ASIA PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP OF CLEAN DEVELOPMENT & CLIMATE

ON

Industry Perspectives- an overview

M.J.Chaddha
Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre
 Red Mud Generation in Indian Alumina Plants

2500
2033
2000
1654
Red Mud in '000 tons

1500

1000

500 412 366

0
Nalco Hindalco Balco + Vedanta
Malco

Total Red Mud Generation for 2008-09 (000 tons) 4465

 Present and Future generation of Red Mud in India

RED MUD GENERATION IN INDIA Present & Projections

Company (i)Present generation Company (ii) Addl.Gen. by 2010
(Lakhs Ton/Annum) (Lakhs Ton/Annum)
NALCO 20.47 NALCO 6.50
HINDALCO 16.07 HINDALCO 4.55
BALCO 2.97 VEDANTA 18.20
MALCO 0.95 UTKAL 19.50
TOTAL 40.46 RAYKAL 18.20
ADITYA 18.20
JSW 18.20
TOTAL 96.85
Grand Total -(i) + (ii) 137.31
 Indian Red Mud - Characterisation
East Coast Bauxite Central India Bauxite

18-20 Al2O3 18-20

High Fe & Low Ti

Low Fe & High Ti

50-55 Fe2O3 35-37

4-5 TiO2 18-20

5-6 SiO2 7-9

4.5-6 Na2O 5-6

0.1-0.6 CaO 1-2

11-12 LOI 10-12

 Indian Alumina Industry Overview
Disposal Practices
S.No Name of Industry Disposal Practice
1 NALCO, Damanjodi Wet Disposal

2 HINDALCO Industries
Renukoot Dry Disposal
Belgaum Dry Disposal
Muri Wet Disposal
3 Vedanta Wet Disposal
Bhavanipatnam
4 Sterlite Industries,
(Previous BALCO) Korba Wet Disposal
MALCO Mettur (Now Closed) Wet Disposal
Red mud Ponds of NALCO Damanjodi
 Red Mud Pond of BALCO

Current Pond in Use Abandoned Pond

 Red Mud Pond of INDAL (Muri)

Current Pond in Use Abandoned Pond

Red Mud Pond of Hindalco (Renukoot)
 Advantages/Disadvantages of Wet Disposal
Advantages:
Lower capital cost ( If land is cheap)
No cost towards thickening/filtration of slurry
No dust problem due to presence of liquor
Disadvantages :
Large area required for disposal
Environmental hazards associated with caustic leachate
contaminating ground water and surface water
High capital required during closing and Rehabilitation and
difficulty in closing ponds
High soda and alumina loss with adhering moisture with mud
Advantages/Disadvantages of Dry Red mud Stacking
Advantages:
Land requirement for storage is minimised
The soluble soda and alumina losses are reduced
Due to reduced hydraulic head ground water contamination
is reduced.
Surface water contamination can be reduced by reducing
the catchment area and returning runoff water to plant.
Disadvantages :
Not ideally suitable for area with high precipitation(rainfall)
Dust control requires sprinkling of dust suppressant.
Requires additional filtration stage to reduce moisture.
 Red Mud Utilisation- Difficulties
Soda content
Leachable around 1-2 %
Bound Soda around 3-6 % in form of sodium aluminosilicate.
High amount of soda act as a preliminary barrier for its use as
a raw material for industrial application such as cement and
clinker production, steel industry, constructional bricks, blocks
etc

Composition variability
Chemical and mineralogical composition of red mud generated
depend on the nature of bauxite and the processing
parameters.
Hence the utilisation of red mud cannot be uniform since it is
constituent dependent
 Utilisation of Red Mud for Various Application

The reuse of red mud for any application should have

following criteria :
Volume : The application should have high volume usage
Performance : It should be a low cost substitute for other
material and its performance should be the same.
Cost : It should be cost effective
Risk : There should be no environmental risk associated
with its use such as health and safety.
R & D for Reuse of red mud (NALCO Contribution)

NALCO has funded many projects on use of red mud for

several applications :
Development process for the manufacture of Artificial
Ceramic Stone Chip, Constructional Bricks as
Building Material and Stabilised Blocks for Protection
Land Erosion by Sea Water. A Joint project between
JNARDDC, MRCPL & NALCO) (AP-7 Sub-Project)
Bench scale studies for development of Glass
Ceramics(AP-7 Sub-Project)
Development of light weight aggregates (AP-7 Sub-
Project)
 (NALCO Contribution)

