Archives: Case Study

A leading paper manufacturing company in the UAE installs Thermax’s chiller-heater

Thermax has successfully commissioned one chiller-heater of 600 TR at Al Dhafra Paper Manufacturing Company LLC, a part of M.A.H.Y. Khoory Group in the UAE. Being one among the most trusted and recognised names in the UAE, M.A.H.Y. Khoory Group is a well-known trading firm that has a strong foothold in the UAE industrial market. A leader in the regional market, the M.A.H.Y. Khoory Group, is a diverse group of companies and business units that bring world-class technology products and services to their clients.

Incepted in the year 2010, Al Dhafra Paper Manufacturing LLC has carved a niche for themselves in Abu Dhabi and has managed to garner utmost client satisfaction. In line with the M.A.H.Y. Khoory Group’s business philosophy of continuous growth, Al Dhafra Paper Manufacturing Company was set up in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to cater to the growing global demand for recycled containerboard. Al Dhafra Paper Manufacturing converts waste paper into recycled testliner and fluting medium to cater to the packaging industry in the UAE and other international markets. Producing 650 tonnes of recycled paper everyday, Al Dhafra Paper mill is fully accredited to the highest standards of environmental and technical safety and is regularly updated to stay on par with the cutting-edge technology.

Extending commitment and dedication towards the environment, Al Dhafra Paper has adopted Thermax’s smart and sustainable solution over the traditional method for their comfort cooling requirement. Thermax’s energy efficient chiller-heater has replaced the existing electrical chiller at Al Dhafra Paper manufacturing facility and has resulted in saving 4.81 million units of electricity annually. Also, this has helped in reducing the carbon emissions by 3,302 tonnes which is equivalent to planting 3,30,240 trees annually.

Thermax’s chiller-heater of 600 TR produces chilled water at 6.6oC, which is circulated through the Air Handling Units (AHUs) catering to their comfort cooling requirements in office buildings, production plant building, panel rooms and drive rooms. Steam, the driving heat source for the chiller-heater is produced using two Danstoker natural gas fired boiler of capacity 40 TPH each. The chiller-heater consumes 2.6 TPH of steam and the balance steam is used in the paper manufacturing process, resulting in zero waste of steam.

The chiller-heater also produces hot water at 90oC, which is used as feed water for the boilers. The boiler is fed with partially heated water, which reduces the consumption of natural gas. 

Project Highlights

Customer AI Dhafra Paper, UAE
Product: One Steam-driven chiller heater
Capacity: 600 TR
Application: Process Cooling/Comfort Cooling

Thermax’s high-efficiency chiller-heater is a lithium bromide-based vapour absorption machine producing chilled and hot water for either cooling or heating as well as both simultaneously. The chiller-heater provides maximum heating capacity in simultaneous cooling and heating mode 75-80% of the cooling load. That is, for every 100 kW of cooling, up to 75 kW of heating can be generated.

Click here to read and download the chiller-heater brochure.

Thermax’s Cinder Recovery System Helped Reduce Loss of Ignition at a Cement Plant in Karnataka

Customer Background and Thermax Partnership: Since 2009, Thermax has been a trusted partner to a reputed cement manufacturer in Karnataka for its 6000 TPD unit, providing Operation and Maintenance (O&M) services for the 2×25 MW captive power plant. The plant has two AFBC (Atmospheric Fluidised Bed Combustion) boilers of 110 TPH capacity each generating steam at 88 ata, 520ºC. 

Problem: The customer had a challenging requirement of optimising the reuse of their hazardous waste viz. fly ash by reducing its carbon content. As a standard practice, the fly ash generated from the boiler is utilised in the cement mill. However, only the fly ash with a Loss of Ignition (LOI- the amount of carbon left in fly ash which has a potential heat value) less than 8% can be utilised, and the rest needs to be disposed of which has several constraints, considering its hazardous nature. 

Further, a high level of carbon content in ash due to Loss of Ignition is undesirable for power plants as it leads to boiler efficiency loss and higher specific fuel consumption.

