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In its 25th year, the Enviro Division of Thermax is on the move….
literally. They have moved from Chinchwad to Pimpri in Pune. The
new facility is expected to be inaugurated soon. Sources at Thermax
indicated that the Enviro Division was one of the fastest growing
divisions within Thermax Ltd.
With their customer driven approach and technological synergy with
other divisions, Thermax Enviro has carved a niche in practically
every conceivable pollution control application. So it’s not surprising
that the Enviro Division has registered an approximate 400% growth
in both top and bottom lines. With key sectors such as power, steel
and cement on the upswing, the future appears to be bright green.
The Enviro Division has the infrastructure to undertake small to
large pollution control projects on turnkey basis. With a diverse
and well trained application and sales engineering team, the Enviro
Division undertakes complete study, right from feasibility analysis
to air pollution control and its management including repairs, retrofitting,
revamping, and customer training for its range of products. They
can tailor the system to suit the exact process requirements.
Chemical Industry Digest (CID)spoke to Mr. V J Shah(VJS), Vice President
& Head, Thermax Enviro Division, about the division and on the
trends in the air pollution control industry. Excerpts of the interview
are presented below:
CID : How seriously is air pollution control taken today compared
to when you started 25 years ago?
VJS : Earlier, Air Pollution Control (APC) was more legislation
driven. Even today, it’s legislation driven, but industries are
looking at APC from the return on investment (ROI) standpoint. Our
slogan today reads “Cleaning the Air for Better Returns”. In some
instances, the health and productivity of people have increased
with proper APC measures and equipment. The cost of maintenance
of electrical equipments and electronic control gadgets in plants
is high and this cost can be controlled with the proper APC equipment.
In the hydrocarbon sector, our filters are used for cleaning and
filtering corrosive gases from atmospheric air to prevent them from
coming in contact with costly electrical and electronic plant components.
Our filters are even being used in the telecom-munication sector.
CID : What is the reason for the 400% growth in profits? Is it
due to the growth of end user industries?
VJS.: During the last 2 years span Enviro’s business has grown
four times, and in the future we expect a compounding growth of
10 to 12 % p.a. There is a huge market for APC equipment and systems
in industry segments like power generation (especially where solid
fuels are used), iron & steel including sponge iron, cement
& rock products, chemicals & allied industries as well as
incineration plants for hazardous wastes.
CID : Is 100% emission control ever possible?
VJS : Yes, but only in theory. In 1980, particulate emission norms
were 300 mg/Nm3. Today, it is between 50-100 mg/Nm3 and even in
some cases as low as 2-10 mg/Nm3. These are high standards for the
performance of APC systems. Although the gap is closing, Indian
air pollution standards are 5 years behind US and European standards.
CID : Is APC an expensive prospect? Is the Enviro division looking
towards waste recovery?
VJS : After 25 years, I can safely say that there are two types
of APC equipment customers. There are the small scale industrial
(SSI) customers and there are the multinationals. The SSI customers
have limited knowledge of the applicable APC system specific to
their manufacturing process, and so feel it is a burden and find
it expensive. Multinationals, however, have professional project
teams and tend to look at APC systems as a necessity. In terms of
gas recovery, such as ammonia, fluorine and chlorine, our recovery
systems have an efficiency of around 99.99%. Typically, our payback
period is 3-4 years, but in the fertilizer industry, the payback
period is extremely attractive at 10 months or less. We offer the
widest, single source expertise in all areas of environmental protection,
with a combination of tailor made technologies.
CID : With companies beginning to trade in carbon credits, is Thermax
Enviro looking to get into the CDM business?
VJS : CDM is just beginning in India. It’s important and preferred
to reduce CO2 and NOx at the combustion stage rather than deal with
it after it is produced. So, efficiency of the combustion system,
chamber and the type of injection process is paramount during NOx
reduction.
Carbon trading is the prerogative of companies that reduce CO2 from
their processes. Companies are tying up with foreign consul-tants
to trade in carbon credits and this is being taken very seriously.
Thermax Enviro will facilitate companies in reducing CO2 emis-sions,
but we leave it up to them to find a trading mecha-nism with an
international buyer.
CID : We spoke on NOx and CO2 removal. What products do you have
for SOx removal?
VJS: We have gaseous scrubbers of different kinds such as packed
bed, spray/tray towers for SOx removal. Enviro Division has ongoing
technical collaborations with AirPol Inc, USA for scrubbers, flue
gas desulphurization (FGD) systems and gas cleaning plants.
CID : What new changes and developments do you anticipate at Thermax
Enviro in the next 5 years?
VJS : We would want to increase our stake in the overseas market
from 7% to 25%. We are in the process of colla-borating with a Japanese
firm to provide technology for the removal of sulfur dioxide from
zinc smelters using zinc oxide slurry. This is a unique technology
that produces almost zero waste. To remain competitive, both nationally
and internationally, we need to keep a close watch on fixed and
variable costs, without any compromise on quality.
We are working to emerge as major players in the retrofit and revamp
business. We are also catering to the growing requirements of the
hazardous and municipal waste incineration systems. We feel that
the APC business will only grow further and with the excellent performance
of the steel, power and cement sectors, the future looks bright
for the APC industry.
Their new location is at:
Thermax Limited Enviro Division
PMT Complex, Behind PCMC Building,
Mumbai-Pune Rd, Pimpri, Pune – 411018
Tel: 020-56122999, 27475941;
Fax: 020-27426532, 27426533
Email:vjshah@thermaxindia.com;
Web: www.thermaxindia.com
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