PETROTECH JOURNAL

Panipat Naphtha Cracker Commissioned March 11, 2010

Journal of

Petrotech January -March, 2011 Vol. VI Issue 1

Journal of Petrotech

Volume VI Issue. 1

January - March, 2011

Editorial Dear Patron of Petrotech, The first issue of Journal of Petrotech (JoP) of the current year is in your hands. We are in the process of reorienting it, for taking it in to the league of peer reviewed journals of science and technology of oil and gas industry of India. As a first step, we are planning to constitute of its Editorial Board, drawing expertise of the eminent people from various disciplines of O&G industry, academia and scientists.

The challenges before our industry is many folds, ranging from availability of oil& gas, pricing, logistics, technological, and to its effect on ecology, environment and climate change. The future shape and mix of energy is expected to be different from it has been so far.

Towards the end of last century, Natural Gas was declared as fuel of 21st century, but with in very first decade of the new century, the major source of Natural Gas has shifted from conventional to unconventional sources in form of shale gas. We have seen, how the shale gas has changed to the whole gas market scenario. Such changes only are trailer of things to come by middle of this century.

It calls for review of the skills and expertise for synchronizing industry and the ever-changing world of energy. We have to prepare ourselves for the inevitable paradigm shift in oil & energy area, which will be guided only by sustainability. In this background, I would like to put forth to you, some Point to Ponder :

Reducing Carbon Footprint The New Year 2011, started with crude oil prices touching $100/bbl, and there after the geo-politics and natural calamities has made the oil and gas prices flutter like the ECG of world economy. These may be temporary phases of world geo conditions ( earthquake, tsunami, cyclone etc) and geopolity ( Africa and Mideast etc) affecting oil prices, but the one thing, apart from oil price, which is continuously increasing is the world population and point here, to ponder over are: • The ever increasing populating in conjunction with growth in income, will keep the pressure on oil and other sources of energy, and remain the two most powerful drivers of growth in demand for energy.

• In last 110 years, the world population has grown by a factor of 22 and the consumption of primary energy by a factor of 25 (source: BP Energy outlook 2030).

• In last 20 years the world pollution rose by 1.6 billion ( with major contribution from India and China) and in next it is projected to rise by 1.4 billion ( guess who would do it?). More people with more income would need more energy for better Quality of Life (QOL) and also for sustaining the same.

• But, we cannot sustain growth and QOL with rising emissions of GHG. The only way is to adopt and adapt to the principles of Asteya and Aparigraha from Patanjali Yogsutra, which means "More from Less for More" (MLM), raise Energy Efficiency of our operations, logistics and technologies. We have to adopt policies and plans which encourage energy efficiency, reducing use of natural resources and its greater recyle with greater productivity and penalize the inefficient operations, processes and technologies.

• The oil industry, in line of our country’s plans, has to reduce emissions of GHG by 20% by 2020, over 2005 level. We are already 5 years too late, time is running out, and so is the opportunity to make our industry greener.

The New Mix of Energy, Skill & Leadership The mix of energy 20 years hence will see greater shift towards renewable. Between 2010 and 2030, the renewable energy, including bio-fuels, are expected to grow @ 8.2% and during the same period, Gas, among the fossil fuels, including the Gas from non conventional sources are expected to grow fastest @ 2.1% pa ( Source: BP Energy outlook 2030). Shale Gas has great promise for greater energy security to our country. Petrotech Veterans Forum, recently, deliberated on this important issue and recommended to the Govt. of India.

The shift in the energy mix, will require the industry to make appropriate shifts in their operating and business methods. The skill and leadership required for this evolving industry shall be entirely different. It is therefore, high time, for the industry to identify these skill sets and start developing people starting from academic institutions, in association of academia. (It is well known fact that we cannot do business the way we did yesterday and be successful tomorrow).

Petrotech has been doing it in bits since its inception, and Petrofed has also started, in association of LKMT, but that is not enough. Industry has to spend two percent (2%) of its disbursable income on the community development & CSR, and there could be no better CSR than education, which is investment into the future of country and industry.

Here again we have some points to ponder over: • Nurturing Talent Right from Entry Stage: Attracting, developing and retaining younger generation to O&G industry (considered tougher compared to IT and Finance) will become increasingly difficult. The situation had changed, a little since 2008, but it would not last long unless the industry takes it up with greater seriousness.