Approach: To counter this situation, the team conducted an analytical study on factors affecting the increase in LOI. It was identified that LOI was increasing due to insufficient burning of fuel in the secondary part of the boiler. Change in fuel properties also had a significant contribution to the problem.

Solution: Thermax recommended the installation of a Cinder Recovery System to counter the factors leading to a higher LOI in the boiler. This system utilises unburnt carbon in the fly ash by re-firing it in the boiler, which is conveyed through the primary air.

The team made a detailed proposal with a cost benefit analysis of the Cinder Recovery System to the customer. As the system was designed by Thermax’s in-house engineering and commissioning team, the customer was relieved of any risks associated with its performance. The team also modified the intermediate storage of ash, which was resulting in a drop in the temperature of ash. 

This modification, along with the installation of the Cinder Recovery System resulted in a reduction of the LOI from 15-17% to 6-8%, while eliminating the need for disposing of hazardous waste.

Benefits:

  • Reduction of LOI to 6-8% benefited the customer in many ways – they were able to utilise the fly ash in cement mill and saved on the cost of fly ash disposal 
  • Boiler efficiency was improved by 0.5%
  • Heat rate reduced by 45-50 kcal/kWh
  • Fuel saving of approximately 2,250 tons/year was achieved
  • Overall fuel saving resulted in a reduction of carbon footprint by 7,321 tCO2e/year

                        

Thermax Enviro Solutions empowers the oldest Cement Company of Egypt

About Tourah Cement

The Tourah Portland cement Plant, Egypt’s first cement company, was established in 1927. It is owned by Suez Cement company (66.12%). The company consists of two plants located in an area of 10,000,000 m2 in Tourah district with 9 production lines.

The Changing Business Scenario

Driver of the Change: Emission Standards

As global awareness and concerns grew about the Air Pollution and its hazards, Egypt also decided to upgrade the emission standards that a cement plant must meet in order to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment.

As per the changes in the law, any cement company in Egypt must meet the new emission standards of SPM < 20 Mg/NM3 from earlier acceptable limits of SPM< 100 Mg/NM3 resulting into a complete change in the business scenario for Tourah Cement.

Affected Applications, Utilities and Challenges

Application Existing APC
Raw Mill x 2 ESP x 2
Clinker Cooler GBF
Alkali By Pass & Gas Cooling Tower ESP

APC: Air Pollution Control Equipment
ESP: Electrostatic Precipitator
GBF: Gravel Bed Filter

Challenges Associated with Rehabilitation

1. Efficiently meet the expected new emission standards.
2. Minimize capex and downtime of the plant and without disturbing the other operations much.
3. Modifications and additions within the little space available posing as a significant constraint

Solution Offered by Thermax

Thermax studied the requirements of the customer and associated challenges. Based on its years of experience, Thermax Retrofit and Revamp Design team came out with a solution to be executed within 45 days planned shutdown for all the three applications. In order to reduce the Capex, Thermax used its engineering skills so that the existing structures, casing, hoppers etc can be utilized to maximum in the new solution.

Raw Mills (Both) – ESP for replaced with Pulse Jet Bag Filter

Existing Casing was repaired and partition was created to accommodate the new 2 chamber Bag House.
Existing building was strengthened and used.

Clinker Cooler – Gravel Bed Filter replaced with Heat Exchanger & Pulse Jet Bag Filter

Heat Exchanger was provided for Clinker Cooler Gases prior to entering the Bag Filter Chamber.
The Bag filter with six compartments was constructed on the structures of the existing Gravel Bed Filter New Ducting connecting to old discharge system was only used.

Alkali By-Pass & GCT -ESP replaced with Pulse Jet Bag Filter

Existing ESP Support structures & Hoppers were used to construct the New Bag Filter The existing GCT was upgraded to handle dual fuel.

Final Process Parameters

Application Offered Solution Volume(M3/Hr) Temperature(C) Inlet Dust Load(gm/NM3) Outlet Emission Achieved(mg/NM3)
Raw Mill x 2 Pulse Jet Bag Filter 630,000 200 200 < 20
Clinker Cooler Pulse Jet Bag Filter 450,000 120 20 < 20
Alkali By Pass & Gas Cooling Tower Pulse Jet Bag Filter 195,000 200 80 < 20

Achievements

1. Execution of project covering all the 3 applications completed in the planned shutdown of only 45 days.
2. Equipment handed over after commissioning in just 15 days.
3. CAPEX reduced as per customers expectations by utilizing existing structures to maximum possible.

