One of the most urgent tasks facing Russian scientists and industrialists today is to create as many full-fledged value-added chains as possible within the country. That is, a set of industrial enterprises that cooperate with each other and provide the entire production cycle, from extraction of raw materials to the output of finished products. The implementation of such large-scale projects against the background of Western sanctions is not only desirable, but a necessary condition for the further development of the domestic economy.
On a global scale, for many years Russia acted mainly only as the first and sometimes the last link in such chains. In other words we either supplied natural resources to international markets, or were engaged in the final assembly of some products. For example, numerous German, Korean and Japanese car plants localized in our country worked according to this principle. All the parts for assembling cars were supplied there from abroad, where the high value-added raw materials that generated the main surplus capital took place.
It is obvious that no country in the world is able to meet 100% of its own needs. However, there is no doubt that we need to urgently increase the share of products that do not require imported components. Especially in such an important sphere as oil and gas chemistry.
This industry is now the cornerstone for the production of a huge range of goods, and in the future it will become even more important. Experts assure us that eight out of ten things around us are already made completely or partially from hydrocarbons. Not only are plastic bottles, plastic wrap or paint, but also baby pacifiers, diapers, chewing gum, cosmetics, toys and furniture. In a word, those products that are not immediately identifiable as being made from fossil fuels.
But can domestic enterprises manufacture them without using foreign "semi-finished products"? What measures need to be taken for the country to develop small- and medium-tonnage chemistry? How to ensure effective collaboration between business and scientists? The answers to these and other questions were searched for by the participants of the interregional scientific and practical conference "Increase of technological solutions within the framework of realization of problems of import substitution in chemical industry", which was recently held in Omsk.
The head of the Group of Companies "Titan" Mikhail Sutyaginsky called one of the most serious problems hindering the appearance of new investors and as a result hindering the progress of the industry the excessively long terms of the projects realization.
"It is necessary to choose a land plot and connect to the infrastructure. Meanwhile, it can take several years to obtain a land plot and a construction permit, to connect an object to power supply and water disposal, as well as to perform other mandatory procedures. I think it is important to reduce this time lag. At the end of last year we conducted focus groups on the subject of shortening the customer journey, re-engineering the rules of industrial construction. We sent the formed results to the relevant authorities," said Mikhail Sutyaginsky.
The St. Petersburg Mining University is sure that the state should more actively regulate the development process of the cornerstone areas of the Russian economy, contribute to improvement of the business climate and cooperation of the real production with scientific organizations. Its scientists who also took part in the conference have been cooperating with GC "Titan" for several decades already. In particular, they provided full scientific support for the construction of "Titan-Polymer" plant in the Pskov region, which was opened by Vladimir Putin personally last December.
"Now we are engaged in solving several problems at once related to the recycling of man-made waste from the Omsk Rubber enterprise, which is Titan's flagship. We have already developed a technology that makes it possible to safely store chromium-containing catalyst sludge. The level of its toxicity has been reduced to permissible values by changing the valence of chromium. Now we have to propose a way to recycle it in a useful way. For example, as a component for drilling or cement slurries used in oil production," explained Vyacheslav Rudko, Executive Director of the Mining University's Scientific Center for the Problems of Processing Mineral and Man-Made Resources.
Another area of research concerns the creation of value-added chains directly. University scientists are now conducting laboratory experiments related to the processing of another type of waste - phenolic resin. There are 4 plants in Russia, which generate it as a byproduct in the amount of about 35-40 thousand tons annually. There are also companies that are ready to buy it as a raw material for the manufacture of technical carbon (tires, paints and many other products are made of it). But only if it goes through several necessary stages of purification.
"Our task is not only to offer a ready-made scientific and technical solution to involve phenolic resin in production as a product, but also to prove its economic efficiency. This kind of research is not new to us. Last year, for example, we independently manufactured and put into operation a pilot unit for obtaining needle coke from hydrocarbon raw materials, which is in demand in the construction of electric arc metallurgical furnaces. We have already received the first pilot batches and proved that this highly liquid product, which is currently imported from abroad, can be produced here, in Russia," Vyacheslav Rudko assures.
Today our country's share in the world production of petrochemical products is just over one percent. In terms of its output, we yield not only to the U.S., China and the most developed European countries, but also to Thailand, Taiwan, Brazil and Iran. We do not produce a whole range of high value-added products, in particular, special composites and additives.