• Start At Digboi : The Fountainhead of O&G Talent: The Indian oil industry is, also, almost as old as the modern history of oil. We all know the famous story of oil discovery at Digboi, where the first oil rig still stands as testimony to the history of oil in India. Digboi refinery has developed a magnificent museum, capturing the exciting moments from over 120 years of oil in India. Every oilman, or a person taking up oil as career, must visit this pilgrimage of Oil Industry.

• Develop New Induction Training Programme: I am of firm belief that Induction Training is the foundation stone for developing leadership and engaging them with industry. I would, therefore, suggest, that company's Induction Training Modules, like the one which I had opportunity to develop and introduce for the new officer joining IndianOil. Oil Industry could sit together to review and redevelop the same.

• The Induction Modules may be conducted here at Digboi -the Fountainhead of Oilmen of India, where, the industry may plan to set up a world class Petroleum Management & Leadership Development Center. Digboi has retained its old world charm and values, blended with the modern technological advancements, and a natural environ of Gurukul. It has all ingredients for baptizing a young person into the wonder world of oil and energy.

• Apart from enchanting natural beauty, it has the presence of four leading oil companies i.e IndianOil, NRL, OIL and ONGC, In near future we will have the Brahmaputra Petrochemical complex nearby.

• Digboi, therefore, will be a perfect place for the internship, induction and developing leadership for O&G industry of India.

This center could, in association of some of best global intuitions and oil companies, also be developed as Center of Excellence for Oil Industry Leadership Development. This being a developmental activity, it could be also jointly funded by OIDB, and Oil companies.

Celebrate 2011: The Year Of Chemistry This year, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Madame Curie Nobel Prize and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies, has been designated by the UN General Assembly, as the International Year of Chemistry (IYC). Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and is the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences of physics and chemistry. She was, also, the first female professor at the University of Paris. We all know, our life would not have been same on the earth, without her inventions. The theme of IYC-2011 is “Chemistry - Our life, our future” Chemistry is central to every facet of modern life. It is chemistry that allows us to understand the material nature of our world and the chemical reactions that control all living processes. Molecular transformations are central to the production of food, medicines, fuel and countless manufactured and extracted products. It is chemistry that will meet the global challenges of clean air, safe water, and healthy food, dependable medicine, advanced materials, eco-friendly products and sustainable energy. The beauty of chemistry is its ability to describe some of the most complex things in nature, at the simplest level. Chemistry really is Our Life, Our Future During the IYC the achievements of chemistry and its contribution to the wellbeing of mankind, will be celebrated all over world, with following objectives: • Increase interest of young people in chemistry, • Increase General enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry, • Increase Public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs, We know how the chemistry of crude oil revolutionised the quality of life of people on the planet, and on flip side, it has caused huge emissions of GHGs, pressing the alarm bell of climate change. The chemistry has to become greener, and has now the responsibility of reducing the carbon footprint of all products, services and technologies. Green chemistry, which works on the principle of recycle and reuse, is a serious business and it has great opportunity for everyone.

Petrotech invites everyone from the industry and academia to plan and work together, in achieving the goals of the IYC. We would welcome any research proposal, from the academia, for developing talent in Green Chemistry.

New Trajectory For Petrotech: YOUR EXPECTATIONS OUR INSPIRATION The first quarter of the year has been of high crude oil prices and higher cracks have raised expectations of the oil refiners for greater margins, but there are other technological, fiscal, and talent management challenges before our industry, which need to be addressed. The JoP, is a forum for all of us to express our concerns, views, achievements and for sharing your vision and work about technologies and energy of future.

Petrotech R&D Conclave and Summer Schools, has, also, been acting as an excellent forum for the industry academia interaction In this direction the Petrotech Chapters in various academic institutions have also been playing important role.

But the Petrotech has to go Global, its activities have to go beyond boundaries of our country, showcasing Indian technologies and operational excellence to the world outside. Petrotech is working in this direction, but it will need the help of your ideas and network.

Team Petrotech requests you to please spare some your precious time for us, and write to us your ideas and expectations from the Petrotech, JoP. PetroScan, and, also your suggestions for enriching and our activities.

