Compressed air is aptly called the fourth utility: ELGi Equipments

Coimbatore-headquartered ELGi Equipments is India’s leading supplier of industrial air compressors, with a standing of six decades. ELGi has a product range of over 400 types of air compressors, designed for diverse industrial applications. In this interaction, we have Rajesh Premchandran, Director – ISAAME (India, South Asia, Africa & Middle East), ELGi Equipments Ltd, discussing the role of air compressors and heat-recovery systems in the power generation sector. Premchandran also observes that post-COVID19, ELGi will most definitely see sustained growth in pharma, food & beverages, essential goods and FMCG industries.

Let us start by understanding the products supplied by ELGi Equipments to the conventional power generation sector.

Compressed air is an essential utility for all types of power plants ranging from traditional coal-fired, steam and hydropower, nuclear and gas-fired power plants, to new-generation solar and geothermal power plants.

ELGi’s oil-lubricated and oil-free screw air compressors along with the downstream air accessories help to build an efficient and reliable compressed air system across power plants to support their instrument air and service air needs.

Over the years, ELGi air compressors have gained significant presence in the Indian power segment. Some of the key customers include Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC), Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Andhra Pradesh Genco VTPS Thermal power plant. Reliable performance, reduced energy consumption and strong service support are just some of the reasons behind our strong foothold in this segment.

Compressed air in coal-fired power plants is of two types — instrument air and service air.

Please discuss the role of air compressors in coal-fired power generation plants.

Basically, compressed air usage in a coal-fired power plant is classified into two types. The first type is the “instrument air” which is used for operating all control valves, pneumatic dampers, gates and handling ash. Oil-free screw air compressors are used for these applications.  The second type of compressed air is “service air” that is used for purging and cleaning. Both instrument air and service air are stored in large receiver tanks to avoid inconsistency in supply of compressed air during compressor downtime.

The need for having an efficient and reliable compressed air system is well recognized in India. This is more significant as many power plants have designed their ash handling plants on dry ash handling mode using air compressors for movement of ash. ELGi’s oil free compressors have gained significant presence in major thermal power plants in India as they play a vital role in providing 100 per cent dry, oil free air for ash handling and instrumentation.

With the government’s push for energy efficiency, power plants are now looking out for highly energy efficient oil lubricated and oil free screw compressors.

What have been technological advancements in air compressors (discussed above), in the recent past?

The Government of India had set up Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in 2002 with the primary objective of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy. Under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), BEE launched its Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme in 2008. PAT is a regulatory instrument to reduce specific energy consumption in energy intensive industries, with an associated market based mechanism to enhance the cost effectiveness through certification of excess energy saving which can be traded.

Energy-intensive industries including thermal power plants, aluminum, cement, chlor- alkali, fertilizer, iron & steel, paper & pulp, and textiles are major players in this entire scheme of PAT. It refers to the calculation of Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) in the baseline year and projected SEC in the target year covering different forms of net energy going into the boundary of the designated consumers’ plant and the products leaving it over a particular cycle.

With the governments push for energy efficiency, reducing carbon footprint and subsidies, power plants are now looking out for highly energy efficient oil lubricated and oil free screw compressors and downstream accessories.

At ELGi, we have developed technologically superior and highly energy-efficient compressed air systems to meet the demands of power plants. Our lubricated screw (ELGi Global (EG) series and Encapsulated (EN) Series) and oil-free screw air compressors are highly reliable, energy efficient and operate at low energy costs.

Our Oil free (OF) series and ‘Always Better’ (AB) series of oil free screw compressors are class zero certified by TUV in accordance with ISO8573 standards and the heat recovery systems (HRS) help power plants recover approximately 96 per cent of waste heat generated during the compression process which can then be re-utilized for heating of water.

Our compressed air experts offer specialized services to identify potential areas of energy savings and provide them with solutions guaranteeing the optimum use of compressed air.

 

What role does a heat recovery system play in a coal-based power generation plant?

As discussed, ELGi’s heat recovery system (HRS) in coal-based power plants help to recover approximately 96 per cent of the waste heat generated during the air compression process which is then supplied to the boilers for heating water. This in turn helps to reduce the usage of fossil fuel for heat generation and thereby reducing CO2 emissions to a large extent, in turn resulting in increase of overall power plant efficiency.

Thus, ELGi’s HRS is committed to building energy efficiency in compressed air systems and paves the way for a clean environment.

 

Overall, which sectors does ELGi cater to? Which sectors appear most promising and why?

Compressed air is often referred to as the fourth utility, together with water, gas and electricity. Irrespective of the type of industry, compressed air is used in one or more applications in production, processing or packaging of products.

ELGi has been catering to power, oil & gas, general engineering, mining, construction and infrastructure, textile, automotive, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, food & beverages, FMCG, railways and many more, endeavouring to address the compressed air requirements of every industrial application.

Besides the ELGi hallmarks of reliability and energy-efficiency, our products meet industry-specific requirements such as cost-efficiency, ruggedness and Class-0 oil free air.

With a direct presence in 28 countries, ELGi does business in more than 120 countries.

We understand that ELGi exports its products to a host of countries. Which are your major export destinations?  Are there some untapped regions that you would like to explore?

Yes, with a direct presence in 28 countries, ELGi does business in more than 120 countries. We are seeing significant market potential across Europe, USA, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand in terms of compressed air. To accomplish our growth goals, our strategy will include, in addition to organic growth, business acquisitions across the world with specific focus on these key destinations.

 

Post COVID-19, do you expect some ELGi products to gain prominence. Please discuss.

In light of the pandemic, we are most definitely seeing sustained growth in the near term across the pharmaceutical, food & beverage, essential goods and FMCG industries.

In a shrunk economic condition, customers are not going to be driven by brands, as much as the core value proposition. For ELGi, this is a fantastic opportunity as we pride ourselves on our definition of Always Better, which is closely coupled with us always being the customer’s choice – and how do we do this?  We do this by:

• Developing products with the best Life Cycle Cost (LCC)  for every customer
• Guaranteeing best in the industry uptime
• Reaffirming our commitment to Reliability via providing our customers with robust warranty periods.
• Driving cost leadership through technology