Vedanta Aluminium’s Smelter-1 In Odisha’s Jharsuguda Becomes Industry Benchmark In Water Efficiency

Bhubaneswar: Vedanta Aluminium’s Smelter-I at Jharsuguda in Odisha has emerged as a national benchmark in water efficiency among aluminium smelters in the country.

The smelter has substantially reduced its Specific Water Consumption (water consumed per unit of metal produced) by around 11% in financial year 2022 over the previous fiscal, while producing more than 17,400 tonne of aluminium over FY 2021, according to a press release of the company.

Vedanta Aluminium’s Jharsuguda operations have one of the world’s largest aluminium smelting complexes, with two state-of-the-art aluminium smelters. Its Smelter-II (SEZ) has reduced Specific Water Consumption by around 8% in FY 2022, while increasing production by nearly 2 lakh tonne. On the whole, the site has recycled around 5 billion litre of water for inhouse consumption in the last fiscal. This is a significant step in the company’s commitment to turn its operations Net Water Positive by 2030.

Speaking on the company’s water management endeavours, Sunil Gupta, CEO, Vedanta Ltd, Jharsuguda, said, “Our water management endeavours are aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 of Clean Water & Sanitation. We are on a mission to minimise our water footprint, while supporting the local communities in their water-related requirements and helping maintain the ecological balance. Emerging as the national benchmark in specific water consumption motivates us to redouble our efforts in this direction. Our journey towards making our operations water positive will ensure sustainability of our business and make available more water for local communities and biodiversity.”

Vedanta Aluminium follows a 4-pillared approach to sustainable water management, which includes:

1. Monitoring water usage:

• Water management is integrated into the decision-making processes for all projects
• Water-related risk assessments have been carried out to identify degree of water stress, and accordingly, mitigation measures are undertaken
• All water quality parameters, including reduction of specific water consumption, are strictly monitored

2. Ensuring maximum water reutilisation:

1. • Stringent control measures and technologies adopted to ensure zero discharge operations
   • High-Concentration Slurry Disposal (HCSD) system deployed for ash management to ensure maximum water recycling through feedback loops
   • Operational excellence in Cooling Tower systems have resulted in one of the best Cycles of Concentration (COC) globally; higher the COC, less is the additional freshwater intake

3. Creating a positive water footprint:

1. • Partnership with TÜV SÜD, a global leader in sustainability solutions, for creating the roadmap for Vedanta Aluminium to become net water positive
   • Rainwater harvesting infrastructure and on-site water reservoirs created for water sourcing during contingency scenarios

4. Enabling communities’ access to water and climate-smart agriculture:

o   Training communities on growing climate-resilient crops for improving yield in the face of irregular climactic conditions

o   Helping farmers adopt drip-irrigation, treadle pump, solar powered water pumps, rainwater harvesting structures, etc. to boost irrigation potential

o   Building and rejuvenating hundreds of community water infrastructures like tube wells, bore wells, ponds, farm ponds, percolation tanks, etc. to help communities get perennial access to water for household and irrigation purposes

Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.26 million tonne in FY22. The company operates a world-class 1.75 MTPA aluminium smelter and 3615 MW thermal power generation facility at Jharsuguda.

The only Indian smelter in the global ‘1 Million Tonne’ production and export club, Vedanta Jharsuguda is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications across core industries. With its state-of-the-art facilities, unparalleled engineering prowess, R&D and innovation abilities, the company is working towards a sustainable and greener future for all by spurring emerging applications of aluminium, the ‘Metal of the Future’.