Looking forward to your valuable suggestions, Yours truly,

(Anand Kumar) Director, Petrotech

CONTENT

Foreword

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Leading the Way Development of Delhi Driving Cycle

9

Sachin Chugh, Dr. A. A. Gupta & Dr. B. Basu

Innovation Bharat Metal Cutting Gas - Gas for cutting & brazing applications

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V. S. Dhaneesh, Sudha Tyagi, R. K. Brahma, P.V.C. Rao & N. V. Choudary

Future of Energy Fuel Cells for Backup Power

23

Ashish Jain

Petrochmicals & Polymers Polypropylene: A Versatile Thermoplastic

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Shashi Kant and G. S. Kapur

Future of Energy Shale Gas: Emerging Solution for Energy Security

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Tulsi Das

Editorial Board Ashok Anand Secretary General

Innovation IndianOil-SERVO速 Agro Spray Oil: Bags CSIR Science & Technolgoy Innovation Award

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Pankaj Bhatnagar, R T Mookken and K P Naithani Anand Kumar Director & Editor

G Sarpal Secretary Suman Gupta Manager

Sustainability Capturing Fugitive Methane Emission: An Important Potential Sustainable Development Initiatives in Indian O & G Sectors

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K D Kalita, P Choudhary, V Dixit

Asset Reliability Total Productive Maintenance IndianOil - Barauni Refinery leads the way

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M K Padia & Team Baraunians

Project Management The views expressed by the authors are their own, and do not neccessarily represent that of the Petrotech.

Printed and published by Petrotech at 601-603, Tolstoy House, Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi - 110 001

Naphtha Cracker Project at Panipat: Indian Oil sets another Benchmark in Mega Project Management

53

Message Dear Colleagues, I have the pleasure of writing this ‘FORWARD’, being unique as it comes after my superannuation from the services of ONGC on 31st January 2011.

At the outset I would like thank all of you for having given me whole hearted support in all my endeavours to serve the industry for the ultimate objective to strive towards the energy security of our country. I am looking forward to the next Governing Council meeting to hand over the baton of Chairman-Petrotech Society to the new incumbent.

The global oil industry continues to be in turmoil due to volatility in the geopolitics of some of oil producing nations, and the unprecedented damage done to Japanese economy by severe earthquake and tsunami.

The crude oil prices have been constantly moving north due to narrowing down of gap between dwindling supply capacity and rising demands. The prices of crude oil, which were prevailing around $78-80/bbl in September 2010, started hardening due to economic recovery of OECD countires, and went up to $90-95 by the end of the year 2010. Come the new year of 2011, and the crude oil was up at $100 per barrel.

Following up a mass uprising in Egypt, Yemen and Libya, the prices have further flared up on fear of disruption, and by end March Brent crude oil prices went up to $ 126 per barrel.

Alarmed by the faster developments in the geopolitical situation of the region, the former Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Yamani cautioned that prices may go up as high as $ 300 per barrel, in case of geopolitical disturbances hitting the boundaries of Saudi Arabia.

His statement has caused a panic situation, as Saudi Arabia Controls about 40% of OPEC supplies.

But as it is said, in every adversity there is an opportunity, and the geopolitical situation following by a severe earthquake, followed by Chernobyl like situation in the Fukushima, has boosted the prospects of greener and alternative sources of energy.

The American experience with Shale Gas has raised the hope for countires like India and China, to secure its energy supplies by exploiting its huge Shale Gas potentials. I am happy that last year ONGC alongwith Schlumberger took exploratory (R&D) initiative for establishing Shale Gas potential in the Damodar Valley basin. This first serious effort has established a sizable potential of Shale Gas spread over large area around Durgapur. Besides Damodar Valley, the Shale rocks have also been found elsewhere in the country, but we have to study the extent of the reserves and the economics of producing it, besides certain serious environmental issues and constraints of adequate clean water availability.

In order to create a greater awareness about the Shale Gas, and for deliberating the issues and challenges, associated with Shale gas exploration and production quite a number of seminars and workshops have been organized in our country in the recent months.

I am happy that Petrotech Society had organized a meeting of Petrotech Veterans Forum on 25th February 2011 at hotel The Lalit, new Delhi to discuss about the prospects of Shale Gas in our country, and to get the respective of the veterans of O&G industry.

Following a very intensive discussion on Shale gas in Indian perspective, the Petrotech Veterans’ Forum has forwarded recommendations to the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas as well as to the Planning Commission.

Today as I look back, it gives me immense satisfaction that I have, as the Chairman of Petrotech Society, been very closely associated with successfully organizing the last International Petrotech Conference in October 2010, which has set benchmarks and trends of its own at the international level. We are also happy that the last Petrotech International Conference was ‘Carbon Neutral’ and I am sure that this trend will continue in future as well.

When we talk of carbon neutrality, it is a great challenge before the oil industry to reduce the carbon footprints of its operations by about 20% till 2020. This will, apart from improving efficiency of our operations, meet many great initiatives to be undertaken by the industry either as add-on to their existing operations or as a substitute for the high energy intensive technology. When we talk of low carbon, green and alternative sources of energy they need a different set of skill-sets and leadership. It needs investment into assets and developing skills through collaborations.

