Keonjhar: Tata Steel on Tuesday commissioned its solid liquid separation plant for gas cleaning plant slurry at its ferro-alloys plant at Joda in the district.

This is the first such plant in the country in the ferro-alloys sector, the company claimed.

"As a responsible corporate, Tata Steel had been undertaking several such initiatives that contributed towards sustainability of the environment. This plant, besides conserving water, would prevent water from sludge pits percolating into ground and contaminating ground water," said Rajeev Singhal, vice-president, (raw materials) of Tata Steel in a statement.

Installed at a cost of nearly Rs 8 crore, the solid-liquid separation plant is an environment-friendly initiative, set to recover manganese-rich solids from the wet gas-cleaning plant slurry. Water recovered by the processing of gas cleaning plant slurry will be fully recycled, leading to water conservation to the tune of 15 cubic metres per hour, the statement said.

Also, the recovery of manganese-rich solids makes it possible to recycle the same, for production of ferro manganese. It helps conserve valuable high-grade manganese ore and use lower grade of iron-rich manganese ore.