CEE April-June 2012

transportation costs and electricity tariffs as well as the depreciating rupee are putting pressure on costs and impacting the profit margins of cement manufacturers. Implementation of energy conservation initiatives can help cement manufacturers reduce costs and increase operational efficiency. Given that energy costs constitute 35- 40 per cent of the total manufacturing costs, there is significant scope for savings on this front. Power Line takes a look at the energy efficiency initiatives taken by some of the leading cement manufacturing units in the country. Kalyanpur Cements Limited, Banjari, Bihar Kalyanpur Cements Limited (KCL}, incorporated in 1937, has a cement manufacturing facility at Kalyanpur village in Banjari, Bihar. The company has an installed capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa}, which it plans to expand to 1.15 Mtpa in the near future. The company markets 80- 90 per cent of its products in Bihar. KCL has been taking initiatives to reduce its energy consumption through the implementation of modern technologies and practices. During 2010 -11, it installed and replaced equipment with high efficiency fans, motors, variable frequency drives (VFDs), etc. As a consequence, the company's power consumption decreased from 90.18 kWh per tonne of cement in 2009-10 to 78.38 kWh per tonne of cement in 2010 -11. In 2010-11 , KCL replaced conventional equipment with energy efficient equipment. This includes replacement of low-energy compressors with high-energy ones, which saved 1.96 MUs per annum. The replacement exercise entailed an expenditure of Rs 15 million and led to savings of Rs 9.5 million in the yearly energy bill. KCL also replaced an overhead crane and process fans with more efficient equipment, which helped in energy savings of about 5 MUs. These initiatives entailed a cumulative expenditure of about Rs 27 million and led to yearly savings of Rs. 12 million in the energy bill. KCL also took steps to improve the system power factor and upgrade the belt bucket elevator. This helped in saving about 4.4MUs per annum. These initiatives entailed a cost of Rs 2.8 million and Rs 27.7 million respectively. Another major initiative was the installation of a fly as mechanized silo at a cost of Rs 17 million. This reduced energy consumption by 11.4 MUs, translating into savings of Rs 5.5 million per annum. Going forward, KCL intends to reduce its power consumption further by identifying specific areas, setting energy consumption targets and promoting an energy conservation culture in the organization. It aims to continue implementing innovative ideas for modification, improvement and upgradation of equipment and processes. Kothputli Cement Works, Jaipur, Rajasthan Kotputli Cement Works (KCW) is a recently commissioned unit of Ultra Tech Cement Limited , a subsidiary of Grasim Industries Limited, one of the flagship organizations of the Aditya Birla Group. The cement manufacturing plant was commissioned in 2009 and is located on the Delhi-Jaipur national highway. The plant has rated clinker capacity of 2.64 Mtpa. In order to meet its energy requirement, KCW has installed two captive power units of 23 MW each, which can operate on multiple fuels - coal, pet coke and lignite. This is the world's first captive thermal power plant to be registered under the clean development mechanism for utilizing a circulating fluidized bed combustion boiler in place of an atmospheric fluidized bed combustion boiler. With the implementation of various energy conservation measures, KCW has achieved 15 per cent reduction in specific power consumption, which stood at 92.85 kWh per million tonnes of cement in 2010-2011. The specific heat consumption also reduced by about 5 per cent from 747 kcal per kg clinker in 2009-10 to 714 kcal per kg clinker in 2010- 11. KCW has taken several steps to reduce energy consumption and improve plant performance. An energy monitoring system and a process interface system have been installed to track the plant's operational performance. Idle running of equipment is avoided and the company optimizes operations by controlling the flow rate of fans in all sections of the plant. In order to reduce the specific heat consumption, the temperature of the raw mill outlet is optimized to increase the kiln feed temperature. VFDs were installed in the 33