NMDC commissions Coke Battery No.1 in Nagarnar Steel Plant

New Delhi/ Nagarnar:  NMDC commissioned Coke Battery No.1 on October 28, Friday in its Nagarnar Steel Plant. NMDC's Director (Technical) Somnath Nandi executed commissioning in the presence of K Praveen Kumar, ED Incharge, Nagarnar Steel Plant and other senior officials. "With the commissioning of coke battery No.1 now the Nagarnar steel plant inches close to commissioning", a press statement released by the company said.

The first batch of coke was discharged this afternoon paving the way for sequential commissioning of subsequent key units, it added.

The NMDC statement said that 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.

Capacity of Nagarnar Steel Plant

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

The annual metallurgical coke production capacity of Nagarnar Steel Plant's Coke Oven Complex is 1.76 million tonnes, when fully operational, it added.

Constructed at a cost of Rs 1978 crore, the project was executed by a consortium comprising BEC (Bhilai), M/s Giprokoks (GPK) of Ukraine, M/s CUI and M/s Concord. The Coke Oven Complex consists of 2 batteries of which Battery No. 1 was commissioned on October 28. Each battery has 67 ovens that are 7 metres tall and a Coke Dry Cooling Plants (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.

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 too, "put all-around sincere efforts as a team to achieve the final milestone of commissioning the plant".

Commenting on the achievement, Somnath Nandi, Director of 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 Incharge, Nagarnar Steel Plant highlighted that these eco-friendly coke oven batteries will produce coking coal without releasing any toxic fumes.

By-Product Plant also Commissioned

The by-product 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 by-product plant. This unit effectively aids pollution-free coke production by extracting tar, Naphthalene, Sulphur and Ammonia as by-products.

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