Project in Pictures

Raw Mill


Clinker Cooler


Alkali By Pass & Gas Cooling Tower


Reduction of Auxiliary Power Consumption for a Cement Plant in Rajasthan

Customer Background and Thermax Partnership: At one of the leading cement manufacturer’s unit at Rajasthan, Thermax is providing Operation and Maintenance (O&M) services for its captive power plant of capacity 21 MW and WHR power plant of capacity 13 MW since 2008. The plant has an 89 TPH AFBC (Atmospheric Fluidised Bed Combustion) boiler and 5 WHR (Waste Heat Recovery) boilers of 72 TPH combined (both boilers are made by Thermax).  

Project Background: Auxiliary power consumption is one of the key performance indicators for a power plant. As a part of the customer’s ‘energy efficiency’ drive, the Thermax team took a target of reducing the auxiliary power consumption to enhance the net power generation. 

Approach: Thermax team conducted a detailed analysis of the equipment data using advanced proprietary tools. They also organised workshops to drill down on the key parameters driving higher auxiliary power consumption.

Specific teams were formed to study:  

  1. Power consumption pattern equipment-wise and area wise 
  2. All possible ideas for improvement

Solution: Thermax team presented a comprehensive plan to the customer for reducing auxiliary power consumption for captive and WHR power plants. The plan included actions with and without capital investments. Over the span of the last two years, various opex initiatives such as ‘auto control logics for flow optimisation’ and capex initiatives such as ‘VFD installation’ were implemented. The customer also agreed for capex investment after being apprised by the Thermax team about the long term savings and lifecycle cost reduction. 

Benefits:

  • For the captive power plant, 72.4 lakhs of unit cost saved through capex and 18.8 lakhs unit cost saved through opex 
  • For WHR unit 8.7 lakhs of unit cost saved through capex and 1.9 lakhs unit cost saved through opex
  • The total auxiliary power consumption was reduced by 1% for captive power plant and 2.2% for WHR unit 
  • Carbon footprints reduced by 1,200 tCO2e/year for captive unit and 1,300 tCO2e/year for WHR unit

 

 

Thermax successfully commissions Asia’s largest energy plant for Greenply industries limited.

INTRODUCTION

Greenply Industries Limited is one of the leading interior infrastructure manufacturing companies in India and is primarily engaged in manufacturing, marketing, distribution of Plywood and Medium Density Fiber (MDF) Boards. The wood industry major has been associated with Thermax Limited for heating solutions for many years.In the year 2009, Thermax commissioned 50 MW Energy Plant in their Uttarakhand plant, which was the first engineered solution by Thermax supplying energy to multiple processes from a single energy efficient system. Reinforcing a decade-long association with Greenply,In March

2018 Thermax has successfully commissioned the second energy
plant of 97 MW. This plant is installed at Greenply’s state of the manufacturing facility for MDF board located at Chittoor,AP,India. It has an annual capacity of 3, 60,000 CBM and is the largest MDF plant in Asia and the fifth largest plant in the world. MDF is made by breaking down wood into fibers which are again combined with adhesives and the end product is formed into panels by applying heat and pressure.MDF boards are increasingly popular in many parts of the world for furnishing offices, schools and homes. Our esteemed customer is one of the market leader in India and have trusted Thermax for their expansion projects. Greenply being the Major plywood manufacturer in India understood the importance of replacing the traditional inefficient wood panels with wood efficient

MDF panels thereby ensuring sustainable economic development with
minimum burden on the environment and trusted Thermax with their

environment-friendly initiative.

