The Nagarnar Integrated Steel Plant (NISP) started commercial production from its first coke oven plant (COB/1) from today, 27 October, 2022 (Watch Here), reliable sources informed SteelMint.
“The coal charging started today at around 6 am and the gas that will emerge through the byproduct plant will fire the coke oven plant from underneath,” a source informed.
“The first oven was successfully charged at 6.10 am today. Charging will continue till the byproduct exhauster starts. Charging will continue till all 67 ovens of Battery-1 are charged. It will continue up to day-after-tomorrow. First pushing will be after 36-44 hours, as soon as the oven is ready for pushing. Clean coke oven gas from the byproduct plant is expected by 11 am to coke oven, for under-firing. LPG side-firing will be taken out from Battery-1,” added the source.
Being a greenfield project, the ovens were heated up by LPG initially and after that cleaned coke oven gas from the byproduct plant (BPP) will maintain the temperature of the battery by the under-firing route.
COB/1 did meet with a few technical hiccups in terms of reaching the targeted temperature but things are smooth now and the coal charging will continue steadily henceforth, the source informed.
The coke plant has a capacity to charge 32 tonnes of dry coking coal per oven from which 25 tonnes (77%) of gross coke is extracted. Of this 25 tonnes, 88% will be blast furnace grade coke ranging from 34-80mm.
There are 67 ovens per battery.
Both coke ovens together will have production capacity of 1.76 million tonnes of gross coke per annum. The coking coal requirement will be 2.29 mnt of hard CC plus soft and semi-soft from Australia.
BF commissioning
The battery will be started in phases. The NISP BF has a capacity of 4,500 cubic metres. To charge a BF of this magnitude, initial coke volumes of 700 kg will be required for making one tonne of crude steel although this will eventually reduce to around 350 kg. That is why NISP has facility for two coke oven plants. However, since only one is being charged currently it will not be able to cater to the full demand of the BF and that is why adequate volumes of coke need to be stored well in advance. The process is starting now so that NISP will be ready with a sufficient amount of coke when the BF starts, it is learnt.
Coke can be stored for at least three months without losing its metallurgical properties. With the coal charging set to start, hopes are being raised the BF may be commissioned in another six months. It was supposed to be commissioned by the middle of the current year.
The 3-mntpa NISP, located at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh, is being built at an investment of INR 20,000 crore. The government recently approved the demerger of NISP from NMDC. The demerger is expected to be completed by Q2FY23.
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