PM Dedicates Bhatinda Refinery to Nation

This refinery will fulfill a long cherished dream:PM

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh being welcomed by the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shri Prakash Singh Badal, on his arrival at Bathinda Refinery helipad, in Bathinda, Punjab on April 28, 2012. The Governor of Punjab, Shri Shivraj Patil is also seen. (PIB photo)  28-April-2012

The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh dedicated Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Bhatinda to the Nation today. Present on the occasion were the Governor of Punjab Shri Shivraj Patil, Chief Minister of Punjab Shri Parkash Singh Badal, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri S Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri RPN Singh, Union Minister of State (Planning, Science &Technology and Earth Sciences) Shri Ashwini Kumar ji, Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab Shri Sukhbir Singh Badalji, Shri Chuni Lal Bhagatji, Local Bodies & Medical Education Minister, Government of Punjab, Shri G.C. Chaturvedi, Secretary Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri L.N. Mittal, Chairman Arcelor Mittal, Shri S. Roy Choudhury, C&MD HPCL among other dignatories.

Speaking on the occasion the Prime Minister congratulated the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, HPCL, Shri Lakshmi Mittal and his company, HMEL and State Govt on the successful completion of this project. He said, “This refinery will fulfill a long cherished dream of the people of Punjab and will make a big contribution towards economic development of the State.” 

Underling the significance of the 9 Million tonne(MMT)refinery project, the the Prime Minister added that the refinery sector in the country has shown phenomenal growth and India has emerged as a refining hub. From 62 million metric tonnes per annum in 1998, the country’s refining capacity has grown about three and a half times to 213 MMTPA today. “ We have sufficient refining capacity to enable us to export petroleum products,” he stressed. 

He also stated that the challenges we face on the energy front are formidable and underlined the need for adequate supplies of energy at affordable prices. Pointing out that domestic sources of crude oil and gas are inadequate to meet the growing demands, and the imports accounting for about 80% of our crude supplies, the spiraling prices of crude in the international market have put a severe strain on our import bill. He emphasized that that in order to insulate the common man from the impact of rising oil prices, the Government shoulders a sizeable portion of the burden by pricing diesel, Kerosene and domestic LPG below their market prices. 

Calling for steps to conserve our scarce energy resources, Prime Minister cautioned that there is no room for inefficient and wasteful usage of fuel, be it petrol, diesel, kerosene or gas. “We also need to rationalize prices and at the same time ensure that the poor and needy are shielded from the effects of such a rationalization,” he said. 

Union Petroleum Minister Shri S Jaipal Reddy said that a healthy oil and gas sector fuels the economy of a nation. He expressed happiness on India’s emergence as a refining hub with our refining capacity having grown from a meager 0.25 MMTPA at the time of independence to 213 MMTPA today. The Minister described Guru Gobind Singh Refinery as the latest feather in the cap with the commissioning of this state of the art 9 MMTPA refinery of HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) a joint venture of HPCL and Mittal Energy Investments Pte Ltd. 

He said that the refinery is designed to deliver high grade, environment-friendly petroleum products that would bridge the present gap between supply and demand in the Northern region of India. It is a complex refinery with high Nelson complexity index enabling extraction of highest value from relatively high sulphur, low quality and low priced crudes. 

The Minister further said that with economy growing at about 8% on average, India’s energy needs are increasing at a rapid rate. The challenge is more pronounced since we are highly dependent on imported oil, which accounts for 75% of our total requirement. The country’s oil import bill has already breached the $ 100 billion mark in 2010-11. Meeting the requirements of India's rapidly expanding economy is creating a tremendous surge in the demand for Hydrocarbons. The demand for POL products in India has increased from 129 MMT in 2007-08 to 147 MMT in 2011-12 at an annual growth rate of 4.2 %.

Being aware of the criticality of this sector, he reiterated that his Ministry is fully committed to ensure that the growing demand of the energy sector is fully met. The Minister also said that we have endeavored to come up with policies that provide a stimulus for development of this vital sector. “The two successful Joint Venture refineries commissioned at Bina and now at Bhatinda bear testimony to the rising interest shown in the refining sector of this country,” he added. 

Speaking on the occasion MOS(PNG) Shri R P N Singh lauded the successful completion of the world class refinery within time. He complemented HPCL and their partners along with Govt of Punjab on this historic achievement. The Minister also said that his government has initiated measures to insulate needy from rising global oil prices. Giving out details, he said PSU Oil Marketing Companies has been bearing heavy under-recoveries on sale of sensitive petroleum products o keep prices at affordable levels. Punjab CM also spoke on the occasion and complemented Union Government for its support to the project. He praised the promoters HMEL for setting up the world class refinery in the State. (PIB)   28-April-2012 15:32 IST

******


PM'S Speach

Electricity Through Cogeneration:

A Promising Development
Dr. J. R. Meshram*
Gargi Malik**
Think of a sugar mill, not only producing sugar but also generating power as a by-product. Bagasse, a residue of crushed sugarcane used in sugar mills is the principal fuel used to raise steam in sugar mills. With the technological innovations, the high pressure steam generated in boilers can in turn be used to rotate the turbo generator blades to produce electric current. The process employed here to generate power is called cogeneration which essentially implies the production of two forms of energy, electricity and heat. The power thus generated can be used for meeting the requirements of the sugar mill and the surplus can be fed into the grid.
Cogeneration or production of electricity in combination with another industrial process is not limited to sugar mills alone. There are several other industries such as paper and pulp, textile, fertilizer, petroleum, petrochemicals and food processing which require electrical as well as thermal energy for their operations and therefore can use cogeneration as a process. The total fuel consumption is significantly reduced when “co-generation” or “combined heat and power” (CHP) is applied. The overall efficiency of energy use in cogeneration mode can be up to 85 per cent and above in some cases.
              In the present scenario, where price of fossil fuels is shooting up and there is shortage and non-availability of coal, cogeneration appears to be a promising development. The thrust on distributed generation and increasing awareness for cutting green house gases emissions increases the need of processes like cogeneration. Also it helps in controlling pollution from fossil fuels.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is promoting cogeneration through various incentive based schemes. Biomass Cogeneration programme in India is currently divided into two components (i) Bagasse based (ii) Non-Bagasse based . While bagasse cogeneration is essentially sugar mills oriented non-bagasse biomass cogeneration can be used in biomass industry.

