A startup by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi, has employed green technology to convert waste from steel mills into usable products.
Green Trek, a start-up based in Jammu and Kashmir, was founded by Satinder Nath Gupta and his son Sandeep Gupta. It makes use of extractive metallurgy to find a solution to the problem of pollution.
Steel mills produce a great amount of waste, and most of it is thrown into landfills which causes environmental pollution. Whereas, green technology takes up less energy, no electricity and negligible furnace and is entirely pollution-free.
The team utilises clean combustion techniques to trim the steel mills' waste into a metal that has high iron content. This can, in turn, be reused by industries including that of ship building, oil and gas plants, stone crushing plants and power plants, officials said.
The method that Green Trek has devised, thus, emits minimal greenhouse gases.
“We are working on a circular economy model by utilising extractive metallurgy whereby greenhouse gases are reduced and a sustainable waste management process is put in place,” Sandeep told PTI.
He continued, "The end product is molten metal with an iron content of 99.6 percent, which is then mixed with other metals to make various kinds of high value steel and alloy castings used in a range of industries."
The vision of the startup is to manufacture green steel products by employing cutting edge technology and pioneering solid waste management in the country and abroad.
The team has also signed an MoU to build a permanent plant in Himachal Pradesh. The plant will cater to top companies like Ultratech, Ambuja Cement and ACC.
“The objective of this MoU is to facilitate Green Trek to set up a green steel recycling unit for the supply of spares to the locally-based heavy industries such as cement plants and stone crushers by minimising greenhouse gases through its unique process of manufacturing," Sandeep explained, as reported by PTI.
He added that the government will be facilitating all the necessary approvals, licenses and support to Green Trek.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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