I am expecting Petrotech Society to work towards creating this skill-set through education of the oil executives in this frontier area by strengthening on their existing collaboration with academia and also explore new horizons of collaboration within the country and abroad. I am sure in the coming months Petrotech Society will work in this direction.

We have great strength of R&D infrastructure and pool of scientists in our country. The collaborative wisdom and intellect of these R&D organizations and technology & technical capabilities of our oil men and women has to be leveraged for attracting greater FDI in the oil sector in our country, through NELP or otherwise. The biennial Petrotech international conference has been catalyzing this process for quite sometime but this alone is not enough. It’s time, for Petrotech Society to go beyond the boundaries of our country, for showcasing Indian capabilities and technological prowess, by conducting seminars,

conferences, workshops, presentations, group visits and interactions etc, either alone or in collaboration with some of the top ranking organizations from the same field. Petrotech Society should form reciprocal relationships with organizations like WPC, SPE, NPRA, GPCA etc, and also enter into MOUs with more front running institutes like they have done with University of Alberta, which has done a lot of work on heavy oil processing and the exposure given to our executives in the heavy oil production, processing, pipeline and refinery technologies. We must expand such interactions with our counterparts in other countries.

Petrotech Society had taken lead in creating platforms for increased interactions between the Industry and Academia. It had set a Chair in IITD, followed by setting up Petrotech Chapters in various institutes, sponsored R&D and internships. With the initiative taken by Mr Anand Kumar, we have started first Summer School for the Chemical Engineering professors at IiPM, in the area of oil refining and petrochemicals, in association of IndianOil. Later it was started in the area of drilling and exploration, in association with ONGC, which is continuing with greater interest from both sides. Petrotech, has also been organizing various programmes exclusively for the industry and academia of north-east, in association of OIL, ONGC, IOCL and NRL. All this is commendable, but not sufficient. Petrotech needs to set more Chairs and more Petrotech Student Chapters, covering the cross section of country, and should also work on improving the employability of engineers for O&G industry as also in the alternative and renewable fields of energy.

I am happy to note that the new team of Petrotech, have rolled out plans for expanding their activities in the above direction.

The Petrotech, in association of the Universy of Alberta, has been organizing visits of Indian O&G industry people to the land of oil sands and heavy oil, which has been very educative and immensely helped them in greater understanding about this non-conventional energy source. The next visit is slated for the first fortnight of July 2011, and I am sure the industry would avail this unique opportunity of education, exposure and networking.

I am also happy that the Petrotech Society has proposed to constitute an Editorial Board of experts from various areas of oil industry and in order to raise the level of this Journal to the next level of excellence.

Wishing all a very successful new fiscal year, Yours truly,

R S Sharma Chairman, PETROTECH

Message

Crude oil prices has been rising steadily since mid-February partly in response to the disruption of crude oil exports from Libya. Continuing unrest in Libya as well as other North African and Middle Eastern countries has led to the highest crude oil prices since 2008.

EIA recently has raised its forecast for the average cost of crude oil to refiners to $105 per barrel in 2011, $14 higher than in the previous Outlook. EIA projects a further small increase in crude oil prices in 2012, with the refiner acquisition cost for crude oil averaging $106 per barrel. These estimates can have upward trend anytime following any further disruption in supplies. This makes the risks now associated with further contagion much higher than they were several days ago and could create severe shortages in global oil markets that would require substantial demand rationing. Market volatility can go for a wild swing and industry will again be under the shadow of another record breaking oil price spree. Various agencies have already given their concern on Oil prices breaching the $ 200 mark.

Further Japan met with the unfortunate triple impact of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster which ultimately will dent the Japan's GDP growth. . Japan, the world's third-largest oil consumer, is likely to require an increase in fuel oil imports to generate electricity in the long-term as a quarter of its nuclear power plants have been taken offline. And the disaster will avert Japan to further increase the nuclear share of total power generation from 24% to 50% by 2030 as planned earlier, resulting more dependency on fossil fuels in long run.

With all the volatility going around world over in hydrocarbon Industry, Indian Hydrocarbon industry is a silver lining due to various reasons. India is ready with its 9th round of NELP which is offering 19 onland blocks (out of which 8 type S blocks), 8 Deep water and 7 Shallow water blocks and would be receiving bids by 28th March. And if we go by DGH's estimate blocks in Andaman and Nikobar basin might turn out to be the next elephant fields second only to the giant Mumbai high. It would be very interesting to see the response of explorers as attractive deepwater blocks are on offer and we can hope for geater response of operators.

