Odisha slams door on new standalone sponge iron units

Wary of pollution hazards caused by sponge iron plants, the state government has decided not to permit establishment of new standalone sponge iron units. Existing standalone sponge iron units will also be barred from expansion, as per a new government notification.

In a notification, the government has stressed on value addition by existing sponge iron plants.

"Existing sponge iron plants should be encouraged to go for value addition (integrated steel plants) through installation of downstream facility like induction furnace or electronic arc furnace with finishing process within a period of five years", the notification stated.

The government has come out with new guidelines on sponge iron and blast furnace mix in steel making.

It may be noted that the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority in its 48th meeting held in September 2014 decided for adoption of new policy guidelines on sponge iron and blast furnace mix in steel making by the greenfield and brownfield projects to avoid pollution hazards by way of revisiting the previous guidelines that were issued in August 2011.

The revised guidelines have been issued by the state government in consultation with the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB).

According to the new guidelines, all proposals by steel players including their expansion up to 0.30 million tonne per annum (mtpa) of steel making will be permitted through the DRI (direct reduced route) with a provision that they should go for minimum of 350 tonne per day (tpd) module capacity of DR kiln units using state of the art energy efficient technology and pollution control measures.

Expansion proposals from 0.30 mtpa to 0.60 mtpa would also be allowed on the DRI route. Such units, however, have to go for 500 tpd module capacity of DR kiln units.

All proposals between 0.60 mtpa and 1.50 mtpa of steel making capacity will be permitted with a provision for either a hybrid system through DRI or hot metal production unit.

For steel making capacity of 1.5 mtpa and beyond, suitable technology mix is to be adopted by the players using state of the art energy efficient technology and pollution control measures.

All new and expanded DRI units need to install adequate pollution control devices at the rotary kilns and material transfer points so that particulate matter emission conforms to the stipulated norms.

Most of the standalone sponge iron units in the state are concentrated in iron ore rich Keonjhar and Sundargarh district.