After completion of laying the first layer of Carbon Blocks in the hearth area of the fast upcoming Blast Furnace 8 of SAIl’s flagship unit, Bhilai Steel Plant, work on laying the second layer of carbon blocks was begun on june 17. As many as 197 carbon blocks were used in the first layer, the height of which is 300 mm. There would be a total of four layers of carbon blocks in the hearth.
Being installed as part of BSP’s 7 Million Tonne modernization and expansion programme, blast furnace 8 will be having various new generation technological features like cast house and stock house dedusting system, top recovery turbine (TRT), coal dust injection (CDI), modern Heat transmission System through carbon block, ceramic cup and SGI & Cu-staves and other State of the art energy-efficient and pollution control equipment including Waste Heat Recovery system. The new blast furnace with such modern design will have a useful volume of 4060 million cube and capacity of producing 8030 tonnes of hot metal per day and 2.8 million tonnes per annum.
The Blast Furnace 8 Project has progressed swiftly ahead with the mammoth work of erection of furnace shell and erection of all the three hot stoves completed, erection of cast house dedusting chimney nearing completion and refractory work inside the stoves and other related packages in progress. The job of placing five shell rings together at a time in June 2012, and placement of top shell of the furnace in Oct 2012 were some challenging jobs successfully executed.
It is worth mentioning that the ongoing 7 MT Modernization and Expansion programme of Bhilai Steel Plant has acquired greater momentum in the last fiscal year 2012-13 as also in the first
two months of the current fiscal.
Civil, mechanical and structural erection work of massive proportions were undertaken & executed at different project sites. With new units and facilities ranging from ore handling, coke ovens, iron and steel making, finishing mills, power installations and oxygen plants coming up fast, Bhilai is witnessing a dramatic change in its skyline. The commencement of several new units that are moving towards completion stage will be witnessed in 2013-14.