HYDERABAD: State-owned iron ore miner NMDC on Saturday said it has commissioned the first coke oven battery (COB) at its Nagarnar integrated steel plant in Chhattisgarh.
“The first batch of coke was discharged this afternoon paving the way for the sequential commissioning of subsequent key units. Nagarnar steel plant being a greenfield integrated steel plant, several major units need to be commissioned sequentially so that their interdependence can be established smoothly,” NMDC said.
According to the Navratra PSU, the second coke oven battery is due to be commissioned in the next few days and the process will eventually culminate in the commissioning of the hot strip mill and thin slab caster in the coming months.
Each coke oven battery at the plant has 67 ovens that are seven metres tall with coke dry cooling plants to ensure dry quenching of coke using nitrogen to protect against pollution and utilise the head to generate power. When fully operational, the steel plant will have the capability to generate 80MW of power in-house out of the total requirement of 296MW.
The annual metallurgical coke production capacity of the steel plant’s coke oven complex, which has been constructed at a cost of Rs 1978 crore, is 1.76 million tonnes when fully operational.
NMDC said it has also commissioned a by-product plant, which is a prerequisite for starting the coke oven battery as it captures, treats and commercialises all the toxic elements produced during the coke making process.
The by-product unit enables pollution free coke production by extracting tar, naphthalene, sulphur and ammonia as by-products, NMDC added.
NMDC chairman and managing director Sumit Deb termed this as an important day in the history of the Nagarnar steel plant and a significant milestone in commissioning of the 3mtpa integrated steel plant.
According to Nagarnar Steel Plant executive director incharge Praveen Kumar, these eco-friendly coke oven batteries will produce coking coal without releasing toxic fumes.
NMDC’s Nagarnar steel plant aims to produce 2.89 million tonnes of high quality hot rolled coils, plates and sheets per annum using state of the art technology to achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency, it said.