2013

Thermax Paper for 13th NCB international seminar on Cement and Building Materials Title : Rehabilitation for Greener Look
A Case study by Thermax Limited, Enviro Division that presents a Comprehensive overview of the air pollution control equipment upgrade at Tourah Cement in Egypt

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Thermax Limited, Enviro Division

9/20/2013

Thermax Limited Enviro Group

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Rehabilitation for Greener Look.

A Case study by Thermax Limited, Enviro Division that presents a Comprehensive overview of the air pollution control equipment upgrade at Tourah Cement in Egypt. Project Background: Tourah Portland Cement Company was established in 1927 and started its production in 1929. Tourah Cement operates Line 8 which was installed about 30 years ago. Most of the air pollution control equipments i.e. Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs) & Gravel Bed Filters were installed along with the original plant. Tourah was no longer able to meet the current Air Pollution Control norms because the norms had become much more stringent over last few years. Tourah plant decided to revamp the old Air Pollution Control Equipments & retrofit the same with stateof-the-art & efficient Pulse Jet Bag Filters (PJBF) to bring down emissions. The project was conceptualized to be implemented under The Egyptian Pollution Abatement Program (EPAP II), the major initiative of the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs (MSEA). The complete project included comprehensive scope of Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, Transportation, Dismantling/Demolishing of old equipments, assembly & construction of new equipments, construction of foundations, strengthening of existing buildings/foundations, modification of electrical system, integration of the new equipment into the existing Automation & Control system of the plant. The project envisaged removal of Gravel Bed filters in Alkali Bypass system & installation of new PJBF filters and conversion of existing ESPs of Kiln & Raw Mill to new PJBF. The project was full of challenges, which included: 1. Limited data on the design & present condition of the old systems like Civil Works, Power system, Instrumentation system, Structures was available 2. Since the work had to be done in the existing plant without damaging other existing equipments, a proper study & planning was required for cranes approaches to various pieces of equipment 3. Complete local infrastructure had to be mobilized for Electrical, Instrumentation, Control & Automation work 4. Condition of existing structures, foundations etc. had to be assessed before shutdown & planning for modifying/strengthening of the same had to be in place along with materials well before shutdown 5. The main challenge was very short shutdown period of 45 days allowed for demolishing old equipment & installing new equipment Under the International Competitive Bidding procedures, this Turnkey contract was awarded to Enviro Division of Thermax Limited, India. Thermax Group, with revenues in excess of USD 1 billion, is a leading solutions provider in the field of Energy and Environment. This was amongst the largest contract awarded for any Cement Plant Air Pollution Control Retrofit. Thermax Technological Solution: Thermax engineers conceptualized overall solution keeping in mind Safety, Efficiency & Speed. Thermax adopted its well proven TKB series Long Bag Filters for this retrofit project. The TKB Long Bag Filter Series has been specially developed to utilize bags upto 12m length based on the research & development done at the in house Test facility of Thermax. The TKB bagfilters are particularly suitable for large gas flow in excess of 250,000 Am3/hr & go upto 2,500,000 Am3/hr. They incorporate several features for high efficiency, high reliability & ease of Operation & Maintenance. 1. Thermax Advanced Low pressure air cleaning system: TKB PJBF design incorporates Thermaxs Advanced Low Pressure (TALP) cleaning system that has following distinct advantages over conventional bag filters:

Thermax limited Enviro Group

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Lower pressure drop across the unit Lower consumption of compressed air Longer filter bag life Lower noise level during operation

The TALP system uses a special immersion type header mounted pulse valve & Thermax proprietary nozzle design as shown in Picture 1. This system is designed to achieve: Highly efficient & quick pulse of cleaning air Lower pressure drop of cleaning air due to elimination of bend in pulsing system Effective Flushing of dust

The TALP system does not flex or balloon the bag like the conventional systems. It creates a ripple wave form within the bag fabric. This wave travels from top to the bottom of the bag & has the following advantages to the user: Effectively cleans the bag & reduces re-deposition of fine dust Can clean bags up to 10 -12 meters length Cleans the internal of the filter media to reduce pressure drop even towards the end of bag life The filter media is not flexed as extensively as in conventional cleaning thus increasing the media life

2. Unique gas flow path: The TKB series filters are specially designed for high inlet dust loads. In conventional designs, the dust laden gases either enter from the hopper & flow upwards or enter from the casing & flow across the bags. In both these types of entries, the dust directly impacts the bags causing severe erosion of bags & reducing bag life. In the Thermax TKB filters, the gases enter the filter casing behind a baffle & are directed upwards by this 0 specially designed baffle. The 90 turn that the gases take on entry, helps in separating a lot of dust at entry, reducing the dust load on bags. The unique gas flow path makes the gases enter the filter with an upward bias on the velocity. This upward bias reduces impact of the dust particles on bag surface enhancing the life of the bags.