The RIL-BP deal, which was in the making in the last few months, has certainly come at the right time for the RIL. Entry of one of the most experienced deepwater player in the world will not only help RIL to boost its D-6 production & explore its east coast deepwater acreage better but also will give other operators confidence to bet on Indian hydrocarbon prospectivity. The spate of discoveries in NELP rounds is also a motivating factor for Exploration companies to believe that India is a favourable destination for oil exploration.

I wish all the success to participating companies in the 9th round of NELP and hope we would see more active participation of global Oil companies.

Naresh Kumar President, Petrotech & CMD, Deepwater Drilling & Industries Ltd

Foreword

Dear Colleague, It is a pleasure to greet you through the popular and prestigious communication channel - our very own PETROTECH Journal.

Between the last and this issue of our journal, the Petrotech Society has undertaken a visible lead to organize a workshop on Impact of Natural Gas on Process Industry - Refineries, Petrochemicals & Fertilizers, Lovraj Kumar Memorial Trust, Hydrocarbon Industry Growth Prospects & Challenges in North East, R&D Conclave-V, National Workshop on Excellence in HSE Management - The Way Forward and I am pleased to convey that lot of interest has been shown by the companies in all these programs. In fact, the number of participants surpassed much beyond our expectations. We thank all the companies who supported the programs.

I am also very happy to mention that under the Petrotech banner, the 3rd Annual Convention of PETROTECH Chapters was organized by MIT Pune Chapter of PETROTECH. The students delivered some excellent presentations on the ªFuture of Energy in India: Challenges & Solutions. It was indeed a very refreshing sight to observe that our vision of accelerating the industry-academia interface has yielded desired results. I must mention that the academia is really doing a wonderful job to ensure that the students are kept well connected to the world of Industry so that their class room education becomes well attuned to industry realities and requirement. Such a pleasant development augurs well for the bright future of the young talents.º We have a group of elders called ªVeterans' Forum.º Veterans had a daylong meeting and discussion on Shale Gas which moderated by Shri Anand Kumar, was a grand success and the working group of Veterans' has already made certain suggestions to the Government of India regarding ªShale Gas Policy.º I am convinced that the collective wisdom of such experienced professionals would be of great relevance to the Government in framing Shale Gas Policy.

The PETROTECH journal is a widely circulated journal and has made its place with the Petroleum Industry not only in India but overseas as well. Your active support and inputs as well the collective contribution of your esteemed organization by way of sending us articles on technological developments, research, safety & environment or articles of interest to oil industry will go a long way in making ªPetrotech Journalº a world class publication.

The 9th International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition-PETROTECH 2010, which was held at New Delhi in the recent past was a grand success. The brilliant pavilions put up by the Companies from India and abroad at the exhibition at Pragati Maidan drew a very large number of visitors every day. It was another noteworthy step towards the benefit of oil and gas industry, world over. The preparations for PETROTECH 2012 are already on and we would like the energy fraternity and petroleum industry world over to make use of this ensuing opportunity to showcase their great achievements in PETROTECH 2012.

Lastly, I am confident that the readership of the journal will have a very interesting reading.

In case you have any suggestion, we would welcome the same and will make sincere efforts to implement any idea and thought which would add value to our journal and Petrotech Society at large.

Ashok Anand Secretary General, Petrotech

Petrotech Welcome New Corporate Leaders

R S Butola

S V Rao

A M K Sinha

Chairman IndianOil Corporation Ltd.

Director (Exploration) Oil & Natural Gas Corporation

Director (P & BD) IndianOil Corporation Ltd.

Mr R S Sharma, Chairman, Petrotech inaugurating new office premises

Leading the Way

Development of Delhi Driving Cycle Sachin Chugh, Dr. A. A. Gupta & Dr. B. Basu IndianOil-R&D, Sector-13, Faridabad – 121 007 Dr. B. Basu Sachin Chugh

Mr. Sachin Chugh is Sr. research Officer at IOC R&D, Faridabad. He is Mechanical Engineer from Panjab University and a Post graduate in Thermal Engineering from University of Delhi.

His area of specialization includes evaluation of fuels & lubricants, performance & emission testing of vehicles and alternate fuels. His current assignments include the demonstration & testing of fleet of vehicles running on hydrogen-CNG blends, emission measurement, particulate characterization, number & size distribution, studies of liquid & gaseous dual fuels and development of hybrid electric vehicle. He played a leading role in Development of Delhi Driving Cycle.

