How Indian companies can enhance technological expertise for Make in India

India is moving towards its goal of becoming a digitally connected country under the flagship programs -Make in India, Digital India and Start-up India. It is apparent from the fact that today; the country has gone from limited connectivity to full connectivity. This shows there is a massive interest in accessing services such as Internet of Things, Cloud Technology, e-commerce and e-learning, Mobile Internet, Digital payments and Verifiable digital identity. Make in India aims at facilitating investment, foster innovation, protect intellectual property and build best in class manufacturing infrastructure in order to produce International quality products in India across diverse sectors.

One of the companies taking a lead in the Government’s Make in India programme is Triveni Turbines, an Original Equipment Manufacturer of steam turbines in India which ranks second in the global steam turbine market in sub 30MW power range. The company manufactures 100% of the components and parts for the steam turbine at its world-class facilities located in Bengaluru adhering to the International quality standards.

One of the key pillars for turning “Make in India” programme a success is continuous focus on Innovation. Innovation can not only help in boosting growth but also making products more cost competitive and efficient. Triveni is an exemplary case on how innovation can help an Indian company to turnaround itself from a leading domestic manufacturer to becoming a global supplier of steam turbines with more than 1 billion operating hours of turbine fleet in over 70 countries and installation of over 4,000 steam turbines generating a total power generation capacity of 13GW across 20 industries.

The Company created a powerful innovation edge that steered its growth trajectory to newer heights year after year. State-of-the-art design and testing facilities have empowered it with the capabilities to continuously enhance product efficiencies for its customers. Continual scaling up of design tools and software has led to deliver pioneering solutions to customers through cutting-edge designs.

The steam turbines produced by the Company are used in diverse industries, ranging from sugar, steel, textiles, chemical, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, fertilisers, solvent extraction, metals, palm oil to food processing and more. Triveni offers steam turbine solutions for industrial captive and renewable power. Its products and manufacturing facilities are approved by users, EPCs, PMCs and OEMs globally.

The company’s product portfolio comprises a large range of Backpressure, Condensing and API compliant steam turbines that are easily customised to suit sector-specific and customer-specific needs. Equipped with a choice of impulse and reaction technology, these turbines can work across a wide range of pressure and flow applications.

The Company supported a leading process industry customer with Very High Pressure (VHP) to High Pressure (HP) solution helping the customer to enhance the technology while producing green power and achieving higher efficiencies. 

Many process plants have cyclic loads by virtue of the processes involved in manufacturing their end product. There are certain exothermic reactions that takes place in the course of the manufacturing that can generate steam at lower pressure and temperature which is normally vented out or dumped in a condenser as they are not generated on a continuous basis.

Triveni Turbines offers a solution to utilize this steam to generate useful power through its steam turbines where the intermittent generation of steam can be injected into the turbine to add more flow to the LP section of the turbine to generate more power at the terminal. The steam turbines manufactured by the Company are equipped with new generation Speed – Load – Extraction control Electronic governing systems that can provide a seamless operation to the benefit of the user.  Let us understand a case here.

Challenge

• Pressure Reducing Station was used to reduce the low-pressure saturated steam to maintain the header pressure.
• Space limitation for turbine installation at the existing site (Turbine size larger due to high volumetric flow rate)
• The Turbo Generator set location was 500 meter away from the existing main control room.

Customer Benefit

• Millions of units of “Green Power” generated annually.
• ROI achieved in less than 1.5 years of operation

Solution

• Triveni team visited the facility and recced the space identified for turbine installation.
• Replaced the Pressure Reducing Station with itsTurbine solution.
• The turbine governor is programmed to operate in inlet steam pressure control mode to maintain the header steam pressure.
• As the inlet steam is a saturated steam, a steam separator has been installed at the inlet steam line to prevent carryover of wet steam into the turbine thereby increasing the life of turbine.
• Offered turbine with remote start/stop facility along with pneumatic operated valves at inlet,exhaust and drain lines.
• Triveni optimized the turbine design to meet both the customer budget and space availability.

With rising costs, operating turbines efficiently is a necessity for cost saving and creating a positive carbon footprint.With either changes in requirement of the process or age, the turbines become inefficient and impact costs. Triveni REFURB is a multi-brand repair arm of Triveni Turbines offering various benefits of Efficiency enhancement of turbines of any make, any age across the world. The Triveni Refurb team works with the customer to understand the current needs and re-design the turbine to meet the new parameters ensuring the turbine is efficient leading to cost saving.

Triveni REFURB services specialize in the below areas:

• Efficiency enhancement
• Renovation & Modernization
• Re-engineering/Reverse Engineering
• Health survey and Condition assessment
• Residual Life Assessment
• Overhauling
• O&M  and LTSA
• Triveni Touch: Remote Monitoring

The Company provided solution to a major Process Industry segment customer which was operating their 8MW European OEM Turbine for more than 15 yearsto route the additional steam to the existing Turbine with upgraded steam flow path design.

Due to changes in power requirement they were operating the turbine inefficiently. The company reviewed the turbine and confirmed to customer that the parameters will be modified as per current requirement and also ensure availability of 1 MW of extra power.

By only modifying the Turbine internals (Rotor with high efficient blades, Diaphragms, Bearings and Gear Internals) with the new design the customer could achieve a power enhancement of 9 MW with lower Specific Steam Consumption than the normal running condition.

The overall project cost was significantly lower as there was no modification to the civil foundation and also the Turbine housing was retained. The turbine was commissioned and handed over. With a 1 MW power addition and process stabilization, the pay back is under a year.

- Arun Mote, Executive Director & CEO, Triveni Turbines