Skip to main content

Tackling Environmental Hazards through Red Mud Management

Aluminium is used excessively in the modern world with extremely diverse due to its several unusual combinations of attributes. No other metallic element can be used in so many ways across such a variety of domains like in the home, in transport, on land, sea and in air, and in industry and commerce. Aluminium's usages are not always as obvious as they may seem, with sizeable proportions of manufactured aluminium and aluminium oxide going into other separate processes, like the manufacture of glass, rather than towards the common consumer products that we most readily associate Aluminium with. 


Over 95% of the Alumina manufactured globally is derived from Bauxite by the Bayer process. The Bauxite residue primarily consists of iron oxides, silicon oxide, titanium oxide and undissolved alumina together with a wide range of other oxides. This depends on the place of extracted bauxite and during refinery process, it leaves behind a residue known as Red Mud. It is composed of a mixture of solid and metallic oxides. The red colour arises from iron oxides, which comprise up to 40% of the mass. The mud is highly basic with a pH ranging from 11 to 13. With about 77 million tonnes of this unsafe material being produced annually, red mud poses a serious disposal challenge in the mining industry.


Vedanta’s Lanjigarh Alumina refinery is the first Alumina Refinery in the country to become a ‘Zero Discharge Refinery’ 
Source - http://indiacsr.in/vedanta-aluminium-lanjigarh-conferred-with-best-corporate-award/



Red Mud Management at Lanjigarh:
The red mud stacking methodology plays a vital role in determining the life of the red mud pond. In the current scenario at Lanjigarh, the disposal and stacking methodology has been updated and revised in ensuring the sustenance of the plant operations in the years to come. Upon studies on available methods, the unit has adopted progressive rise or step deposition method which is generally used in areas where the deposition area is in a hilly area or is highly sloped. In this method, the mud is deposited in the shape of steps and gradually raising the deposition height spreading across the red mud pond area leaving a garland drain along the dyke side. This technique eliminates the risk of dyke wall failures due to hydraulic pressure or any overflow due to non-retention of water inside the dyke. The Red Mud Powder Plant is designed to separate water from red mud slurry and is the first ever such initiative by any alumina maker in the world.


The red mud pond in Lanjigarh has been designed and certified by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Red Mud Utilisation:
Innovation that builds on industrial ecology and collaboration across normal business boundaries is a key success factor for our license to operate. Across the world, wastes have always been a challenge with a potential to deliver values. With the help of technology and collaboration, we are converting this challenge into opportunities.

 Effective utilisation of red mud is necessary to avoid any mishaps and subject any adverse impact on the ecology in the region. Dyke construction, brick manufacturing, usages in fertiliser manufacturing and cement manufacturing, etc. can be thought of for utilising the red mud effectively. The adoption of the model of ‘Zero Discharge’ and ‘Zero Waste’ can only help in developing a better relationship with the society and greening the economy.

Vedanta’s Alumina Refinery in Lanjigarh became the first Mining & Metal Industry in India to get accreditation for its Energy Management System for ISO 50001:2011 from the British Standards Institution for efficiently managing the existing natural resources and mitigating the impact of climate change in Odisha.
Source - http://indiacsr.in/vedanta%E2%80%99s-lanjigarh-alumina-refinery-gets-iso-500012011-certification-for-energy-management/



Since its inception, Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh has developed a road map for “Zero Waste Alumina Refinery”. Moving in this direction, the Red Mud Filtration Unit is playing a pivotal role in the conversion of red mud into value added products for utilisation in building materials, cement and fertiliser industries. The installation of the filtration unit has not only helped in making this refinery as the environmentally friendly refinery but also helped in conducting future field trials for magma technology to recover iron and titanium. The unit has commissioned this filtration unit describing it as first of its kind in alumina industry tackling major environmental hazards. This will have advantages like savings in caustic consumption by 10-15 kg per tonne of alumina, minimising land requirement by 50 to 60 percent, and doing away with wet red mud storage thereby eliminating environmental hazards.
Vedanta understands that the nature of its operations has a variety of implications for the environment – through our emissions, wastes generated in mining, refining and smelting processes, water consumption and changes in land use. We are committed to minimising our environmental footprint from the start of our operations through to closure and beyond.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Most read articles

Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars. “Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars. Aluminium Guitar The use of Alumin
82 comments
Read more

Aluminium extrusions - The ultimate value addition of Aluminium downstream

From simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology, aluminium extrusions are created in various shapes and sizes for value added end use utilizations. The computer you are using right now contains at least one aluminium profile in the form of a heat sink. This takes advantage of aluminium’s excellent thermal conductivity, unique anodising capability and freedom of design to keep your computer’s processor cool. Different cross sections of extrusions Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A special tool called a ‘die’ is used to create these extrusions by cutting or shaping the material with the help of a press. These dies are customized to create the wanted design. The process involves the pressing of a pre-heated solid cylinder of aluminium (billet) which is forced through the die opening. The billets are heated to a temperature range of 350 – 500 degrees Celsius. Aluminium does not glow when heated ye
35 comments
Read more

The choice is clear - Aluminium body for high end smartphones

A lot of phone companies are trying to build slim and sturdy phones for the ever growing market of steroid enhanced hardware capabilities. With phone manufacturers stuffing more RAM and precision cameras in the modern phones, the weight and robustness of the frames becomes all the more important. Today, some manufactures prefer a fiber body to reduce the overall weight in comparison to metal bodies. However, there’s something which still draws a larger advocacy of using aluminium bodies instead of a plastic or fiber. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned an open letter highlighting changes to the company's environmental policy in hopes of achieving "a greener Apple." In the letter, Jobs specifically noted the Mac maker's adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum in order to improve recycling uptake. Apart from the cost reduction implications, Apple is strongly in favor of aluminium usage in all its products for improving its year on year recycling capabilities with
19 comments
Read more

Humble Aluminium cans or sculpted masterpieces?

Have you ever spared a thought about what happens to the humble aluminium can after its purpose is done? Do we hear you say “they’re recycled and reused!?” Well, of course, you’re correct. But in its afterlife, some aluminium cans get converted into beautiful sculptures and serve a higher purpose. Behold these beautiful Aluminium masterpieces created by the Detroit-born artist Noah Deledda! Courtesy: 1 Fuzz Courtesy: My Modern Met Courtesy: WOSU Courtesy: The Inspiration   The interesting fact about these creative and exquisite pieces of sculptures is – Noah creates them with his bare fingers! "Through sculpture, I try to create something unique out of an ordinary object," says Noah, “My goal, and reason for ever making art is to raise awareness of the importance of the creative process. This drives me to create work that challenges perception and inspires curiosity.” To begin with, he removes the outer paint / commercial sticker
3 comments
Read more

Lamborghini's raging Super SUV URUS - a balance of power and weight

This is unlike any Lamborghini automobile ever! An SUV from the company who produces supercars made from the blood of raging bulls? Of course, they are calling it the world’s first Super Sports Utility Vehicle – a fact we can’t deny given the super specs on the automobile and Lamborghini’s signature design. Will this animal from Lamborghini’s bullpen deliver on the brand’s promise? Let’s find out! From the outside, the vehicle sports the signature of Lamborghini’s extreme design yet finds a way to make it less aggressive for the owners who just want to buy milk on a cold Monday morning from the nearest market. However, on the inside, it’s still a beast. The front hood houses the 4 litre V8 twin-turbo engine with 650 HP and 850 Nm of torque. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h is achieved in just 3.6 seconds and the top speed is a staggering 305 km/h! Braking is no less impressive: the Urus decelerates from 100 km/h to 0 in 33.7 meters. The vehicle is 4-wheel steering with carbon-c
2 comments
Read more