Dr. B. Basu has obtained his Masters in Organic Chemistry in 1974 and PhD. in Theoretical Chemistry in 1978 from Allahabad University, India. He joined Indian Oil’s Research & Development Centre, Faridabad in 1978. Since then, he worked in various areas of Lubricant Development, Additive Synthesis, Chemical Analysis, Information Technology, Fuels & Emissions, Engine Testing and Pipeline Transportation.

He was also responsible for implementation of Knowledge Management in Indian Oil R&D Centre in 2003. His current assignments include application of Hydrogen-CNG in Automotive Sector, Emissions, Pipeline Transportation and Engine Testing for Fuels & Lubricants. His areas of expertise include Chemical Analysis, particularly in the areas of Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry, and Artificial Intelligence based Modeling. He has 40 publications in National & International journals and 5 patents to his credit. He has also presented large number of papers in National & International symposia.

Dr. A. A. Gupta

Dr. Anurag Ateet Gupta is General Manager looking after Fuels & Additives with additional charge of Bitumen, Projects & Engineering. Dr. Gupta is PhD in Chemistry from Lucknow University (1982) & MBA from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (1996). Dr. Gupta joined IndianOil R&D Centre in 1982 as Research Officer and worked in the areas of Lubricant Development, Additive Synthesis & Development, Fossil & Alternative Fuels, Fuel Adulteration Abatement Studies, Hydrogen Research, Environmental Studies, IP, etc. His areas of specialization include product & process development in fuels related areas, chemistry & performance evaluation related to petroleum fuels & lubricants, besides issues related to IP & general management. He has to his credit three consecutive Golden Peacock Awards, Petrofed Innovation award & National Technology Development award for the development of indigenous Diesel additive. Dr. Gupta has been instrumental in the Development of award winning & commercially exploited Diesel Multifunctional Additive (DMFA), development of Delhi Driving Cycle, Devising an Innovative Model for Transportation of BS-III & BS-IV fuels across the country and designing of Product Quality Monitoring program for IOC products. He is recipient of Shradhanand Singh Silver Medal for his excellent performance in MBA and he has to his credit more than 100 national & international publications, eight US and eighteen Indian patents.

Introduction In India, vehicular emissions and energy consumption have been increasing significantly during the past decades especially in the metropolitan cities like Delhi. The major emissions constituting the vehicle exhaust include carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and particulate matter. Since, the vehicle exhaust diffuses into the atmospheric air and the quality of ambient air directly affects the human health, the accurate measurement and reporting of the exhaust emissions is imperative for abatement strategies. The ill effects due to inhalation of all these pollutants are well reported in different studies. Moreover the absence of strong Inspection & Maintenance (I&M) legislations in India further aggravates the whole problem which requires further discussions and deliberations. According to the study, about 20% of the poorly maintained vehicles contribute 60% of the vehicular pollution in India1. History has witnessed the series of events related to the improvement in fuel quality and implementation of emission norms in India over the years and Delhi has remained the epicenter of all these developments.

Govt. of India initiated the Air Quality Monitoring and Source Apportionment Studies in various cities including Delhi under which the apportionment of emissions including automobiles, power plants, on-going construction and house-hold etc. were to be assessed. In order to develop such database for the automobiles, a study was initiated to calculate the emission factors for diverse categories of vehicles belonging to different vintages. Therefore, it was essential to measure mass emissions and fuel economy of these vehicles in the laboratory on the chassis dynamometer using a set of standardized driving instructions. These driving instructions (called as a Driving cycle) are uniform for the whole country for a particular category of vehicles. A driving cycle is a speed time sequence which the vehicle is expected to experience repetitively during the course of its journey.

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JoP, January-March 2011

In statistical sense, it represents a typical driving pattern for a particular category of vehicle population of a city.

The driving cycle is followed on the chassis dynamometer for undertaking the legislative mass emission and fuel economy testing under controlled conditions.

The idea for adopting a single driving cycle for the whole country is to standardize the driving conditions so that the vehicles produce the same mass emissions and give the same fuel economy when tested at any laboratory across the country.

Literature study reveals that the speed pattern of the vehicle influences the exhaust emissions. It has been observed that emissions and fuel consumption varies significantly even though the average speed of the vehicle remain same while the driving speed patterns are different. The exhaust gas emissions and fuel consumption are highly related to driving modes, viz., idling, steady-state cruise, acceleration and deceleration. It has also been reported that the realistic estimation of emissions from the vehicle are governed by the accuracy with which a driving cycle is able to represent the real driving conditions experienced in the city under consideration2,3.

