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| September
2008 |
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| Notes
From Saurashta Cement Ltd., (SCL) |
| Protecting
the earth |
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At
the periodic preventive maintenance schedules of all heavy
earthmoving mining machinery, the machines need to be
cleansed of different kinds of lubricating oil. Normally
this procedure is carried out using a tray underneath
the machine to prevent contamination of the ground by
oil and hazardous wastes.
Our Garage department, under the guidance of Sri M.R.
Rakshit, DGM (MEM), has come out with an innovative idea
to get rid off this problem permanently by establishing
a concreted soak pit, covered with a strainer plate and
a suitable lid on it for rain and dust protection.
Each machine on its preventive maintenance day, is brought
over this pit and is drained off its oil through the strainer
and after refilling, the machine is shifted to production
line. Not a single drop of oil is wasted and the possibility
of land contamination is eliminated. The oil is accumulated
inside the chamber till its reserving capacity of 2500
litres. Besides, the oil soaked filters as removed from
the machines are stacked in a round concrete platform,
designated for waste filters only. The accumulated waste
oil, at periodical intervals, gets collected in empty
oil barrels and these sealed barrels are sent to stores
for its further waste management.
Thus the entire activity is very disciplined and environment
friendly. Innovations like these can go a long way in
saving our fragile and overburdened planet. |
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Cement
goes green
PPC cement is produced by using flyash (which is waste
from power plants) alongwith clinker. Saurashtra Cement
Limited has increased the production of PPC to 45000 Mt/month
in the last year, from an average of less than 15000 Metric
tonnes per month in the previous years.
This is our small contribution towards reduced emission
of greenhouse gases, conservation of limestone reserves,
lower thermal and electric energy consumption as well
reducing pollution. PPC cement also improves the durability
of concrete.
The company has plans to increase the utilisation of flyash
further, for which the company is putting up a full-fledged
fly ash feeding and storage system. The installation of
the flyash handling, storage and dosing system is estimated
to cost over 12 crore rupees and will help the company
to improve the quality of cement produced as well as increase
the percentage of flyash utilisation at the plant.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, businesses in EU and Japan are
bound to reduce their greenhouse gas emission levels by
at least 5% from their 1990 level. In the event of being
unable to do so, they are allowed to buy carbon credits
from developing countries, where the cost of reducing
emission is much less compared to the developed world.
A carbon credit is equivalent of a tonne of carbon dioxide
emission reduction.
A cement maker can use one tonne of clinker to produce
1.05 tonnes of ordinary cement or 1.35 tonnes of cement
blended with flyash or 1.8 tonnes of slag-blended cement.
Slag, a waste generated at steel plants, and flyash are
considered environmentally hazardous. Of late, there has
been an increasing trend towards blended cement to keep
the cost low and raise overall production level so as
to meet growing domestic demand. |
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 Marl
mining at Adityana
mines
Every year marl mining is done to abate the high grade
limestone to cement grade raw-mix. However because of
record high rainfall last year, (about 1700 mm at SCL,
Ranavav) all the lower benches of the Adityana Limestone
Mines were submerged in water and so marl mining was not
possible this year.
The mining team took this adversity as a challenge and
took steps to overcome this obstacle.
After deploying several steps like dewatering, excavating
and leveling, the mining team achieved success in reaching
the bottom marl layer. Through determination and team
work of the staff, workers and contractors, 2.2 Lac MT
of marl was excavated.
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Mr. B L Kalwar inaugurating the gym while Mr. G
C Srivastava, Mr. B C Pandey and other club members
look on at the state-of-the-art equipment. |
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| Officers'
club gains muscles |
| The
ever active SCL Officers' Club has added muscle
to its premises in the form of a full fledged gym
facility at the Club premises. Mr. B L Kalwar (ED
- OPS & Projects) inaugurated the gym and appreciated
the new initiative of the club committee. This facility
will impact the health and fitness of members positively. |
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| Notes
From Gujarat Sidhee Cement Ltd., (GSDL) |
In-house
innovation
It is amazing what inventive minds and a I dedicated team
can I achieve. What could have cost Rs 62 lakhs was achieved
in-house in as little as Rs 7.37 lakhs. The Limestone
Crusher Inlet Chute originally designed and supplied by
M/s. L&T Limited had aged considerably and developed a
leak. The quote for a new Inlet Chute was Rs.62.00 Lacs.
A team of employees at Sidhee decided to design and fabricate
the Inlet Chute in-house. Innovative minds went to work
and design & fabrication work was carried out with an
expenditure of just Rs.7.37 Lacs. What's more, there has
been a drastic reduction in deployment of manpower for
cleaning of jamming material which was a regular practice
earlier. Kudos to the team involved.
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 Innovation
beats
weather |
| The
limestone reclaimer operation during the monsoons
has been a constraint for raw meal production due
to wet and moist limestone being fed to the raw
mill. Such wet material often leads to jamming of
chutes, increased load on the reclaimer chain and
harrow drive, as well as jamming of box-feeder.
A task force setup specifically to combat this problem
came up with an innovate solution to this chronic
problem. Designing and installing a movable cover
over the Limestone Reclaimer belt conveyor and over
the Reclaimer Harrow has helped by avoiding rain
water ingress on to the Limestone reclaiming pile
and transportation. This has also resulted in a
drastic reduction in jamming of chutes and improved
consistency in Raw Mill availability during monsoon
season. |
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