Indus Valley Times

By Dr.Rama Chandra Behera/Dr.Gouranga Rout

Bhubaneswar, March 14: Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has entered into a long-term partnership with Dalmia Cement for supply of industrial wastes such as fly ash and spent pot lining for manufacturing low carbon cement. Under this partnership, Vedanta’s mega aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda will transport around 20 rakes of fly ash per month for 5 years to Dalmia Cement’s manufacturing units in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, and Assam, and supply SPL for 3 years to the company’s plant at Rajgangpur, Odisha.Vedanta Aluminium is a preferred supplier of high-quality fly ash to some of India’s leading cement producers, fostering industrial collaboration for production of low-carbon cement.

Fly ashis a high-volume by-product of thermal power generation using coal that caters to the electricity requirements of Vedanta’s aluminium smelters at Jharsuguda. Fly ash is a sought-after raw material in the cement industry, owing to its inherent cementitious properties which can be leveraged by cement makers to improve product quality, conserve energy, water and other valuable resources, and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.Further, being a voluminous industrial waste product, fly ash comes with significant cost and energy advantages as well.In cement manufacturing, every tonne of fly-ash used can help save around 700-800 kg of carbon emissions, 4.2 million KJ of energy, and 341 litres of water.

Similarly, SPL is generated during the de-lining process of electrolytic pots(where alumina is converted into aluminium). It can be co-processed in cement plants as raw material, a source of energy, or to replace natural mineral resources (material recycling) and fossil fuel such as coal, petroleum, and gas (energy recovery) in industrial processes.In cement plants, this yields significant environmental benefits in terms of reducing emissions,fuel consumption,and dependency on natural mineral resources.

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