The benefits of Thermax’s Absorption Chillers

The most commonly used technology to convert biomass to heat is direct combustion. During the process of combustion, biomass is burnt in excess air to produce heat. In the first stage of combustion, vapours from biomass are produced which burn as flames. A charcoal residue is left behind, which is burnt in a forced air supply to provide more heat. Hot combustion gases are sometimes used directly for product drying but are typically passed through a heat exchanger to produce hot air, hot water or steam. The efficiency of a combustion system primarily depends on how strong contact is between oxygen in the air and biomass fuel. If carbon dioxide and water vapour are emitted during biomass combustion, it is considered to be an efficient one. But often smoke and alkaline ash particles are also emitted. It is necessary to minimize these  emissions owing to their environmental impacts. This has led to the design of environmentally acceptable biomass combustion systems. Biomass combust...

The University of Technology, Finland conducted research that concluded India to operate at full capacity on a renewable energy system by the year 2050. While this is a big claim for a nation of more than a billion people, there is data to support the potential of our country to make this a reality. Let us understand what it would take to make this happen. India is among the largest producers of energy from renewable sources all over the world.  Renewable energy accounts for 34.6% of the total installed capacity in the electricity sector. Large hydro installed capacity was 45.399 GW as of 31 March 2019, contributing to 13% of the total power capacity. The remaining renewable energy sources accounted for 22% of the total installed power capacity (77.641 GW) as of 31 March 2019. We are also the fourth largest producer of wind-power in the world at a grand 36,625 MW. This is due the strong manufacturing base with 20 manufacturers with 53 different turbine models of international ...

Systems of air quality control are essential for maintaining a healthy indoor and outdoor environment. Air gets contaminated from harmful and toxic pollutants emitted from industries. The role of air pollution control systems is to minimize and eliminate the quantity of pollutants in air and gases that these industries emit. Air pollution control systems market provides solutions for the treatment of the pollutants, which leads to cleaner emission in the atmosphere. The rise in awareness towards the critical need for ecological conservation coupled with the ongoing efforts to switch to renewable fuels over fossil fuels has led to an increase in the use of air pollution control systems. The global market size is expected to be valued at USD 98.17 billion by 2025, according to Grand View Research, Inc. There is also a growing awareness across consumers about air pollution control and new developments in technologies for air pollution control technologies which are driving growth i...

Ultrapure water (UPW) also known as high-purity water is obtained by purifying water to very strict specifications. UPW contains water with ions of H20, and H+ and OH- in equilibrium. The conductivity of this water is about 0,055 uS/cm at 25oC. UPW is produced using different water purification systems such as ion exchange or membrane filtration to reach a conductivity of 10 uS/cm. This water is stripped off all its minerals and contains nil concentrations of salts, organic components, oxygen, suspended solids or bacteria making it unfit for human consumption. Ultrapure water finds applications majorly in semiconductors, power generators, microelectronics manufacturing, life sciences, chemical industry (ammonia facilities, and fine chemicals manufacturing), and pharmaceutical industry (injection, sterile water, and wastewater treatment). In the healthcare sector this high-quality water is used in processes like dialysis and has other vital medical applications. UPW is used to clea...

Sewage is a mixture of wastewater that comes from homes, toilets, baths, and rainwater. Sewage treatment plants are meant to remove large contaminants that are present in this wastewater after which the contaminants are sent to a landfill. The remaining material is allowed to ‘settle’ to the bottom of the tank. This solid material is removed and then buried in a landfill or even used as a fertiliser once it has undergone further treatment. Sewage processing helps to reduce the concentration of potentially harmful bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella in the original sewage. Most of these bacteria die during sewage treatment as the conditions in the plant are not appropriate for their survival. It is crucial to eliminate the presence of organic compounds in the effluents that are released into water bodies like rivers from the sewage plant.  If these microbes are not reduced at the right time they use the organic matter in the river to reproduce in large numbers. They also ta...

Shell boilers are those in which heat transfer surfaces are contained inside a steel shell.  They are also known as fire tube or smoke tube boilers as the products of combustion pass through the boiler tubes and transfer heat to the surrounding boiler water.  They allow for greater area of heat transfer along with allowing boiler water to be heated to a point where the heat from the furnace will be the highest. The combustion gases should be cooled to at least 420°C for plain steel boilers and 470°C for alloy steel boilers before they pass through the reversal chamber. Temperatures in excess can cause overheating and breaking of the tube end plates. Shellmax by Thermax is among the best in this category in the market. It comes with a packaged, three-pass smoke tube, with a fully wet back boiler. There are two series provided under Shellmax- (i)    SMDL: For burning light oils & gas (ii)    SMDH: For burning heavy oils. The bo...

