Head of Forbes Marshall Limited.
Energy efficiency the buzzword of the 21st century is the key priority for everyone. You have to use your resources very efficiently in order to be profitable. Energy is one such resource that is scarce and has to be used efficiently. Though there are alternates that are available but either they are not viable or expensive. So you are left with one choice to use what you have, to the best. This is where company like Forbes Marshall comes into picture to help you achieve process efficiencies. To know more about how Forbes Marshall can help the Indian paper Industry to tackle there energy issues team Paper Mart interacted with Mr. Datta Kuvelakar, Head of Forbes Marshall Limited. Excerpts
Paper Mart: Your company tagline says: “Trusted Partners, Innovative Solutions” kindly elaborate your company philosophy?
Datta Kuvelakar: Forbes Marshall has been serving the pulp and paper industry with an intense focus on energy efficiency since the last 7 decades. We have constantly evolved the solutions that provide customers with sustainable benefits. The knowledge, services and products are based on each customer requirement. Then our solution engineers create innovative workable solutions that will have a positive impact on the customer’s fuel bills. With a dedicated and focused work on energy efficiency, we have become our customer’s partner for whenever they seek energy efficient solutions for their existing plants or new green field project. Thus it’s the work that we have done in the past and our emphasis on strengthening this for the future decades makes the tag line “Trusted Partners, Innovative Solutions” not merely a tag line but something that we live by every moment.
PM: Forbes Marshall has evolved into a leader in process efficiency and energy conservation through technology tie-ups and focused investments in manufacturing and research. Comment
DK: Innovative solutions need constant rethinking on our technology platform. Customer needs drive our product offerings. This demand makes us to strive constantly and devise new and better ways of providing energy efficient solutions. Being pioneers in the business of steam engineering, we constantly raise the bar for energy efficiency benchmarks. Customer expects us to deliver the best and most innovative solutions. Thus it’s the customer need and expectations that drive us to make investments in manufacturing and research. This helps us remain at the top of our business expertise and helps us constantly to provide world class quality with world beating standards of energy efficiency.
PM: Energy is one of the most important inputs for any industry. How the paper industry can become more energy efficient?
DK: With our regular energy audits we have always discovered that there is potential of saving 10% to over 25% energy in pulp and paper industry. The most essential step in becoming energy efficient is to create more awareness of potential opportunities that are not generally visible. Thus our role is to ensure that we create substantial awareness about energy efficiency and infuse the knowledge through the ranks in the pulp and paper mills. The second aspect is to actually deliver energy efficiency, which is also an area where Forbes Marshall specializes through doing energy audits and then subsequent implementation. Energy audits that deliver “real” benefits has become our forte.
To be more specific on the opportunities for thermal energy efficiency that would come from taking necessary action like running the boilers at peak efficiency thereby saving fossil fuel. This would come from minimizing various heat losses in a boiler from stack loss to blow down loss. Another is to maximizing condensate evacuation from paper machine driers. This has a double effect of enhancing heat transfer and reducing steam consumption and also reducing fuel consumption due to higher feed water temperatures. And, finally having good housekeeping practices in the entire utility network to control leakages and drain losses.
The concept of a “zero vent” mill is something that we strive to reach in our efforts to minimize energy consumption. Maximum condensate recovery and minimum flash vent is a concept that we target for each an every paper mill.
PM: What kind of innovations Forbes Marshall has to offer to the paper industry in case of energy efficiency?
DK: Forbes Marshall has introduced several innovative concepts to enhance energy efficiency in pulp and paper mills. Some of these are:
• Effimax – the world’s only online boiler efficiency analyzer that provides diagnostics for maximizing energy efficiency. This has won the CII most innovative product award.
• The wireless steam trap monitoring system – this system is used for paper driers to provide diagnostics on condensate condition inside driers.
• Smart Thermocompressors – Thermocompressors that not just entrain low pressure waste/vent vapors but they do it with powerful diagnostics that help sustain the energy efficiency.
• High dew point and smart high quality completely closed hood and pocket ventilation systems with real time control of critical parameters. The world’s only touchscreen controlled hood and PV system.
• Packages that help customers not just dry paper but also maintain quality in terms of basis weight and moisture. All leading to better control on process and thereby lower energy consumption.
The concept of an integrated & smart energy management system based on a seamless package of products and services are the basis of providing energy savings to our customers.
PM: “Partnering with companies to cut cost, increase energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption”. Kindly share your modus operandi, which helps you execute this?
DK: The methodology of partnering companies to cut cost, increase energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption is based on simple principle of identifying problems in client’s processes and sources of energy wastage. We start with a simple process survey and then to a more detailed process and energy audit, which then leads to actual implementable and solid results on energy conservation. Thus the very simple step of surveying a customer’s plant to identify what can be improved is the base for all our energy conservation activities.
