ROURKELA: Officers and employees of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) continue to sweat it out for the last 15 days to fully revive the Blast Furnace (BF)-V as during its partial run, hot metal production reached about 3,500 tonnes on Thursday.
Yet, technical experts in the RSP apprehend that the management’s haste in restoring production may backfire as the inferior quality hot metal with high silicon content at later stage may damage the refractory linings of the BF and the converters. Apparently, the management is under intense pressure as failure of the BF-V had rendered several downstream production units idle.
BF-V, on an average, produces about 8,000 tonnes of hot metal daily. After its erratic functioning since May 15, the operation of BF-V had completely stopped on May 18. Sources said as part of the revival process, at least 30 of the 36 tuyeres have been put to use and low-quality hot metal is getting tapped through Tap Hole-1. The hot metal is now getting transferred by open top container, instead of torpedo, to the converter of Steel Melting Shop (SMS)-1 & II to produce liquid steel. The liquid steel is then converted into crude steel via caster for use as raw material for downstream units to produce low-quality plates and HR coils. Sources said at a time when the RSP is reeling under financial crisis, hot metal with high silicon content may prove detrimental to the campaign life of the refractory linings of the BF-V and the converter of SMS-II when the BF-V reaches its full capacity utilisation.
Meanwhile, BMS-affiliated Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh(RIKKS) general secretary H S Bal described BF-V collapse as total operational failure of the management. He lauded the efforts of officers and employees to restore normalcy and hoped the ongoing inquiry would lead to fool-proof corrective measures.
Energy saving certificates
Rourkela: The Union Ministry of Power has issued 42,018 EScerts (Energy Saving certificates) worth about J42 crore to Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) for achieving 9.4 per cent reduction in specific energy consumption against target of 5.88 per cent between 2012-13 and 2014-15.Sources said the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) comprising eight national missions was released in June, 2008. The National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) is a key component of NAPCC insisting on achieving energy efficiency with national energy consumption reduction target of 6.63 MTOE (Million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent) by 2015.
A mechanism was adopted towards certification of energy savings that could be traded as PAT (Perform Achieve and Trade). The first PAT cycle was implemented from 2012-13 to 2014-15 and baseline audit was conducted by CII, Hyderabad. RSP achieved the specific energy consumption reduction target of 5.88 per cent in the first PAT cycle. After the first PAT cycle, a Bureau of Energy Efficiency-accredited auditing agency had conducted the monitoring and verification audit of RSP.