The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
ROURKELA, SEPT 4, 2021
In line with the National Steel Policy, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) plans to increase its annual Hot Metal production capacity from the current level of 4.5 Million Tonnes per Annum (MTPA) to 4.855 MTPA.
Simultaneously, Crude Steel Production of RSP, a unit of Maharatna company SAIL, will go up from 4.2 MTPA to 4.85 MTPA and Saleable Steel Production from 3.880 MTPA to 4.325 MTPA, RSP said in a statement on Saturday.
The new Units that have been planned as a part of this project are a new Coke Oven battery, a new Steel Melting Shop, a new Oxygen Plant, a Normalizing Furnace in its existing New Plate Mill, a Natural Gas Pipe Line network throughout the plant and adoption of technological measures for enhancing capacity of the existing Blast Furnaces.
The technological measures planned in the Blast Furnaces include charging of pellets, increasing Hot Blast Temperature by installing a new stove in Blast Furnace-5 and oxygen enrichment.
The New Coke Oven Battery – 7 with production capacity of 0.770 MTPA will be established near the existing Coke Ovens Battery-6. Similarly the new Steel Melting Shop-3 with a proposed capacity of 1.15 MTPA will be set up adjacent to the existing Steel Melting Shop-1.
The New Oxygen Plant with a capacity of 1000 Tons per Day, that is planned to be set up near the existing Oxygen Plant will not only meet the enhanced capacity expansion of the Blast Furnaces, but will also provide medical oxygen, whenever the country will need it.
The proposed Normalizing Furnace with 0.3 MTPA capacity will be installed inside the New Plate Mill so as to cater to niche market segments.
Under green initiatives, RSP is planning to utilize Natural Gas in various units. Hence a Natural Gas pipeline network has been planned, which will minimize the use of fossil fuels like coal and thereby making the steel making process further cleaner and greener.
A major highlight of these projects is that all the proposed projects will be taken up within the existing boundary of RSP. Besides, all these proposed projects are designed with state of the art Environment friendly technologies based on “Zero Discharge” concept. Hence there will be no fresh water drawl from River Brahmani. Different types of air pollution control systems will be installed to minimize the air pollution and no cutting of trees will be required.
It is worth mentioning here that, RSP, which is the first Public Sector Integrated Steel Plant of the country, during its 6 decades long journey has so far provided over 92 million tonnes of steel for nation building.
RSP’s steel has gone in for use in defence, space, automobile and construction sectors, besides being used for various other developmental and welfare activities. The Steel Plant has so far contributed more than Rs 22,000 crore to the state and central exchequers and has also transformed the whole region to a thriving industrial belt. It provides sustenance to lakhs of people who directly or indirectly depend on it.
The proposed expansion of RSP will not only enhance the production capacity of the Steel Plant but will also further strengthen the economy of the region and improve the quality of life of people residing in and around Rourkela.
