In a latest development, NMDC has come a step closer to commissioning of the first coke oven at its 3 mnt Nagarnar Integrated Steel Plant (NISP), by giving the approval for raising the battery temperature from 16 September, 2022.
The coke oven (COB) will be commissioned in 10-15 days, a source informed SteelMint.
A recent meeting was held, where representatives from NMDC, MECON, Hutni, GPK, CUI and BEC — the companies involved with the coke oven unit commissioning – were present. A decision was taken to raise the temperature of the battery of the coke oven to 1,150 degree centigrade from 850 degree centigrade so that the coal can be put inside the oven. Once the coking is done in about 24 hours coke will be retreived. The oven will take 10-15 days to reach the required temperature level.
“If everything falls in place and byproduct functions properly then the coke oven unit can be commissioned in 10-15 days,” the source informed.
Once the coal is put in the oven, the coke oven gas that will emerge, will need to go to a byproduct plant where it will get cleaned and return to the oven as fuel in a cyclic process.
CUI, an Ukrainian company designing and commissioning the coke oven, and Bhilai Engineering Corporation (BEC), which is also closely involved with the commissioning, confirmed their readiness to raise the temperature.
Further, GPK, a Ukrainian company with expertise in coke oven technology, CUI and BEC said there is no possibility of reducing the temperature once it touches 1,050 degree centigrade.
Earlier, on 15 September, experts from Hutni, a Czech engineering company that is offering consultancy on the NISP coke oven plant, made a few observations, adding that if the same were not resolved, “it cannot take responsibility for safe commissioning”.
MECON, which has been awarded the operations and maintenance contract for the plant for three years, and NISP officials assured Hutni that the same will be resolved within seven days.
No clarity yet on blast furnace commissioning
SteelMitnt also learnt that blowing in of the furnace will take time. For this, a good quantity of coke is required. NISP incidentally has two coke ovens. However, currently, only one will be commissioned. NMDC has to give its nod for starting the second, post-which it will take at least three months to commission the same.
As per the timeline, the blast furnace blow-in was slated for June-July 2022.
A coke oven is the first unit that gets commissioned because coke is needed to operate the blast furnace. As per an earlier timeline, NISP purchased 200,000 tonnes of coke.
But the commissioning timeline has been delayed a bit. A source informed, one of the reasons for the coke oven plant’s delay was the inability of experts from GPK to travel to India due to the war conditions.
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