RINL restores LD holder at Rs 20 crore

Visakhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has completed repair of LD Gas Holder-two at a cost of Rs 20 crore. The LD gas being toxic and explosive in nature, any misalignment or cracks may lead to catastrophic failures detrimental to both the equipment and also to the human safety.

Due to breakdown, the repair of LD Gas Holder-two was taken up in February 2021 at a value of about Rs 20 crore and completed in February 2023 during the pandemic and financial crisis being faced by RINL. RINL has two numbers of LD Gas Holders-the first one during the 3.0 MTPA stage and the other during 6.3 MTPA expansion to handle the LD gas (with calorific value of about 1650 KCal/NM3) generated from LD converters of Steel Melt Shops during blowing.

LD gas that is stored in these gas holders will be pumped to the LD gas network which mainly caters to the fuel requirement of furnaces in six rolling mills. It is used in boilers of the thermal power plant of RINL.

Commissioning and putting back this LD Gas Holder-two into operation will enable RINL to enhance the production of liquid steel (number of heats).