ACC has taken an important step in energy conservation with the installation of a new Waste Heat Recovery System (WHRS) at its Gagal cement plant in Himachal Pradesh. This is the company’s first WHRS plant and also the first project in HP state to deploy waste heat recovery technology.
The newly commissioned WHRS project, which can generate about 7.5 MW of electricity, comprises a suspension pre-heater boiler, an air quenching chamber boiler, a steam turbine generator, distributed control system, water-circulation system and a dust removal system.
The electrical energy thus gene-¡rated requires no additional fuel as it utilises waste heat. The cost of gene-¡rating such energy is significantly lower than that of a captive power plant and only a fraction of the cost of grid power.
Apart from the economy involved, WHRS units simultaneously offer several advantages. These systems play a vital role in energy conservation, they are entirely environment-friendly as they do not need any additional fuels to generate electricity and hence directly help conserve fuels and reduce overall carbon emissions. The WHRS at Gagal is expected to lead directly to a reduction of over 44,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per annum. Since this energy is based on waste heat and requires no additional fossil fuel, the energy thus produced is green energy, equivalent to renewable energy.