On July 12, at the Institute of Coal Chemistry and Chemical Materials Science, it took place the first day of the Xth International Russian-Kazakhstan Symposium "Coal Chemistry and Ecology of Kuzbass". The symposium is held by the Federal Research Center for Coal and Coal Chemistry (FCC CCC) SB RAS (Kemerovo, Russia) in cooperation with the Scientific Research Institute for Combustion Problems (Almaty, Kazakhstan) annually. Its purposes are the exchange of experience for Russian and foreign scientists, coordination for researches on chemistry and technology in coal processing, usage of coal, biomass and other types of fuel, the exchange of scientific and technical information on the theoretical and technological foundations of environmental technologies, and on efficient wastewater treatment systems.
Due to the current epidemiological situation, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the symposium is being held as a teleconference. Seventy-eight connections have been recorded on the first day of the event. Scientists participated in are from Russia, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan; they have made twenty-two reports. It is remarkable that the symposium is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Kuzbass.
Recently, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, at the celebration on July 6, 2021, has said: "The tasks that the modern Kuzbass solves are aimed at its further broad, balanced, and effective development. It is necessary to actively modernize enterprises, create new jobs, and not only in usual for the region industries (coal mining, metallurgy, chemical industry), but also in light industry, agriculture, transport and tourism."
The highest scientific value of the symposium is confirmed by the participation of five academicians from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), two of whom are winners of the Global Energy Prize (equal to the Nobel Prize): Aleksey E. Kontorovich (in 2009), and Sergey V. Alekseenko (in 2020). The international status of the symposium is confirmed by the participation of: Academician Avid Budebazaryn, the chief scientific secretary of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences (Ulan Bator, Mongolia); Zulhair A. Mansurov, an academician of the MASHE, the head of the Institute for Combustion Problems.
The symposium has been opened by Academician Valentine N. Parmon, the chairman of the SB RAS and vice-president of the RAS. In his welcoming speech, the academician identified two tasks region faces. They are organization of large-scale coal processing, and environmental problems in coal-mining regions. He advised the participants to pay special attention to those issues that could help the implementation of the Kuzbass Program "Clean Coal - Green Kuzbass".
Academician Parmon said thanks to Academician Zinfer R. Ismagilov, the chairman of the organizing committee of the event, the scientific supervisor of the FRC CCC SB RAS, for consistently well organization of the symposium and wished effective cooperation, understanding, and active participation of young scientists. He noticed wide geography of participation, expressed his confidence that the experience of colleagues from China, and personal contacts are the solution to many problems of the Kuzbass region.
The honorary chairperson of the organizing committee Academician of the RAS Aleksey E. Kontorovich greeted the participants in the symposium, stressed that he has lived his childhood and youth in Prokopyevsk, Kuzbass; the ecological problems of the region are familiar to him not by hearsay.
The academician gave a historical background of the development in the coal industry and the Kemerovo region overall. He noticed that the industrial life of Kuzbass is about 130–140 years old: the industry received an impetus for development after the October Revolution in 1917. In the past, Kuzbass rendered great assistance to the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War with coking-coal. Nowadays, Kuzbass is the center of the coal, coal-chemical, metallurgical, chemical industries in Siberia and Russia as a whole.
He listed today's regional challenges: ecology, diversification, and creating a comfortable living environment. He stressed that the Kuzbass strategy should take into account global trends and projects to abandon carbon for energy, the Paris G7 agreements.
The strategy should focus on the main directions:
- Solving environmental problems (air, water, natural landscapes);
- Development of low-tonnage (coke tar) and large-volume (sorbents, humates) chemistry;
- Interconnection "government-business-science-universities".
The next speaker was Academician Zinfer R. Ismagilov. He presented the first plenary report "Environmental problems of the main coal mining region, Kuzbass". This report was devoted to the assessment of soil pollution with explosives, landscape disturbance, and carcinogenicity problems in the coal region. He also speculated on technological capabilities for solving environmental problems in Kuzbass, outlined the main scientific directions and developments of the FRC CCC SB RAS in this field:
- Clean-mining technology;
- Reclamation and conservation of biodiversity;
- Environmentally friendly catalytic combustion of fuels;
- Disposal of wastewater;
- Disposal of organic wastes, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons;
- Cleaning of flue gases and industrial gas emissions;
- Utilization and processing of coal mine methane;
- Production of humic preparations from brown coal of Kuzbass;
- Production of sorbents from Kuzbass coals;
- Gasification of coal, production of the synthesis gas and hydrogen;
- Processing of coal tar.
In the field of international cooperation, one of the most significant results was the establishment of Russian-Chinese Research Center for Materials and Technologies for Environmental Protection, which works on the following problems:
- Improvement of existing and creation of new materials, methods and technologies for the utilization of industrial and agricultural waste;
- Cleaning of gas emissions;
- Cleaning up and re-cultivation of contaminated soils;
- Biological and chemical treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater;
- Carrying out native promising research and development in this area.
Academician Ismagilov finished his report with the words: "For the fundamental solution of serious and urgent ecological problems in the coal region Kuzbass, it is necessary to urgently and entirely introduce traditional environmental technologies, supplement them with advanced scientific developments, improve existing production facilities, and ensure the purification of soil, water and air with new methods. The main task for the future is a radical change in the development of technologies, and creation of environmentally friendly facilities for deep processing of coal into high added value products."
Academician of the RAS Sergey V. Alekseenko proposed and described original experimental setups and methods for investigation of energy process in his report "Promising technologies for processing coal and waste in the energy sector".
Valery A. Kryukov, an academician of the RAS, reported his review "Coal chemical cluster in Kuzbass: between oil, gas and the future", in which he outlined the future 20 years of industrial development in Kuzbass
It is important to mention about the international and plenary reports. For example, Li Yongping, the general manager of the Chinese-Russian Techno Park (Changchun, China), with which a cooperation agreement was signed by the FCR CCC SB RAS, presented in detail their activity and achievements.
Another foreign participant Qiao Zhuangming, the chairman of the board of MeiQuan (Gaomi, China) talked about the strategy of the enterprise, financing of projects, technologies that were developed and implemented by the Shandong Environmental Protection Technology Company MeiQuan.
Avid Budebazaryn, the chief scientific secretary of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, presented the report "Properties of coal-pitch-like products of thermal solvolytic dissolution of coal sintering in technical hydrocarbon mixtures". The chemical, molecular composition and technical characteristics of the starting materials and products were characterized by methods of chemical, group, technical and thermal TG/DTG analysis, IRFT, 1H NMR, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas and liquid chromatography.
Zulkhair A. Mansurov, an academician of the MASHE, the scientific supervisor of the Institute of Combustion Problems, presented the review "Obtaining carbon materials from coal tar and heavy oil residues."
