Processing

“Processing Plant” is a special branch in which the process of coal of the same name takes place, as well as the processing of raw coal from the opencast mines “Field C” and “Field E”, of the Mining Basin “Kolubara”. This is necessary in order to obtain the range needed for the supply of thermal power plants, consumer goods and industry.

The following organizational parts operate within the “Processing Plant”: Centre for Professional Affairs, three plants and the Centre for Coal and Wastewater Testing.

1. The Centre for Professional Affairs performs production-technical and technology improvement jobs and investment construction, economic, legal, personnel and general affairs

2. In the Dry Separation, raw coal from open cast mines “Field C” and “Field E” is crushed and classified, in order to obtain the range of coal needed for thermal power plants, consumer goods, industry and the Heating Plant. Phases I, II and III, with a total capacity of 4,000 t/h, are in operation.

3. There are four operating units in the Coal Processing plant:

– Wet Separation, where raw coal is cleaned in a difficult environment (suspension of water and sand) and prepared for the drying process. In addition to washed coal, during the process of Wet Separation, both overburden, being transported by cable car to the stockyard, and wastewater are separated.

– The system of conveyor belts from Wet Separation delivers coal to the Drying Plant (which also includes Classifying Plant). Coal drying is performed in cylindrical autoclaves (steel vessels) with saturated steam, at high pressure and temperature. The designed capacity of the Drying Plant is 855,000 tons. After the additional drying process, the coal is transported to the dried coal bunker, and from there to Classifying Plant, where it is separated by its assortment.

– The Heating Plant is a thermal energy facility, with a capacity of 2x60 MW, intended for the production of thermal energy, which is needed for the technological process in production plants, as well as for heating industrial plants and the municipality of Lazarevac. Water used in steam boilers is supplied from a chemical water treatment plant, with capacity 3 x 60 m3/h. The flue gases are purified in an electrostatic precipitator before being discharged through the chimney. The ash from the electrostatic precipitator and the slag from the boiler are hydro-pneumatically transported to the ash dump. Wastewater is treated in a separate plant.

– Operating unit Maintenance performs preventive and investment maintenance, production of spare parts for Wet Separation, Drying and Heating Plants.

4. Coal is transported by railway from open cast mines to the Wet Separation. In this plant, wagons are ranked and brought by the PE “Serbian Railways” with dried coal to the station Drying Plant, wagons for the thermal power plant “Nikola Tesla” in Obrenovac on Wet Separation and wagons for TPP “Kolubara” in Veliki Crljeni. This plant also deals with the current maintenance of traction equipment, wagons, tracks and overhead lines.

5. The Centre for Coal and Wastewater Testing has the first accredited laboratory for testing the quality of coal in Serbia. Annually, the laboratory performs analyses of 22,000 to 23,000 coal samples and until 2,500 to 3,000 water samples.

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