“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.