Vedanta Aluminium Ltd has commissioned a red mud powder producing unit at Lanjigarh refinery in Odisha, describing it as first of its kind in alumina industry tackling major environmental hazards.
“The unique project of producing red mud powder has been commissioned in a fully mechanised and automatic plant. The system has been developed in-house after continuous research for more than three years,” a senior company official said in a statement today.
Giving details of the project, Mukesh Kumar, President and COO, Vedanta Aluminium, said the project, which was commissioned last week, is the first of its kind in the world and has been set up with a capital expenditure of around Rs 50 crore.
This will have advantages like savings in caustic consumption by 10-15 kg per tonne of alumina, minimising land requirement by 50-60 per cent, and doing away with wet red mud storage thereby eliminating environmental hazards, he said.
The powdery red mud can easily be utilised in cement industry as well as in other industries, he said.