NMDC’s Nagarnar Steel Plant commissions coke oven battery

Several major units need to be commissioned sequentially so that their interdependence can be established smoothly.

Battery No. 2 is due for commissioning 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.

Nagarnar Steel Plant aims to produce 2.89 million tonnes of high-quality HR coils, pates and sheets annually, using state-of-the-art technology and achieving the highest level of energy efficiency.

Sumit Deb, CMD, NMDC appreciating the collective effort described the development as “an important day in the history of Nagarnar Steel Plant and a significant milestone in commissioning of 3 MTPA Integrated Steel Plant”.

He exhorted the collective to “put all-around sincere efforts as a team to achieve the final milestone of commissioning the Plant”.

Commenting on the achievement, Somnath Nandi, director technical, NMDC said, “This is the first major step towards commissioning of the steel plant. Today’s development inspires confidence that we will soon fulfil the dream of a steel plant in Bastar.”

Praveen Kumar, ED in charge, Nagarnar Steel Plant highlighted that these eco-friendly coke oven batteries will produce coking coal without releasing any toxic fumes. He referred to today’s commission as ‘a validation of the team’s commitment’ and expressed confidence that the steel plant commissioning will also follow soon hereafter.

The annual metallurgical coke production capacity of Nagarnar Steel Plant’s coke oven complex is 1.76 million tonnes when fully operational.

Constructed at a cost of Rs1978 crore, the project is executed by a consortium comprising BEC (Bhilai), Giprokoks (GPK) of Ukraine, CUI and Concord.

The coke oven complex consists of two batteries of which battery number 1 was commissioned yesterday. Each battery has 67 ovens that are 7 metres tall and a coke dry cooling plant (CDCP) which will ensure dry quenching of coke using nitrogen.

This effectively protects against pollution and also helps in utilising the heat to generate power. When fully functional, Nagarnar Steel Plant has the capability to generate in-house 80MW of power of its total requirement of about 296 MW.

The byproduct plant, a critical unit that is intrinsically linked to the coke oven, was also commissioned. This is an absolute prerequisite for starting a coke oven battery because all toxic elements produced during the coke-making process are captured, treated and commercialised by the byproduct plant.

This unit effectively aids pollution-free coke production by extracting tar, naphthalene, sulphur and ammonia as byproducts. Hutni of Czechoslovakia is the technology provider.