Project details

Medium Density Fiber Boards are manufactured from agro plantation wood such as Eucalyptus, Subabul, Casurina etc. Wood logs are chipped and sent to a size separator (screen) where undersize wood chips are separated and reject is used as the fuel in the Energy plant. Then sized wood chips are sent to the Refiner where it is cooked with steam and converted into fibers. The produced fibers are mixed with appropriate resin and passed through the directly heated dryer. Flue gas from the energy plant is blended with ambient air so as to maintain a consistent temperature of hot gas required in the dryer. The dried fibers with appropriate moisture content then pass through a sifter, forming a line and feed to hot press (continuous press) to manufacture required thickness MDF board.

The heat required for the press is supplied in the form of hot thermal oil from the thermal oil heater at Energy Plant. MDF board from the press is further then sent to trimming and sanding system to get the boards of required size with smooth and even surface. The trim waste and sander dust generated in this process are used as fuel for Energy Plant.

3.6Mn capacity MDF Process as Chittoor plant had following heat requirements from Energy Plant. 50 MW for Hot gas at 350 deg C. 32 MW for Steam at 15 kg/cm2 (g) pressure and 15 MW for Thermal Oil at 290 deg C

Total thermal heat output of 97 MW with a solution on a turnkey with engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning. Highest efficiency, lower emission, higher availability, automated control and safety systems were the prime criteria for selection of a supplier for Energy Plant system. Energy plant system should have flexibility in terms of fuel and load modulation/control.

The solution provided by Thermax

The challenge was to design largest capacity Energy Plant of 97 MW capacity and it should have fuel flexibility, highest efficiency, lower emission,higher uptime, automated control and safety systems for emergency situations.The critical components of Energy plant system such as combustor, pressure
parts,emission control equipment and control system were designed keeping in mind the above requirements. Some of the features are illustrated below

Combustor

Energy plant was required to be designed for multiple fuels like woodchips, Indonesian coal along with process waste chips and sander dust.Traveling grate as combustor was best- suited system and sander dust fired with the burner at a secondary level.The system had refractory line separate combustor without any heat absorption surface which made the system highly flexible. Flue gas generated in the combustor is controlled at 900 deg C and further distributed to three independent system viz. boiler, heater, and hot gas generator

Pressure Part

Heat recovery was entirely done with flue gas mass hence it required a high amount of heat transfer surface area. Membrane panel assembly in the radiation area reduces flue gas temperature before entering into the convection section thus increase availability of the system. A cross-flow configuration convection section helps to get an optimum area. An online soot cleaning system gives better uptime of the system.

Both boiler and thermal oil heater had independent induced draft fan control for steady control on load, higher turndown for the system.

Emission control device

A typically old Energy plant system had dust cyclone which has a limitation in terms of high power consumption of main induced draft fan, frequent cleaning because of choking and higher emission. Thermax had to offer A Electrostatic Precipitator as emission control to address all issues of the cyclone. Overall it was one of its kind and the innovative solution given by any energy plant supplier and was well appreciated by Greenply.

Safety features

Safety is always a prime criterion while designing any system; one has critically studied the emergency situation that can arise during operation of the system. Experience always plays a major role here:
Thermax’s Energy Plant offers high safety standard, and some of them are:

  • Emergency stack to avoid over-pressurization of the furnace
  • Thermal oil emergency cooler to safeguard the fluid
  • Auto-vent valve for the boiler to a safe start and stop of the system.

Impact Created

Thermax’s 97 MW Energy plant has created history in MDF industry with the revolutionary one of its kind energy efficient and environment- friendly system.
Thermax Energy plant utilizes almost all wood waste generated from the process as the fuel thus reduces consumption of fresh wood making it environment-friendly. It assures the highest thermal efficiency of 94% which is a benchmark in the solid fuel-fired systems thus ensures the lowest operating cost.
While catering to varying load fluctuations it has to turn down ratio almost to the tune of 1:5. Independent control of each stream makes the system more flexible.
Our pollution control devise Electrostatic precipitator (ESP) gives lowest emission as compared to conventional systems.
The plant has the highest availability which makes it most economical compared to other competitors.
Thermax’s EP offers a completely automated system with highest safety standards with various emergency controls in thermal oil, steam and hot gas.
Thermax is committed to give the best solutions to our customers, time and again have proven the metal with cutting-edge technology solutions which are energy efficient and cost effective.

