Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd, through its business unit Godrej Process Equipment, has acquired the “Yuba” and “Ecolaire” brands and design technologies from SPX Heat Transfer, a subsidiary of US-based SPX Corporation. SPX is a global supplier of highly engineered products and technologies.
With this acquisition, Godrej will be capable of providing end-to-end solutions in the field of heat exchange auxiliaries in the power generation sector.
Heat exchange auxiliaries are required in all thermal power plants, where steam is generated through boiling of water.
In a select media roundtable held at the Godrej & Boyce manufacturing complex in Mumbai, Allen Antao, Executive Vice President and Business Head, Godrej Process Equipment, explained that Godrej Process Equipment was already producing feed water heaters using Yuba design and technology. Now, by acquiring the brand, Godrej has direct ownership of the technology. Using Yuba technology, Godrej, in the past, has already supplied feed-water heaters to various power producers like Nuclear Power Corporation of India, Tata Power, Gujarat State Electricity Corporation, NTPC, and even to main plant equipment suppliers like Toshiba.
Anil Verma, Executive Director & President, Godrej & Boyce, who also addressed the media, explained that Godrej & Boyce will be manufacturing heat exchange auxiliaries, mainly feed-water heaters and surface condensers, at the Mumbai plant as well as that in Dahej in Gujarat. These acquisitions also help leverage the significant capital expenditure planned at the Dahej plant, Verma explained.
Godrej & Boyce represents 14 businesses that have been grouped in four clusters – consumer, institutional, project and industrial. The process equipment business, established in 1976, is part of the “industrial” cluster. Within the process equipment business, power-sector related equipment currently accounts for 20 per cent of the business, explained Verma. However, thanks to the acquisition of these SPX brands, and the overall capital expenditure planned by Godrej & Boyce, this share can potentially grow to 40 per cent, noted Allen Antao.
Heat exchange auxiliaries are required in all thermal power plants, where steam is generated through boiling of water. Such equipment is therefore seen in thermal power plants (coal, gas, etc), nuclear power plants, geothermal power plants and even solar thermal plants.
A feed-water heater is used to pre-heat water before it is fed to the steam-generator (boiler). Using a feed-water heater increases the thermodynamic efficiency of the entire system. The use of heat exchange equipment, mainly feed-water heaters and surface condensers, is therefore seen as an energy-efficiency measure.
Designing of heat exchange equipment involves two aspects—thermal and mechanical. While Godrej & Boyce always had the capabilities of mechanical designing, it relied on Yuba and Ecolaire on the thermal aspect, Verma said dwelling on the finer details.
Speaking of business opportunities, Antao noted that NTPC would be a big customer for heat exchange equipment with demand arising for not only for upcoming power plants but also for retrofitting of existing power plants. NTPC, it is learnt, has outlined capital expenditure of Rs.50,000 crore for the renovation and modernization of its existing thermal power plants.
For every gigawatt of thermal power capacity (1 GW = 1,000 mw), heat exchange equipment worth around $10 million is needed.
Verma observed that there was a big market in USA as well, where the Yuba and Ecolaire brands already have tremendous visibility and acceptance. These two brands have an estimated 50 per cent market share in USA. Yuba, it may be mentioned, is a brand dealing with feed-water heaters and shell/tube heat exchangers, while Ecolaire relates to surface condensers.
Giving a general estimate, Verma explained that for every gigawatt of thermal power capacity (1 GW = 1,000 mw), heat exchange equipment worth around $10 million is needed. India will be a big market for heat exchange equipment because, despite the promotion of renewable energy, coal-fired power plants will continue to the mainstay for meeting bulk of the electricity requirement.
Featured photograph sourced from www.spxheattransfer.com shows repairs and servicing of heat exchange equipment.