Development of Red mud building block/brick, red mud

aggregates, red mud plate and tile using an admixture of
Red mud + Blast furnace slag + Fly ash with IIMT,
Bhubaneswar.
Development of Fibre Reinforced Red mud composite
doors (R-Wood) by AMPRI, Bhopal
Use of Red Mud as Soil Conditioner / Fertilizer by IMMT,
Bhubaneswar.
Use of Red Mud for Production of OPC by NCB ,
Ballabgarh.
OPC which confirmed to ISI 33, 43 & 53 grade of OPC.
 Reuse of Red Mud for Various Application
(Stabilised Blocks /Hollow Bricks)
Stabilised Red Mud Blocks has been prepared by BHU ( Met. Dept. )
using HINDALCO Red Mud using an admixture of Red mud, Fly ash,
lime grit, ordinary portland cement, blocks of high strength 60 kg/cm2
are produced after sun drying ( curing)
CBRI, Roorke has developed stabilized blocks whose strength lies
between grade II / III bricks.
BHU ( Met. Dept. ) had prepared Low density / Hollow bricks and
Blocks of Red Mud with low density 1.1-1.2 gm/cm3 . These Hollow
/foamed bricks has varying crushing strength of 50-260 kg/cm2 .
CGCRI, Jadhavpur has also prepared hollow bricks using red mud
and proprietary foaming agent.
 Reuse of Red mud for various Application
Red Mud Bricks
BHU ( Met. Dept. ) has used an admixture of Red
mud, Fly ash and additive with firing at 1000o C
producing bricks with crushing strength of 130-160
kg/cm2 and 14 % water absorption capacity.
CBRI, Roorke Developed red mud + clay and red mud
+ fly ash bricks of high strength comparing to grade I
bricks.
CGCRI, Jadhavpur has developed red mud + clay and
red mud + fly ash bricks of high strength comparing
to grade I bricks
 Tiles/Glass Ceramic Tiles

CGCRI, Jadhavpur has Produced Ceramic Tiles using

red mud and Fly ash.

JNARDDC, Nagpur has produced Glass Ceramic Tiles

(a Project sponsored by BMPTC) The Developed glass
ceramic tiles are with different shades with glossy
finish having and good scratch resistance and
strength using admixture of red mud + Fly ash and
additives.
 Additives for Cement
BHU ( Met. Engg.) & BHU ( Civil Engg.) has used Red Mud
as additive for Production of Cement and mortars ( Project
Sponsored by HINDALCO) The crushing strength was found
to be optimum at at-least 10 % red mud addition. The
crushing strength and bond stress of the mortar has found
to improve with 5-10 % red mud addition. The red mud used
for above was neutralized by HCl before use.
MALCO red mud has been used by Orient Cements (2-4 %)
and certain parameters of the cement showed improvement
while using red mud.
 Special Cement & Red Oxide Primer
BHU ( Civil.Engg) has developed a Special Cement ( Project
Sponsored by HINDALCO) using an admixture of 35 % Red Mud,
15 % bauxite, 10 % gypsum and 4 % limestone at 1250o C and
firing for 1.5 hours gave special cement with high strength.

CGCRI, & BALCO using BALCO red mud and lime stone at 1150-
1200 oC has produced iron rich cement having strength of 200
kg/cm2.
Red Oxide and Primer from Red Mud
CECRI Karaikudi has prepared an inhibitive and fire resistant
primer was using an admixture of red mud, vermiculite and barium
potassium chromate cashewnut shell liquor. The red mud used
for above was calcined at 800-900 oC.
 Recovery of Titanium
BALCO In-house R & D Lab has developed process of Two
stage digestion followed by hydrolysis to obtain TiO2.
BHU ( Met. Dept.) in the Lab studies (Project Sponsored by
HINDALCO ) produced 2 grades 57 % TiO2 and 99.5 % TiO2
from red mud using acid leaching route.
Production of Ferro-Titanium BHU ( Met. Dept. ) a (Project
Sponsored by HINDALCO ) findings are :
Direct electric arc smelting or aluminothermic reduction route
of red mud is not feasible.
However Red Mud HCl leached residue with some mill waste
produced ferro-titanium of 8-30 % with SiO2 as principal
impurity.
 Summary
Red mud wet disposal practice create hindrances in collection
and transportation of red mud from existing ponds.
Industry-academic institution has developed useful product
but no pilot plant scale studies has been carried out.
No marketing work has been carried out to determine markets
for the developed product .
Government support in the form of subsidies are not available
to attract entrepreneurs for setting up industry for developing
products from red mud.
The process of developing products or recovery of valuable
metals from red mud are technically feasible but not techno-
economical.
Hence NALCO along with JNARDDC and MRCPL are coming
up with an idea of using Primary Aluminium Industry-R & D
institute & Entrepreneur collaboration.