Among Indian cities, Delhi has maximum vehicular density, and it was never tried to develop Driving Cycle of Delhi. In one of review meetings of Air Quality Monitoring and Source Apportionment Studies, in the Min of Environment & Forest, IndianOil volunteered to develop Driving Cycle for Delhi, which was hugely welcomed

Type of Cycles Different countries have developed their driving cycle based on the traffic conditions encountered in their cities.

Typically, the driving cycles are of two types as categorised below: • Synthetic Cycles: These cycles consists of idling, steady speed and acceleration-deceleration phases.

These include the ECE15 European cycle, Japanese cycle, Californian 7-mode cycle etc. The concept uses a single vehicle travelling along a

prescribed route and trip durations are measured for each of the following 4 modes: • Idling • Acceleration • Deceleration • Cruising A synthetic cycle is then built which includes a sequence of segments corresponding to each mode, and the cycle is repeated depending upon the requirement to form the complete driving cycle.

• Continuous Cycles: These cycles are mainly based on recording the different driving parameters in a single stretch on the pre-specified route. The whole data is recorded and smoothened for simulating the driving pattern on the chassis dynamometer. US-FTP 72 & 75 are examples of such cycle. Rather than following a repetitive pattern as in synthetic cycle, these cycles do not categorically define the travelling modes (idling, cruising, acceleration and deceleration) and therefore behave as a fast transient cycle on the chassis dynamometer4.

Driving Cycles in India During early 1980’s, the Government of India initiated the process of enacting legislation for the automotive emissions. Many pollution control boards of the State Government and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) worked on the proposal. One of the major points was to decide about the driving cycle to be followed for emission measurements. Subsequently UNDP experts on emission suggested that the driving cycle for India had to be different from those in developed countries since the average road speed, acceleration, deceleration, stoppages, etc. were entirely different from those in the developed countries. Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) decided to develop a new Indian driving cycle would be used for measuring the mass emissions.

Indian Driving Cycle (IDC)

• IDC was developed in 1986, after extensive road tests by the engineers at ARAI based on the data collected from the cities of Bombay, Banga-

Figure 1 - Indian Driving Cycle (IDC)

lore and Madras. The duration of the cycle is 108 sec. For assessing mass emissions from the vehicles, ten cycles are repeated in which the initial four cycles are for engine warm-up while the exhaust sampling is carried out during next six cycles. The maximum speed of IDC is 42 kph5.

Since IDC involves too many transients because of haphazard traffic situations in India, this is now only followed for two/three wheelers, which are common modes of transportation in Indian cities.

For passenger cars, the European driving cycle, with a modification to provide for a lower maximum speed practicable for India was adopted in the year 2000 and is known as the Modified Indian Driving Cycle (MIDC) 4 as shown in Figure 2.

The estimation of the mass emission values and fuel consumption from these driving cycles don’t give the realistic picture as these patterns cannot be considered as representative. IDC is very old and the entire scenario and traffic patterns in the cities of India have changed, while the European driving pattern and traffic conditions are quite different from the Indian scenario. Therefore, a need was felt to have a different driving cycle for Figure 2 - Modified Indian Driving Cycle

too long and complicated for simulation. In general, the lengths of driving cycles are in the order of magnitude of 10 to 30 minutes.

passenger cars for the city of Delhi as a beginning followed by extension of this exercise to other cities of the country as well. The average driving pattern, so derived would be representative and therefore would guide the future emissions legislations and fuel quality norms to be set by the policy makers and the Govt. of India.

In one of the steering committee meetings on Air Quality Monitoring Studies, chaired by the then Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, IndianOil R&D volunteered to develop the Delhi Driving Cycle for passenger cars which would further be considered to assess the automotive emissions inventory for the city.

Development of Delhi Driving Cycle A representative driving cycle is of limited length and its characteristics essentially comply with the actual driving pattern of the intended category of vehicles as close as possible.

This means that on the one hand all relevant influences (vehicle, route, time slot and traffic conditions) must be considered in the cycle in a representative way while on the other hand, for reasons of measurability, this should not lead to a cycle that is

During the development of Delhi Driving Cycle a two-phase process was followed. The first phase involved the collection of data on the instrumented vehicles, which were further classified based on different traffic conditions, routes and time slots in such a way as to produce a large representative driving cycle, referred as the “reference cycle”. In the second phase a cycle of the desired length was statistically derived from this reference cycle, to form the representative driving cycle. In this latter phase, the purpose was to develop a shorter cycle that exhibited driving characteristics as close as possible to that of the reference cycle.

