Thermax Babcock & Wilcox helps BILT to prune its costs

Our Corporate Bureau
22 February 2003

For the first time in India, a boiler from Ballarpur Industries Ltd (BILT) has been dismantled, transported and re-erected with a total change of fuel-and-firing system and relocated seven hundred kilometres - from Andhra Pradesh to Orissa. The deal worth Rs 5 crore has opened up new vistas not only for TBW but the entire manufacturing industry, which is hoping to save millions of rupees on refurbished boilers.

Also, probably for the first time in the Indian corporate history, a rival company is refurbishing BILT''s giant boiler weighing 800 tonnes of steel (38-metre high, equivalent to a 12-storey building) and enhancing its dimensions further. For TBW, apart from the handsome earnings, it has been a big learning exercise as this is the largest project of its kind.

Says TBW senior manager (renovation and modernisation division) Sanjay Jumde: "The trickiest thing was converting the fuel input from black liquor spray to coal in fluidised bed firing. It seemed like altering a trouser just in its waistline, but in reality it was more complicated that sewing a new one."

The boiler in question was located at BILT''s AP Rayon unit in Kamlapuram, Andhra Pradesh, delivering 31.3 TPH with 415 oC specification and was supplied by a leading public sector competitor. When the LM Thapar group company BILT thought of converting this recovery boiler, they relied on rival TBW''s tried-and-tested expertise to convert liquid and gas fired boilers to solid fuel fired atmospheric fluidised bed boiler (AFBC).

The ''conversion'' of the recovery boiler basically involved the salvage the boiler, which had become spare. At the same time, BILT''s Sewa Paper Mill at Jeypore needed an FBC boiler to fire coal and generate additional steam required. The TBW team burnt midnight oil to not only execute the effective changes in the boiler''s configuration within 12 months, but also shipped it hundreds of miles away across the adjacent state, from Andhra Pradesh to BILT''s location at the Sewa unit in Jeypore, Orissa.

TBW manufactures and installs a vast range of steam generation systems for captive and co-generation power plants and the process industry. The company''s quality system is certified under ISO 9001. TBW also has its manufacturing approved under the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) for power boilers, unfired pressure vessels and pressure piping. TBW acquired ISO 9001 certification in 1994 with the latest revision in 1997 for the design, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of boilers.