What is the market size of waste heat recovery system (WHRS) in India? How much market share does cement sector commands?
Waste heat recovery system (WHRS) has potential in India based on India’s large manufacturing base. Generally, any process exhaust gases which are at temperature higher than ambient, have an opportunity to recover waste heat. Most of the applications are based on using water/steam as medium to convert the waste heat into process heat or by using steam turbine to convert to electricity. Many industries like steel, sponge iron, Oil refining have WHRS applicability. There are other applications for low temperature recovery like cement waste heat, diesel generating set exhaust gas, Gas turbine exhaust, etc.The market size for WHRS is entirely dependent on new projects in these industries. Infrastructure industry capex is also cyclical and hence WHRS also follows cyclical pattern. As the cost of grid electricity is rising, more WHRS applications are becoming viable and currently more than 50% share is captured by Cement WHRS.
What are the challenges you face right from design to final commissioning of WHRS in India?
Whenever the WHRS is to be installed in a running plant, locating the WHRS and associated ducting including its supports is the biggest challenge faced for this application. This is also the reason that every system needs a customised engineering solution. At site construction is also a challenge due to the height of WHRS, some of them could be as high as 60-70 m from ground level. This needs specialised construction skills and safety is vital for a successful installation. This adds to time and cost. Whenever there is a surge in demand, supply chainbecomes one of the critical challenges.
Please take us through the technological development taking place in WHRS?
We have been fortunate to introduce waste heat recovery solutions and applications in DG exhaust, sulphuric acid plant, carbon black, sponge iron & steel plants, cement plants, etc, having supplied 1000+ installations globally. We have seen the market developing from high temperature to low temperature recovery. Boiler configurations have been developed over the years from arrangement perspective as well such as horizontal, vertical, multi-pass depending on the gas composition and space availability. We have developed different types designs over the years such as water/fire tube, natural/forced circulation and forced/balanced/induced draught systems.
What are the policies and regulatory changes require to propel WHRS? How can the government assist in WHRS growth?
Many industrial processes emit exhaust gases at higher than ambient temperature. Any policy which sets norms for heat recovery will help the industry to be energy efficient and competitive. Alternately, incentivizing manufacturing plants with WHRS installation for priority in clearances would also help India to save precious energy/fuels.
In India WHRS is in a nascent stage. What role your organization is playing to create more awareness about WHRS?
We regularly conduct Industrial Seminars, Online Webinars and industry wise focussed discussions to promote waste heat recovery solutions and help our clients to enhance plant efficiency and reduce carbon foot-print.
What are your growth plans for your WHRS vertical?
We are committed to our mission of “Conserving Resources & Preserving the Future”. We are making conscious efforts to continuously develop products and applications for cleaner and greener tomorrow. WHRS is one of our strongest product baskets and we are leveraging our strengths to make continuous enhancements and bringing new products to the market.