Bagasse Based Cogeneration
As already explained, the bagasse based cogeneration is mainly centred in sugar mills. India is the world’s second biggest producer of sugarcane. Indian sugarcane production during 2010-11 is estimated at 340 million tonnes. India’s 527 working sugar mills crush around 240 million tonnes of cane per year and generate 80 million tonnes of wet bagasse (50% moisture), of which they consume around 70 million tonnes for meeting captive requirements  of power and steam. Thus, electricity production through cogeneration in sugar mills in India is an important avenue for supplying low cost, non-conventional power.
Indian efforts for promotion of bagasse cogeneration started with two pilot projects taken up in cooperative sugar mills in Tamil Nadu in 1988-89 for generation of surplus power and feeding it to the grid. Though possibilities of additional power generation through cogeneration in sugar industry has been known for long, but their usage started in a significant manner only after 1994, after announcement of programme on bagasse based cogeneration by the Government.
A capacity of around 1854 MW of surplus power generation has so far been commissioned in 170 sugar mills in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. More than 200 MW of projects in about 20 private sector sugar mills are under construction. Optimum bagasse cogeneration benefits not only the sugar mills but also the sugarcane farmers as the value addition to their cane is enhanced and thus they can realise more money for it.

Power Cogeneration in Industries (Non-Bagasse) Programme 
The industrial sector today consumes approximately 35% of total electricity generated in the country. At the same time, high quality stable power is required to attain the higher growth rate projected for this sector. Majority of industries in India require both electrical and thermal energy. Today, they either buy power from the State Electricity Boards, or generate their own power largely through diesel generators and meet their thermal energy requirements through captive means mostly utilizing fossil fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas. As fossil fuels are limited, and have adverse environmental impact, it would be appropriate to use non-conventional energy sources including biomass resources such as crop residues and agro-industrial wastes for generation of energy in the industries mainly through biomass gasification technology for meeting their total/partial requirements for both electrical and thermal energy.
           Industrial co-generation has in the past not received adequate attention, as cheap power and fuel were abundantly available. However, with increasing tariffs, and unreliable supply of grid power, there is considerable opportunity for the industrial sector to tap the potential for producing electricity and thermal energy in the co-generation mode. In particular, there is significant potential in breweries, caustic soda plants, textile mills, distilleries, fertilizer plants, paper and pulp industry, solvent extraction units, rice mills, petrochemical plants, etc. Furthermore, co-generation projects based on conventional fuels such as coal, oil, lignite, gas and un/semi-utilized wastes/rejects like dolochar, coal rejects and refinery mud, etc. can also be installed in industry for meeting their power and energy requirements.
          To meet the requirement of captive power and thermal energy, the installation of biomass cogeneration projects (excluding bagasse co-generation ) is  being promoted in industry, with at least 50% of power for captive use, and a provision for the surplus power to be exported to the grid. This has increased the use of non-conventional energy sources and conserves the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. Use of maximum of 25% conventional fuels has been allowed in such projects. The promotional schemes also provide for Grants-in-Aid to State Nodal Agencies, NGOs and other concerned institutions for organizing seminars, workshops, training/orientation programmes, technology validation, strategic studies, industry-wise sectoral studies and performance monitoring & evaluation, etc.

New Initiatives for Promotion of Cogeneration in India

BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) Model Cogeneration Projects in Cooperative Sugar Mills: Provision for Central Financial Assistance has been made for bagasse cogeneration projects taken up through BOOT model in cooperative sector sugar mills set up by Special Purpose Vehicle or an Independent Power Producer. In this case, the investment in cogeneration power plant with concurrent modernisation is done by BOOT developers. This model has advantage in terms of non-requirement of equity and loans by cooperative sugar mills and nil liability to repay and limited risks. The cogeneration plant and assets after BOOT period are to be handed over to cooperative sugar mills. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has supported the BOOT model projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.  BOOT model projects in 12 Co-operative Public sector sugars mills in Tamil Nadu of aggregate capacity 180 MW and BOOT model cogeneration projects in two cooperative sugar mills of Maharashtra of total capacity 80 MW are under implementation. The Ministry plans to extend this effort in the Co-operative/Public sector sugar mills in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat & Uttar Pradesh, during the next two to three years.
Boiler Modification in Cooperative Sugar Mills: A number of recently installed cooperative sugar mills have already employed the configurations to enable them to undertake cogeneration power projects with minimum investment through modification of existing boiler and matching turbine. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has modified the scheme for providing Central Financial Assistance for boiler upgradation of cogeneration project in such sugar mills.
The incentive based schemes and the technical support to the industry by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for installing cogeneration based projects is expected to give a big push to the non-conventional energy programme during the twelfth Plan Period. (PIB Feature). {01-February-2012 15:45 IST}       *******


*Scientist ‘F’, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, New Delhi.
**Assistant Director, Press Information Bureau, New Delhi.