SYKTYVKAR, March 20. /TASS/. Future of Vorkuta, a polar city in the Komi Region, is related to development of coal chemistry and integrated use of local coal. It is necessary to develop Vorkuta as a Russian Arctic backbone settlement, but at the same time it is important to relocate the polar city's excess population to the "mainland," Vitaly Lazhentsev, chief researcher at the Institute of Socio-Economic and Energy Problems of the North, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS.

"Vorkuta's future is in the deep restructuring of its economy and social sphere. This is clear from the city's military-strategic position in the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone and the importance of building up infrastructures of long-range aviation and the border guard's military units. Due to the structural transformation of the global energy sector and Russia's technological sovereignty, the integrated use of coal is becoming increasingly relevant, including the production of coke, liquid fuels, adsorbents, carbon graphite materials, and thermographs," the scientist told TASS.

The carbon chemistry direction is acceptable for Vorkuta, though with a proper feasibility study, taking into account latest achievements in hydrocarbon chemistry. "Academic sciences open up the industry's potential, however, no one is engaged in promoting its results towards design. If the federal government makes an appropriate decision specifically for Vorkuta, it could be implemented in 15-20 years. The issue lies in the organization," the scientist said.

In his opinion, the current situation largely depends on the upgrade pace of ferrous metallurgy based on gas and hydrogen with a significant reduction in coking coal consumption. Supposedly, Severstal will need Vorkuta coal for another ten years. It may also be required in restoration of the Donbass coal and metallurgical complex, where high-quality Vorkuta coal will be added to local, lower-quality coal. In that case, it would be quite realistic to have coal production in Vorkuta at 6-7 million tons a year.

"When restoring the Donbass coal and metallurgical complex, initially conventional coke metallurgy technology will be used, because there is simply no time to focus on introducing hydrogen and gas metallurgy. As for coke metallurgy, it is looking for ways to combine an acceptable price and an acceptable mixture in technological melting, where not very good Donetsk coal is combined with higher-quality, but expensive, Vorkuta coal, and that combination can fully satisfy metallurgists. In that case, those 6-7 million tons a year could be mined for 10-15 years, until there is a high-quality leap in the ferrous metallurgy, until production switches completely to gas or hydrogen, and then coke in this quantity will not be required, it will remain for, as they say, warming up the open-hearth furnace," the expert said.

Addressing social problems

It is unreasonable to solve Vorkuta's social problems based on the ideology of growth, he emphasized. It is absolutely necessary to accelerate the federal program to resettle people from the Far North. Simultaneously, it is necessary to upgrade housing and communal services, using Arctic design for industrial and social facilities, including mobile shift complexes.

"No matter what happens, the resettlement [of excessive population] program for Vorkuta residents must be carried out without fail and at an accelerated pace, otherwise we may face a situation where we will have to evacuate them. Everything has been planned thoroughly, we have a federal program of housing certificates for resettlement, but very small funds have been allocated for it," the scientist said.

Another direction in Vorkuta's development is to create a central processing plant for various ores located in the Polar Urals. Though, since this is not a very big production facility, it would be more reasonable to have it in circumpolar Inta, because Inta is an even more problematic single-industry town than Vorkuta, the scientist stressed.

"Concerns about Vorkuta's development of the coal industry are fair. But Vorkuta first of all is needed as an Arctic backbone settlement, as a location for long-range aviation, as a location to service the Yamal-Zapad big gas pipeline system, and for much more. However, the importance of coal will remain, and that's reasonable," the scientist said in conclusion.

Vorkuta is a polar city where 66,900 people live. About 6,000 residents are employed in coal mining and in auxiliary industries of the Vorkutaugol city-forming company, which has been part of the Aeon Corporation's Russian Energy Company since December, 2021.