SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant registers continuous improvements in Specific Energy Consumption

It is worth mentioning here that RSP has been consistently focusing on further improving its techno-economic in tandem with the rapid strides in the production arena, so as to reduce the cost of production and enhance profitability. As a result of the renewed strategic efforts, RSP could bring remarkable improvements in FY’21 upon its earlier best performance of 6.24 Gcal/TCS achieved in the previous financial year. Also, the average Specific Energy Consumption between July 2020 and March 2021 was 6.07 Gcal/TCS. It is worth mentioning here that, Specific Energy Consumption is a techno-economic parameter that signifies the overall technical efficiency of the entire Plant.    

The highly energetic team of the Energy Management Department (EMD), along with concerned departments, effectuated many modifications and implemented several enterprising jobs in the last fiscal to improve this parameter.  

  

Under the systematic guidance of Mr. Dipak Chattaraj, CEO, RSP, and Mr. Pankaj Kumar, ED(Works), the team with the help of the associated departments successfully modified the Blast Furnace (BF) Grid. The effort helped in the reduction of specific energy consumption by 0.10-0.12Gcal/TCS on a standalone and sustained basis. The innovative effort could enable retrieval of about 70000-80000 cubic metre per hour of BF gas into the grid during normal operation of blast furnaces which otherwise used to be lost through a BF-5 flare stack. The additional BF gas could be provided to Power Blowing Station and Captive Power Plant-1 for additional power generation at these units. Average power generation at PBS increased by 55% from 10.1MW in FY-20 to 15.53MW in FY21. Also BF gas was ensured to Battery -6 from old BF Gas grid during the shutdown of BF-5 to avoid change over to Coke Oven Gas and preserve Battery health.    

Energy input matrix in Captive Power Plant-1 (CPP-1) power generation changed drastically on account of higher BF gas availability in the system. Drastic reduction in coal consumption helped in cost optimization towards coal procurement and also lower carbon-dioxide emission. The BF gas yield also improved significantly from 1661 cubic metre per ton of Hot Metal (NM3 / THM) in 2019-20 to 1688 Nm3/THM in 2020-21. Similarly, the Coke Ovens gas yield increased from 305 Nm3/TDC  in 2019-20 to 317Nm3/TDC in 2020-21.