MMHR guys.

A 40-strong contingent comprising L&T Valves employees and families took part in the CII Green Walk on World Environment Day, 5 June 2010. About 500 people representing various corporates and educational institutions participated in the walk along Chennai’s Marina, from Gandhi statue to Simpson Grounds. The walk was flagged off by City Police Commissioner T. Rajendran. Anand Sundaresan, vice-chairman, CII Chennai zone, and Deepa Sathiaram, chairperson, CII – Young Indians, Chennai chapter spoke to the gathering about the need for decisive action to reverse environmental damage caused by unsustainable development.

We at L&T believe that business decisions should not only increase profits but also positively impact the environment and society at large. In other words, the focus is on the ‘triple bottom line’; to achieve positive results across the three ‘Ps’ viz, Planet, People and Profit.

L&T has launched many initiatives across the country to reduce the carbon footprint, conserve energy and water, enhance employee health and safety as well as develop communities that interface with us. Initiatives such as Green Walk support our sustainability journey by increasing awareness about environmental issues and engaging employees and their families in the campaign for a greener future.

Janmadinaashamsakal

That is Happy Birthday in Malayalam

The walk aims to create an opportunity to promote people’s participation in caring for the environment, and to raise environmental awareness & give a human face to environmental issues. More than 1000 members from various walks of life including corporate professionals, students, senior citizens are expected to participate in this walk.

You are invited to join the walk.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

That is Happy Birthday in German

We successfully delivered 16” and 20” #2500 Gate Valves to UTE Pecem Itaqui Power Project in Brazil being built by Doosan Babcock, UK.

The valves comply to ASME B16.34 and ASME 31.1 and are specially designed for steam applications. The range extends from #900 to #4500, including intermediate classes, in sizes up to 28”. Gate, Globe and Check valves are available in various materials including ASTM A217 Gr. C12A equivalent for P91/92 piping used in high-pressure steam lines.

Features & benefits:

• The parallel-slide gate assembly with disc springs provides better sealing, lower torques and eliminates the chance of disc jamming
• The full-bore construction minimizes pressure drop across the valve
• Pillar Yoke arrangement enables easy access to gland packing and bonnet for maintenance
• Hard facing of 3mm thickness helps withstand severe service conditions
• Larger wear travel allowance guarantees longer service life

L&T High Pressure Power Valves are designed and manufactured by L&T’s modern plant at Coimbatore. The plant is equipped with machining centres, modern assembly and testing facilities and can handle assemblies of weight up to 40 tons.

R Shankar

sàangyaht faailohk

That is Happy Birthday in Chinese (Cantonese)

(a) Reduced fuel costs due to improved plant efficiency;

(b) Significant improvement of environment by reduction in CO2 emissions;

(c) Plant costs comparable with sub-critical technology and less than other clean coal technologies;

(d) Much reduced NOx, SOx and particulate emissions;

(e) Can be fully integrated with appropriate CO2 capture technology.

Supercritical technology and its advantages:

Since the energy crisis in 70’s a lot of effort has been made to reduce the energy consumption worldwide and increase the use of indigenously available fuels and renewables. In recent years also the need of reduced C02 emission from power generation has been a prime driver in developed nation’s energy policy. Thus, most of coal- fired power plants commissioned after 1980’s have been designed for supercritical operation with high efficiency ratings. Before the introduction of the super critical power plant concept, the generally applied concept was a drum-type boiler, which was replaced by the once-through type boiler to increase efficiency by at least 3% (relative) for practically the same investment.

In other words, supercritical power plants are highly efficient plants with best available pollution control technology, reduces existing pollution levels by burning less coal per megawatt-hour produced, capturing the vast majority of the pollutants. This increases the kWh produced per kg of coal burned, with fewer emissions.

Because of the above techno-economic benefits along with its environment-friendly cleaner technology; more and new power plants are coming-up with this state-of-the-art technology. As environment legislations are becoming more stringent, adopting this cleaner technology have benefited immensely in all respect. As LHV (lower heating value) is improved (from 40% to more than 45%); a one percent increase in efficiency reduces by two percent, specific emissions such as CO2, NOx, SOx and particulate matters.

