Vizag Steel Plant Aims for 523 Megawatts from Recovered Waste Heat

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited's (RINL) Visakhapatnam (Vizag) steel plant in Andhra Pradesh is aiming to become self-sufficient in power supply and reduce dependence on the state grid by implementing a program for the recovery of waste energy.

Dating from the launch of the plant, it has used state-of-the-art technology to tap into available sources of waste power. As part of the waste energy recovery program in the expansion and upgrading of existing units, state-owned RINL is installing a 20-megawatt (MW), gas-fired captive power plant, which will utilize blast furnace gas for power generation. This will involve an investment of $123 million. The power unit is scheduled to be operational in 2013.

The plant is also planning to generate another 20.6 MW from waste heat recovery, with a sinter cooler waste energy heat recovery system at sinter machines 1 and 2. Another 14 MW will be generated from a water heat recovery system in coke oven battery No. 4, while an additional 14 MW of power will be generated from the top pressure recovery turbine in blast furnace No 3.

When these projects are completed, power generation via waste energy will reach 62% of the total installed capacity of 523 MW, which is one of the highest heat recovery totals in India's steel industry.

The implementation of waste energy recovery technologies to generate power was envisaged by RINL at the design stage of the plant. These include by-product gases at coke ovens and blast furnaces, which also are utilized in the captive power plant to generate 115/120 MW. The gas expansion turbine station at blast furnaces 1 and 2 generates 24 MW of power, and the coke dry quenching plant and back-pressure turbine station at the coke ovens generate a further 15 MW.

Currently, the plant has the capacity to generate 286.5 MW of power from expansion. With the upgrading of exiting units, captive power generation will reach 523 MW. RINL will require 486 MVA of power after the expansion program, which will give the plant an annual production capacity of 6.3 million tons.

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