The first of its kind National Seminar on the efficacious use of Biofuels in Steel Industry titled “BIOS 2023” today began amidst a galaxy of luminaries participating at the Ispat Bhawan precincts of SAIL, RDCIS, Ranchi.
With the mood of the scientific fraternity upbeat on the announcement of 2nd G20 declaration of a Global Biofuel Allowance (GBA), all stakeholders namely the steel & agriculture researchers, the biofuel producers, the technologists, the academia under one roof started the technical deliberations which could well form the bedrock of a prolific environmental journey.
It was the guidance of the Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India that ensured the BIOS 2023 to see the light of the day. It was inaugurated by NN Sinha, Secretary (Steel), Govt. of India, who was the main inspiration for organizing this mammoth event. Sharing the dais with Sinha in the inaugural session were A. Bhowmick, Director I/C(BSL & RSP), B.P. Singh Director I/C (DSP & ISP), A.K. Singh, Director (TPRM), N. Banerjee, ED I/C (RDCIS), all from SAIL and Dr. S. Rakshit Director (ICAR-IIAB). The program began with lighting the lamp and the national anthem.
In his keynote address in the Inaugural session Sinha at the outset congratulated the engineering fraternity and inspired the august audience by expressing that no other day would have been more auspicious for the commencing this environmental challenge than the eve of birth day of our brightest engineer Late Mokshgundam Visvesvaraya. He commended the organisers of BIOS 2023 as it was creating an opportunity for meeting the daunting challenge of carbon footprints. He quipped that sagacious technologies if adopted shall take us back to our roots & our roots in the Jharkhand state were the harbingers of Iron making several millennia as the Asur & other communities at Tanginath etc were the pioneers in such difficult metallurgical processes way back.
Sinha remarked that the COP26 at Glasglow, Scotland has defined our outer framework of net carbon neutrality by 2070. Each day this large goal is being broken up into sub-milestones, so all stakeholders should act fast. With a target of doubling steel production in the country by 2030; there shall be a demand of double the coal import which is 90% today at 60 MT. Whereas, the coal investments are getting discouraged, so for sustaining steel production there is no other way than to accelerate the production of biofuels and also develop the technologies simultaneously so that their percentage in steel making can be more than the stipulated amount of 20% today.
He explored the sufficiency of BioMass produce in India that out of a total produce of 770 MT of agri-biomass, only 220 MT was available for industry use as biofuel. Going for the full 20% utilization in the blast furnaces, we need 10MT of biofuel today, which necessitates 0.1 million hectares of Bamboo cultivation, which is not a big ask. However auxiliary bottlenecks in terms of transport & logistics, fire safety of a biofuel during transportation, its detrimental effect on blast furnaces may also be looked into. Intuitively, it seems decentralization will be the key, which will ensure semi-processing at farmer level for engendering rural jobs as an additional spin-off. The steel sector should be prepared for a statutory mandate just like the Power plants have been asked mandatorily for using 5 to 10% biomass pellets. Also the steel researchers should look into the augmentation of the 20% charge-mix of biofuel, the equipment builder should also chip in along with startups in this challenge. This will make us leave the planet in a better shape for posterity.
He suggested developing a blueprint for the National Mission for Biofuel in Steel making, which could be part of a larger decarbonisation initiative of Steel and continuing with similar events at regular intervals/ every year.
Atanu Bhowmick urged the scientific community that Biomass was no more a mere academic exercise, but it is a necessity now. He said that among the 3Ps ie People Planet & Profit, Sustainability was the key.
B.P. Singh said that Climate change is the most talked about global topic today and with 8% of carbon emissions we cannot ramp up to 300MT steel production by 2030.
AK Singh beckoned all the delegates and the participants to fully utilize this Seminar which has been so well led by the Ministry of Steel. He opined that brainstorming with out of box ideas was required for reaching such path-breaking technologies.
N. Banerjee welcomed all dignitaries, delegates, participants and explained why this Seminar was organized.
At the end Dr. Rakshit proposed the vote of thanks. He also stressed about the need to utilize rice husk else its burning as it happens shall cause significant environment damage.