THERMAX’S HEAT PUMP SAVES 40% ENERGY AT ASIA SILICON IN CHINA

 

Introduction

Our customer, Asia Silicon (Qinghai) Co. Ltd based in Xining, China placed an order with Thermax for a heat pump with capacity of 4450 kW. The Thermax heat pump was utilized to raise the temperature of waste hot water from 108°C to 152°C leading to optimum utilization of energy.

Asia Silicon (Qinghai) Co. Ltd engages in the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of silicon and poly-silicon products to solar energy equipment makers

Project description

At the customer’s site, the waste hot water at 108°C from the hydrogenation furnace and the reduction furnace is fed to the heat pump and the temperature was raised to 152°C. The saturated vapour at 152°C when cooled to 145°C can be used to heat the hydrogenation furnace and the reduction furnace to help them attain their working temperature (110°C -130°C ) when it is cooled to 145°C. This is an unique application given by Thermax in poly-silicon industry.

Highlights

  • The installation of our heat pump resulted in saving 30%-40% energy at the customer’s site.
  • The customer was able to make savings of 10-20 % on manufacturing of poly-silicon products.

THERMAX CHILLERS USED BY LARGEST TOY MAKERS IN THE WORLD-LEGO

Introduction

Our customer, Asia Silicon (Qinghai) Co. Ltd based in Xining, China placed an order with Thermax for a heat pump with capacity of 4450 kW. The Thermax heat pump was utilized to raise the temperature of waste hot water from 108°C to 152°C leading to optimum utilization of energy.

Asia Silicon (Qinghai) Co. Ltd engages in the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of silicon and poly-silicon products to solar energy equipment makers

Project description

At the customer’s site, the waste hot water at 108°C from the hydrogenation furnace and the reduction furnace is fed to the heat pump and the temperature was raised to 152°C. The saturated vapour at 152°C when cooled to 145°C can be used to heat the hydrogenation furnace and the reduction furnace to help them attain their working temperature (110°C -130°C ) when it is cooled to 145°C. This is an unique application given by Thermax in poly-silicon industry.

Highlights

  • The installation of our heat pump resulted in saving 30%-40% energy at the customer’s site.
  • The customer was able to make savings of 10-20 % on manufacturing of poly-silicon products.

THERMAX CHILLERS USED BY LARGEST TOY MAKERS IN THE WORLD-LEGO

Thermax supplied three 610 TR (1830 TR or 6425 kW) Exhaust + Jacket water driven chillers last year to the LEGO plant in Hungary. These chillers were used for the application of cooling during the injection molding process using waste heat recovered from a 2.6 MW GE Jenbacher gas engine.

Project Introduction

At the Lego facility at Nyíregyháza, Hungary there were 768 moulding machines.

“We are going to build a brand new factory, that will be designed and constructed with a high focus on integrating sustainability – and it will be the future workplace for approximately 1500 dedicated LEGO employees,” says Bali Padda, the Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President and Member of Management Board at LEGO.

Since the facility is situated near the Ukranian border the availability of power is a major concern for them. Hence in order to resolve this problem LEGO had installed 3nos. x 2.6 MW GE Jenbacher JMS 620 gas engine to cater to the captive power requirement.

The production capacity at this facility has gone up and the plastic moulding machines are having a throughput of around 16,000 toys /day/machine . Because of this, the cooling requirement for these moulds had also gone up. Initially to cater to this cooling requirement of the moulds LEGO had been using electrical chillers, but for additional cooling Thermax suggested to LEGO that they opt for an exhaust driven chiller.

The client had an existing gas engine and the exhaust from this engine was liberated in the atmosphere without any recovery, hence a solution was provided to the client to recover this waste heat from the exhaust of the gas engine which however was going unused to the atmosphere. This heat from the exhaust of the engine and the jacket hot water is used to trigger the absorption chiller which provides output in the form of chilled water.

Highlights

By using our chillers, LEGO was able to

  • Optimize their utilization of the waste heat from the engine exhaust.
  • They saved on energy consumption
  • They were also able to save on the operational cost of the chillers
  • They helped reduce 8500 tons of Carbon Dioxide which is equivalent to planting of 457,000 trees

MAKING DATA CENTRES GREENER

Have you ever wondered where all the data in a company gets stored? All companies have Data Centres that back up and store all the data. In more technical terms, Data centres are physical or virtual infrastructure for housing computer, server and networking systems and components for a company’s IT needs.

