The European Union (EU) will share technologies for effective utilisation of hazardous Red Mud (Bauxite Residue) with Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC) and other institutions of the country which are working in the field of aluminium waste and Rare Earth Elements (REE). The decision was made during a meeting on the issue, ‘Resource Efficiency in the Aluminium Industry with a Focus on Effective Utilisation of Red Mud’, held at JNARDDC on Friday.

 

The meeting was organised by Ministry of Mines (MoM) in association with Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), JNARDDC, European Union-Resource Efficiency Initiative (EU-REI) and EU at JNARDDC on Friday.

 

India and EU are on a process to strengthen co-operation in the areas of environment, resource efficiency and circular economy under the Resource Efficiency Initiative (EU-REI) for India.

 

The meeting focused on value addition in the process of reuse of the residue and safe disposal of red mud. The delegation of experts from EU enlightened about global and EU developments in the sector and specifically about ongoing Horizon 2020 Programme under which three major projects (EnsureAl, RemovAl and SCALE) are in operation with aim to bulk utilise of bauxite residues.

 

The meet had wide spread participation by scientists from various R&D institutes such as Interscience Institute of Management and Technology (IIMT), Bhubaneswar; CSIR-Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute (CSIR-AMPRI), Bhopal and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur.

In the meeting, NEERI emphasised on safe disposal of red mud in atmosphere and also talked about environmental aspects of hazardous wastes.

 

The world generates over 150 million tonnes of red mud, and global inventory is more than three billion tonnes. Red mud generation in India is around 9 million tonnes per year.

 

JNARDDC, Hindalco and National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur have the process to produce bricks, blocks, paver blocks, plasters etc from red mud for housing and road applications.

 

While these processes are technically well established, they are not economically attractive mainly due to high transportation cost either of end product or the raw materials.

 

The meeting also focused on this aspect also and EU is ready to share their knowledge and technology to make these products affordable.

 

Katy Tsesmelis, International Aluminium Institute (IAI); György (George) Bánvölgyi, Hungary; Ugo Miretti, ITRB Group; Casper van der Eijk, SINTEF, Norway; Dr Papadimitriou Konstantinia, Greece and Dr Dieter Mutz, EU-REI were from EU and EU-REI.

 

EU urged JNARDDC to come out with a document of actionable points at the end of the meet with a view to address this global issue.

 

Dr Anupam Agnihotri, Director, JNARDDC hosted the meeting while M T Nimje, Dr S P Puttewar, M K Chaddha, Dr M Najar, Dr Suchita Rai, Dr Upendra Singh and S Wadodkar also were present in the meeting.

 

R Vishakha and R Sriniwasan conducted the meeting. Later, the EU delegation visited the Institute and applauded the facility and the work of JNARDDC.