Generating electricity is a highly complex process that involves a number of sub-processes with multiple critical parameters. A high load factor implies greater output and at a reduced cost per unit. The performance of the power plant which is based on the operational efficiency among other things, is essential to have a high PLF (plant load factors). Some factors that affect the efficiency of a power plant include, thermal efficiency, maintenance loss, plant load, forced outages, and plant availability. Low thermal efficiency leads to high costs of electricity generation. This is because of greater fuel usage which leads to higher carbon footprints. This makes improvements in the performance of thermal power plants crucial. The performance of a thermal power plant can be expressed through some critical performance factors such as: Energy efficiency, thermal efficiency, capacity factor, load factor, economic efficiency, and operational efficiency. Increasing efficiency requires o...

Most developed countries launched their solar programmes by targeting household rooftops; owing to which they now have a sizable share of installations in this segment. India and China are two exceptions to this. They have used large-scale solar installations to be able to rapidly achieve sales targets and push down costs. The focus on large-scale utility solar systems has been high in India making it an accidental obstruction to the development of the rooftop segment. While we have ambitious plans to reach a target of 40 gigawatts for solar panel rooftops by 2022, we are far from achieving this goal. According to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), only 2,158 megawatt (MW) of SRT systems were installed till December 2018.  The shortfall in capacity is aggravated by the fact that a large proportion—70 per cent—of the installed rooftop systems are used by commercial and industrial customers. Residential consumers make for less than 20 per cent of the total in...

Industrial furnaces are meant to create an environment where a high processing temperature can be attained, compared to open-air systems, while providing the efficiency gains of a closed system. Temperatures shoot up to as high as 400 degrees Celsius or greater in industrial furnaces. The furnace serves as equipment that acts as a reactor to provide heat for different processes. Based on their functions, furnaces have varying designs, heating duty, fuel type, and method of introducing combustion air. In an industrial furnace, heat is generated by mixing fuel with air and oxygen or using an electrical source of energy. Residual heat exits the furnace as flue gas. Industrial heaters manufacturers provide furnaces that are also called fired heaters. These have a burner installed in them which provide hot gasses that allow for heat energy to be transferred to a process liquid or gas that flows directly through coils installed inside the heater vessel. Direct fired heaters u...

Heat process treatments are carried out to heat and cool metals to bring about changes in their physical and mechanical properties.  Heat treatment doesn’t alter the shape of metals. It augments the strength of materials and even enhances properties like formability, machining, etc.  Heat treatments are most commonly applied in metallurgy but also find use in manufacturing glass, aluminium, steel and other such materials. Extreme temperatures are used for heating and cooling of metals to achieve the desired result. Let us explore the different heat process treatments using in manufacturing processes: 1. Hardening Steel is heated at a suitable temperature during the process of hardening until all pearlite transforms into austenite, and is then quenched rapidly in water or oil. The temperature at which pearlite becomes austenite depends on the carbon content present in the steel. The time of heating should be increased to make sure that the core completely transfo...

Infrastructure is one of the most critical components of the economic growth and welfare of nations. Power is essential for the development of robust infrastructure. The power sector in India is among the most diversified in the world. We have access to power generation sources from a wide range including traditional sources such as coal, lignite, natural gas, oil, hydro and nuclear power to new, non-conventional sources like wind, solar, and agricultural and biofuel. The demand for electricity in our country has risen rapidly, with an increase in population and is expected to grow further still in years to come.  To meet this increasing demand, we need an addition to the existing capacity of power generation. In 2018, India ranked fourth in the Asia Pacific region on an index that measured the overall power of 25 countries. Last year saw some significant milestones in most segments of power while uncertainty held back a few others. Let us go over some facts about the ener...

A cooling tower water treatment system is made up of technologies that are required to regulate the levels of: 1.    Alkalinity 2.    Chlorides 3.    Hardness 4.    Iron 5.    Organic matter 6.    Silica 7.    Sulfates 8.    Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) 9.    Totals Suspended Solids (TSS) There are a number of chemical companies in India and all over the world that provide the necessary chemicals to help regulate the aforementioned elements. Let us look at how a cooling tower water treatment system works Specific treatment processes differ on the basis of the requirements of cooling towers along with the chemistry of the water feed and circulated water. The functioning of a typical cooling tower system includes the following steps: 1. Cooling tower makeup water intake Makeup water also known as the water that replaces t...