Page 71 - Steel Tech India eMagazine Volume April 2022

VOL. 16 • NO. 3 • April 2022

enhancement and cost effective production which is It is quite evident that India is in a growth path and
the key for success of any business. he wished the steel production is envisaged to reach minimum 450
seminar a success. million tonne by mid-century years. tata Steel has also
Mr. Aurindam Dey: announced its ambitious growth path and would like to
produce 40 million tonne by 2030. the similar strategy
has been adopted by many other steel companies in
the country. At the same time demand and production of
stainless steel is also growing in India, which indicates
the growing demand for ferroalloys. however, along
with the growth in the steel sector a serious attempt
is being made Worldwide to decarbonize the steel
industry which would be feasible only if the supply chain
as a whole emberks on the journey of decarbonization.
currently in a typical integrated steel plant in India we
he mentioned about IMR, its activities and future produce 2.5 t of cO2 per tonne of steel where as to
plans for India. he mentioned his long association with produce one tonne of high carbon ferromanganese
Steel tech and its team and the good work being we produce 4.5 t of cO2. the amount of energy spent
done by them. he narrated about 5 trillion $ economy in ferroalloy making is quite substantial. therefore,
dream of India and along with it associated 300 million while we are in the growth path we need to think
tonne of steel, 1.5 billion tonne of coal etc. but at the and try to reduce the energy consumption and cO2
same time the crisis and turmoil being faced around emission wherever possible in ferroalloy production. If
the world such as covid, commodity prices fluctuations we analyze, we find during mining operation the CO2
and its cycles etc. however, one needs a resilient emission is not that much but most of cO2 is emitted
industry structure which can weather these storms during production of ferroalloys which comes from
which is true for steel, ferroalloys and for that a lot of mainly two sources. the first one is electricity which is
consolidation is happening in steel and other areas as yet to be green but will be so in next couple of decades
well to increase its efficiency, economies of scale etc. or so and the second is coke. the process of ferro-alloy
With this consolidation happening in ferroalloys industry making requires material preparation and it’s a step-by-
would rise to the challenges in supplying to the Indian
steel industry and export as well. he wished all the best step process. In the process chain we need to analyze
to the seminar and a good networking opportunity for and find out where we can reduce energy consumption
the participants. and reduce the use of coal. One such thought process
would be to use the off-gases of ferroalloys plants e.g. in
Dr. Saurabh Kundu, the Keynote Speaker:
ferrochrome making there is very little indirect reduction
and mostly it is direct reduction therefore the flue gases
contain a lot of cO. tata Steel is considering how to use
this cO rich gas in pre-reduction of the ore. It has also
been suggested that use of Dc arc furnace in place
of Ac arc would reduce energy consumption and as a
result cO2 emission during ferro-alloy production.
DrKundu also gave an idea for the ferroalloy industries
to expand its customer base from steel industry to other
industries as well. For example to mine one tonne of
Delegates were eagerly waiting to listen to DrKundi, the chromite ore around 5-10 tonne of overburden is
keynote speaker of the seminar. generated which has Cobalt and Nickel which are not
recovered currently. there is now an attempt being done
DrKundi thanked the organizer for inviting him in this
seminar and shared his experiences and the way to recover Ni and Cobalt from these overburden which
tata Steel is thinking about ferroalloys and its related can go to battery application directly. that will help in
advantages. increasing the profitability of ferro-alloy industries and

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