiness is even higher. Installation of main supports, pipelines, and shut-off valves has been completed. Beams, cantilever structures, L-shaped half-frames, and individual elements of the gas pipeline system are fully installed. In parallel, work continues at other facilities of the converter shop and lime kiln No. 2: as the construction part is completed, specialists proceed to the installation of metal structures, pipelines, fittings, and process equipment," project engineers note.
Expanding gasification is not just replacing one type of fuel with another. The project is part of a comprehensive modernization of the metallurgical plant and aims to improve the economic, technological, and environmental efficiency of production.
The use of natural gas allows consistently reducing the dependence of technological processes on fuel oil, coke gas, and propane-butane mixture, optimizing costs, and more flexibly managing the enterprise's fuel and energy balance. The environmental effect is no less important. Expanding the use of natural gas helps reduce emissions associated with burning traditional fuels and becomes one of the tools for reducing the impact of metallurgical production on the environment.
In addition, the creation of an extensive gas infrastructure forms the basis for further modernization of units. New and upgraded production capacities of Qarmet are designed taking into account modern requirements for energy efficiency, production economics, and environmental friendliness of technological processes.
Thus, Qarmet is forming a unified modern energy infrastructure of the enterprise. Gasification, along with the construction of new production complexes and deep modernization of existing capacities, is becoming one of the key components of the large-scale transformation of the plant.