Tata Steel invests Rs 350 cr to cut energy costs

That companies are going to great lengths to save costs amid an overall demand slump has been well-known. But Tata Steel has hit upon a novel idea, which is working on a plan to set up three gas holders at its Jamshedpur facility it thinks will lead to Rs 35 lakh worth of fuel savings per day, Ashok Kumar Dwivedi, senior manager (projects), Tata Steel, told dna.

Tata Steel is investing close to Rs 350 crore in developing these gas holders.

The initiative was earlier tagged with a 3-million tonne per annum expansion that Tata Steel completed last year. Gas holders will essentially be used to store various gases flowing from blast furnaces, coke oven batteries and other steel making processes.

“In our last expansion, we found that excess gases were available, for which we can develop storage so that when the plant is under planned shutdown, such gases can be utilised,” Dwivedi said. “Gas storage can come in handy at such times.”

The three gas holders will be mainly used for storing LD, blast furnace and coke oven gas with a capacity of 150,000 cubic metres, 100,000 cubic metres and 90,000 cubic meters, respectively. The company already has one LD gas holder of 150,000-cubic metre capacity in Jamshedpur.

Nearly a century old, the Jamshedpur plant, spread over 28 square kilometres, houses five blast furnaces. The company will be dismantling three of them that may be tapped for any future expansion. Tata Steel had also set up two new coke oven batteries as part of the last round of capacity build-up.

Tata Steel has got on board German and Chinese vendors for building these gas holder tanks. While Germany and China are handling basic engineering and manufacturing of gas tanks, civil and construction work will be undertaken by Indian counterparts.

The first gas holder is expected to be implemented by March 2014 while the second will be wrapped up by September 2014 and the third by February 2015.

“We plan to use these gases for running plants and processes, which will lead to better energy management and also reduced CO2 emission,” Dwivedi said. The company will use these gases mainly for its sinter, pellet plants and wire and road mills and also for heating up its furnaces. Many of the gases produced during the still making process are extremely hazardous to environment and are responsible for global warming. “Storing this gases would also mean we will not be releasing them, ensuring cleaner and greener environment,” he said.