“Supercritical” is a thermodynamic expression describing the state of a substance where there is no clear distinction between the liquid and the gaseous phase (i.e. they are a homogenous fluid). Water reaches this state at a pressure above 22.1 MPa. The efficiency of the thermodynamic process of a coal-fired power describes how much of the energy that is fed into the cycle is converted into electrical energy. The greater the output of electrical energy for a given amount of energy input, the higher the efficiency. If the energy input to the cycle is kept constant, the output can be increased by selecting elevated pressures and temperatures for the water-steam cycle.

Moreover, there are various operational advantages in case of supercritical power plant. There are several turbine designs available for use in supercritical power plants. These designs need not fundamentally differ from designs used in sub-critical power plants. However, due to the fact that the steam pressure and temperature are more elevated in supercritical plants, the wall-thickness and the materials selected for the high-pressure turbine section need reconsideration. The supercritical plant needs ‘once-through’ boiler, where as ‘drum’ type boiler is required by sub-critical power plant. In fact, once-through boilers are better suited to frequent load variations than drum type boilers, since the drum is a component with a high wall thickness, requiring controlled heating.

Moreover, fuel flexibility is not compromised in Once-Through Boilers. A wide variety of fuels have already been implemented for once-through boilers. All types of coal as well as oil and gas have been used.

Conclusion:

Thus, new pulverized coal combustion systems – utilizing supercritical and ultra-supercritical technology – operate at increasingly higher temperatures and pressures and therefore achieve higher efficiencies than conventional sub-critical units with significant CO2 reductions. The objective of power plants within toady’s market boundaries is more than ever to ensure high efficiency (to reduce the environmental impact as much as possible) while at the same time to increase their economics in competition to existing alternatives. The development of an economical and efficient concept needs to look at the steam turbine all other main components like boiler, flue gas cleaning equipment and the optimization of the water-steam-cycle as main parts for the optimization.

Current designs of supercritical plants have installation costs that are only 2% higher than those of sub-critical plants. Fuel costs are considerably lower due to the increased efficiency and operating costs are at the same level as sub-critical plants. Specific installation cost i.e. the cost per megawatt (MW) decreases with increased plant size. This plant concept fulfils the requirement to balance reliable power supply, sustainable use of existing resources and economic operation.

L&T Venture into Super Critical Power:

L&T has identified power as major growth area and recently entered into the two JVs with MHI, one for Boilers and other for Turbine Generators with the objective to bring world-class technology to India. Both the JVs have been signed for design and manufacturing of power equipment for use in supercritical power plants (which are superior to conventional sub-critical plants in terms of fuel efficiency and environment-friendliness).

L&T is also setting up manufacturing capabilities for other critical equipment, including pressure piping, coal pulverizers, ESPs, and heavy forging, which will streamline the availability of components, and increase overall plant reliability and availability.

L&T secured one of the single largest EPC orders in India’s power sector by winning a contract valued at Rs 6897 crores from Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd. (Mahagenco) for 3X 660 MW super-critical Boiler Turbine Generator (BTG) units.

Contributed by
P Nagaraja

(Based on an article by Mr Partha Das Sharma)

We are happy to announce that dispatches of large-size Trunnion-mounted Ball Valves for the prestigious Single Point Mooring (SPM) project of HPCL Visakh Refinery have commenced. L&T had won this breakthrough order – for 10 nos motor-operated valves in sizes 48” and 36” – against stiff international competition.

We have positioned ourselves as a major player in the global SPM space by successfully executing this order.

MARIAPPAN  M, Chennai – 23 February
SHASHI KHANNA, Kolkata –  23 February
SATISH SHOLAPUR, Chennai - 24 February
RAMASUBRAMANIAN V, Chennai - 29 February
PREM KUMAR S, Chennai - 05 March
ATUL I MACWAN, Baroda - 06 March
SACHIN T PRABHU, Chennai - 09 March
PRIYADARSHINI, Chennai - 17 March
S S NAIKWADI, Powai – 17 March