Furnace shell building starts at Bhilai plant

The work for erecting furnace shell of the blast furnace-8 started in the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) under the expansion programme in Steel Authority of India Limited’s flagship entity.

The new blast furnace being installed as part of the BSP’s seven million tonne (MT) modernisation and expansion programme will be the biggest blast furnace having useful volume of 4,060 m3 and capacity of producing 8,030 tonnes of hot metal per day and 2.8 million tonnes per annum.

A company statement issued here said that the BF-8 had modern design and state of the art environment-friendly and energy-efficient technology including top recovery turbine, waste heat recovery system and other energy-efficient and pollution control equipment.

The contract for installation of BF-8 had been awarded to a consortium of M/s Paul Wurth, Italia (PWIT), M/s Paul Wurth, India (PWIN) & M/s L&T. The furnace shell will be 45 metre high and will have 23 special steel rings (made of Material Grade Q 345) of thickness varying from 40mm to 120 mm. Material for the shell up to 5th ring has been supplied by M/s. Paul Wurth, Italia. Internal diameter of ring is 16.65 metre and total weight of the shell will be around 700 metric tonne. The statement added that the first major milestone in the project for installation of BF-8 was crossed on July 31, 2011 with the completion of the mass-concreting of the third and final layer of the furnace proper foundation.