The environment of a Data centre is controlled in terms of temperature and humidity, both to ensure the performance and operational integrity of the systems within. These facilities will generally include power supplies, backup power, chillers, cables, fire and water detection systems and security controls.

According to a report by Mckinsey, Data centres are responsible for over two per cent of global electricity consumption which is increasing year on year. By 2020, rising carbon emissions from data centres are predicted to exceed those of the airline industry. Hence, there is growing pressure on data centres to look for greener operating solutions.

To work effectively a data centre needs to have a cold aisle/hot aisle configuration with cooled air passing through the front of the enclosure and hot air being removed effectively at the back.

Thermax provides one of the most complete ranges of data centre cooling solutions that work smarter and are energy efficient. From the smallest server room to the largest data centre, we deliver the kind of tailored data centre cooling solutions you need with a service that is second to none.

CASE STUDY:

That has never been a truer statement than today, when the world depends on the data flowing through our electronic lines of communication. But power comes at an increasingly high cost, both in dollars and environmental impact on our planet. That is why Syracuse University, IBM, and New York State joined together to create the Green Data Center. Through a combination of new innovations and smarter technologies, this partnership has created one of the most energy-efficient data centers in the world.

As part of its “Smarter Planet” initiative, IBM has worked with SU to look beyond computer hardware and software to the actual infrastructure of the data center. The Green Data Center—with its own electrical Tri-Generation system and IBM’s latest computers and computer-cooling technology—is expected to use 50 percent less energy than a typical computer center, making it one of the “greenest” in operation today. The good news is that Thermax was a part of this green project.

Persuing the dream of having a green Data Centre-IBM and SU placed an order with Thermax for tri-generation systems wherein two exhaust fired absorption chillers of 180 TR would cater to their comfort cooling requirement utilizing exhaust gas from a 4.5 MW gas turbine installed at their premises.

Data center air-conditioning is a mission critical application as maintaining temperature in a data center is essential for proper functioning of the servers. In order to safeguard the data centre in the event of a component failure, micro-turbines were procured to take care of the backup in the event of a power failure. The 6,000-square-foot data centre at the educational institute features its own electrical tri-generation system and incorporates IBM’s latest energy-efficient computers and computer-cooling technology. Six micro-turbines of 65 kW capacity each are used for generating power at this data centre. The exhaust of these micro-turbines is used as an input to trigger Thermax’s exhaust driven absorption chillers. These absorption chillers provide chilled water at 14.4 °C during summers in order to maintain the ambient condition inside the data centre.

THERMAX VAPOUR ABSORPTION MACHINE GIVES -2°C COOLING IN THE COCA-COLA PLANT AND SAVES ELECTRICITY BY 90%

Introduction

This was indeed an exciting collaboration with Coca-Cola, the world leading beverage company.Thermax designed a steam fired 200 TR vapour absorption machine (VAM) for them. The absorption chiller was to give -2°C chilled brine while using CFC free refrigerant in order to meet the bottle cooling requirement in the Coca-Cola plant at Pirangut near Pune located in Western India. This VAM uses steam energy input of 8 bar pressure. It replaced an old compression chiller where it saved 1240 MW-hr of electricity per annum.

The process of bottle cooling is an important step in beverage manufacturing. Solubility of CO2 in water decreases as temperature increases. So before filling the bottles it is necessary to cool the bottles to contain the CO2 inside the solution.

Getting -2°C from the existing electrical chiller was having larger running cost. A specially designed 200 TR double effect steam fired VAM was supplied by Thermax to meet this requirement.

Our VAM runs on the readily available steam from boiler, thus saving the electrical output 235 kW per hour. This in turn saves the operational cost by significant amount as power cost in that area was high and steam cost was low.

Customer Support
Customer Support
top
Call us
Customer Care
Call us
To Enquire
✖









Enquire Now X
Enquiry Form