Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited Chairman-cum-Managing Director A.P. Choudhary on Saturday said steel consumption was a barometer of a country’s progress and called for efforts to convert industrial waste into wealth.
He was speaking after inaugurating a workshop on ‘Utilisation of solid industrial wastes for ceramic projects - scope and opportunities’ at Ukkunagaram.
He said “the intrinsic ability of steel, to be completely recycled, offers great prospects for sustainable development. However, one of the major concerns of the steel industry, today, is the effective utilisation of wastes generated at various stages of steel making.”
Mr. Choudhary said stringent environmental norms had transformed the scenario of ‘waste dumping’ into ‘waste management.’ The technologies being developed today, to economically convert waste into wealth, were providing new business opportunities for budding entrepreneurs.
The workshop, an effort in this direction, would provide a wonderful opportunity for the prospective entrepreneurs, who were interested in production of ceramic tiles using solid wastes generated in the steel plant, he said.
Complimenting Centre for Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI) for developing technology for effective utilisation of steel plant’s solid wastes, he said it was estimated that around 0.8 tonne of solid wastes were generated for every tonne of steel produced. Therefore, the opportunity was huge for effective utilisation of the wastes generated, not only from the environment angle, but also as an effective tool for cost reduction, he said.
Director (Operations) Umesh Chandra said RINL had taken up three important projects with CGCRI viz. utilisation of solid industrial waste to develop ceramic products, improvement of MGO-C (Magnetia Carbon Bricks) quality to enhance converter lining life and feasibility studies of CO2 and N2 separation from Blast Furnace Gas for enhancement of its calorific value using membrane technology.
CGCRI Chief Scientists Swapan Kumar Das, A. Ghosh, Scientific Officers H.S. Tripathy, M.K. Haldar, RINL Executive Director (Works) R. Ranjan and others spoke.