Picture 1- Immersion cleaning system

Picture 2 Unique gas flow path of TKB filters

The upward flow of gas in the entry plenum also makes sure that the gas flow is not opposing the dust flow under cleaning cycle. This avoids dust re-entrainment & hence the dust load on bags is reduced. The actual gas flow is also modeled using advanced CFD technique to make sure that the gas is uniformly distributed & is flowing upwards when entering the bag area. Thermax Project Management Solution: After finalizing the Technology to be employed for the project, Thermax formed a Task Force to handle this challenging project. This task force was fully supported by state of the art Design tools like Ansys Mechanical & Fluent, STADDPro, etc. for carrying out analysis of the existing equipments & analyzing the

Thermax limited Enviro Group

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effect of existing design constraints on performance. The task force also used modern project management software like MS Projects for listing out all activities & their sequence. Study of site & existing equipment was very vital for the success of the project because we were rebuilding 30 year old equipments in an operating plant. Data on the design & present condition of the old systems like Civil Works, Power system, Instrumentation system, Structures was necessary, condition of roads and other infrastructure as well as approaches for cranes to various pieces of equipment were also a vital piece of information needed for plant design. A special reconnaissance team was sent to site to generate the necessary data. Very early in the project the Team realized that micro planning & involvement of construction team in design phase are going to be essential for the success of the project. So the team prepared a micro plan for all phases starting with Design, Manufacture, Procurement, Transportation, storage, ground assembly & erection of the equipments. These plans included plans for mobilization of materials, vendors, tools & tackles, cranes, workmen, supervisors including the Indian Cook for feeding the Commandos during the shutdown period! This detailed & micro planning helped the team to anticipate & solve many problems well in advance. The micro plan of the shutdown period looked like plan of a COMMANDO operation & was based on the three key factors Intelligence, Logistics and Command & Control! For the success of the project, Mechanical, Electrical, Control, Instrumentation, Civil, Environmental & Construction engineering had to dovetail perfectly. This required perfect co-ordination. The Tourah Task Force used a number of innovative ways like Standing Meeting, The War Room, Special Reviews etc. to achieve this. In the pre-shutdown buildup, more than 60 vendors in India, 10 vendors in Egypt, Europe & USA worked diligently to produce materials required for the project. Materials weighing more than 2500 Tons were shipped from all over the globe in 200 container shipments & 2500 m3 of break bulk consignments. From the pre-identified on-shore contractors, the Team selected two local contracting firms for undertaking the construction work for Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Controls & Instrumentation packages. All supervisory manpower required to guide the workforce was planned & deployed from India & Europe. Finally everything was ready for the Shut Down and the actual Execution of the project. The Shut Down! On the appointed date, at 8 am the Tourah plant was shut down and the clock started ticking away to the deadline. Execution of all activities that were planned began proceeding smoothly. Nevertheless, the pace was grueling and everybody worked hard to maintain the schedule perfectly. As anticipated, many problems cropped up along the way and had to be resolved after consultations with Headquarters. To avoid confusion & breakdown in communication the Task Force had set up a special Control Room at site & Coordination team at Pune, India. This system gave instant answers to questions & helped in solving all the issues that came up during the shutdown. Thus the Juggernaut of the Tourah Project rolled on! Hundreds of TONS of equipment and machinery were lifted into place almost on a daily basis! At peak load, 250 workers and 30 supervisors were working at the site. The crowning glory of the project was lifting of single piece weighing 185 tons to a height of 35 meters. Normally, Safety of people & materials is the first casualty in short duration shutdown jobs. To avoid any compromises on safety special focus was given to safety of people & materials. Special Safety Teams were organized who coordinated with the safety inspectors of the client and ensured that all possible precautions were taken before commencement of any phase of the operation. Special safety Meetings were conducted before any particularly hazardous operation. Strict adherence to the safety norms and personal protective equipments was maintained at all costs. When the shutdown clock stopped ticking, the switches were flipped ON and the plant became operational again! The project had been completed in a very short shutdown time with an exemplary

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record of planning, safety and workmanship! All the equipment & systems functioned normally on the first start of the project! When the performance trials were conducted, the equipment was able to deliver far lesser emissions than it was designed for! The Tourah Project has clearly demonstrated to the whole world that it is possible to achieve substantially lower emissions even in old plants. It has also demonstrated that the whole project can be completed in a very short shutdown. And lastly, it has also demonstrated that Thermax, India has the capability, expertise and the WILL to deliver complex engineering projects in a challenging time frame and under challenging circumstances. Main Design Specifications of the project No 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Parameter Existing Equipment Equipment after conversion Gas flow (Am3/hour) Gas temperature C Inlet dust load (gm/Nm3) Outlet emission (mg/Nm3) Guarantee value Actual value Raw mill ESP Thermax TKB PJBF 630,000 200 200 <20 1.95 Clinker Cooler Gravel Bed Filters Thermax Modular Gas Cooler + Thermax TKB PJBF 450,000 120 20 <20 0.39 Alkali By-Pass ESP Thermax TKB PJBF 195,000 200 80 <20 4.35

Raw Mill filters

Before

After

Clinker Cooler filters

Before

After

Thermax limited Enviro Group

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Ground Assembly of bag filters

Heavy Lifts Placing Bag filters on structure.

Thermax limited Enviro Group

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