BALCO inks MOU with VNIT Nagpur for green concrete solution towards developing sustainable road

India’s primary aluminium producer, Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) has lately inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) Nagpur for using their green concrete solution towards road construction inside the plant area and the adjacent areas.

VNIT’s innovative solution, green concrete is developed to exploit industrial by-products such as fly ash and bottom ash for construction purposes. The technology institute’s research has demonstrated that more than 500 kgs of ash could be consumed per cubic meter of concrete road, rather than the current usage of 100 kgs by addition of high solid content superplasticizer admixture developed by them. However, this roughly renders to about 600 tonnes of ash consumption per km of a single lane road. Now ash being a capacious by-product of thermal power generation, such innovation will not only deliver a leap to sustainable construction but also establish environmental sustainability eventually.

Abhijit Pati, CEO and Director of BALCO, while speaking about BALCO’s approach towards waste-to-wealth said: “We believe in leveraging next-generation technologies to minimize, recycle and reuse by-products and industrial wastes from our manufacturing process in innovative ways that are beneficial for people and the environment. We have implemented novel solutions for environmental management and to reduce our carbon footprint. We are proud to partner with VNIT Nagpur for implementing their green concrete solution for construction purposes at and beyond our plant premises.”

BALCO has manifested engrossment for a long-term alliance with cement producers to manufacture low-carbon cement using fly-ash and bauxite residue. The concern is working on an extensive range of waste-to-wealth programmes focused on sustainable ad gainful utilization of industrial wastes.