Following approach was followed for developing the Delhi Driving Cycle:

• Route Selection - Rigorous exercise for selection of seven routes covering the entire traffic conditions and land use pattern in Delhi city was carried out. The main criteria used for route selection was to cover the “home to work” trips in the morning and “work to home” trips in the evening. Additionally, services of professional agencies like “MapmyIndia” were taken for conducting the traffic monitoring studies on twenty one selected locations across these seven routes to generate the weighing factors for each route and each time slot. The time slots covered the peak and off-peak hours during which vehicle trials were conducted for data generation.

• Vehicle Selection - Four passenger cars were selected (2 gasoline and 2 diesel) for the data collection taking into the account the vehicle population, size, market share and their growth rate in Delhi.

• Instrumentation Selection – For developing the driving cycle, the real time data logger for acquiring the speed time data, sensors for measuring the gear positions, engine rpm, vehicle position and equipment for measuring the on-road fuel consumption of the vehicle alongwith the software for data analysis were procured.

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• Data Collection and Analysis - The speed-time data collection were carried out on the vehicles travelling along the selected routes at different time slots covering peak & off-peak hours on different days (weekdays & weekends) under actual traffic conditions. Additionally, engine rpm, wheel rpm, location through GPS system and fuel consumption were also measured. The data acquisition was carried out on 4 passenger cars covering 224 trips spanning 120 days.

The driving patterns generated from each trip were statistically analysed following the micro-trip approach (defined as a speed pattern between two idling times in a trip) on the basis of different traffic conditions like congested, semi-urban, urban and extra-urban with the help of specifically designed software based on inhouse developed algorithm. Suitable boundary conditions were incorporated for identifying and eliminating the redundant data in order to derive a realistic speed time sequence. The weighing factors were applied on the selected microtrips for arriving at a representative driving cycle.

• Validation of Delhi Driving Cycle - For validating the Delhi Driving Cycle, the fuel economy tests were conducted on the Chassis Dynamometer and the results were compared to the fuel economy data of corresponding vehicles obtained on road. A variation of <5% in the driving cycle fuel economy with respect to the on-road fuel economy was observed on the 4 passenger cars tested on the chassis dynamometer.

Figure 3 - Delhi Driving Cycle

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Following the above approach, the representative driving cycle for the city of Delhi was developed after following a series of iterative processes. The speed-time representation of the DDC is given in figure 3.

Characteristics of Delhi Driving Cycle (DDC) The final Delhi Driving Cycle with duration of 1565 seconds has an average speed of 17.9 kph which signifies the slow traffic movement across the roads of Delhi. High percentage idling time (~30%) indicates the traffic congestions, longer stoppage duration at signals and frequent stops in the city. High percentage of acceleration and deceleration is attributed to the stop and go kind of traffic movement while the percentage cruising time of DDC is 36.4%. In the proposed Delhi Driving Cycle, the vehicles spend significant percentage of the total time of about 34% in the 1st and 2nd gears, 7% time in the 4th gear while 15% of the total time is spent in each of the 3rd and 5th gear respectively. Number of gear changes during the complete driving cycle is 80, attributed to the turbulent traffic movement on the roads of Delhi.

For establishing the alignment of DDC with the prevailing driving pattern in Delhi, all the calculated parameters highlighted above were compared against the characteristics of the “reference cycle” after incorporating the similar boundary conditions.

Variations between the characteristics

of the proposed DDC and “reference cycle” were within ±10%, which further validated close representation of DDC with actual driving conditions.

The Delhi Driving Cycle (DDC) was also compared with MIDC and it was found that the idling was 6% more in DDC as compared to MIDC. Also, the percentage cruising & acceleration times were less for DDC as compared to MIDC, while the deceleration time was higher in DDC. Further, the mass emission data generated with DDC was also compared with the emissions values from MIDC to further assess the impact of DDC on the exhaust emissions.

Recommendations The Delhi Driving Cycle is recommended to be adopted as a city driving cycle for Delhi to measure the automotive emissions and fuel economy, due to the following reasons: • The principle for selection of routes i.e. “home to work trips” is the logical approach to identify the representative routes on which the trials were carried out for data generation.

• The period of trials included the peak and off-peak hours during the day.

• Data were also acquired during the weekends on all the selected routes.

• Statistically derived weighing factors have been suitably applied to the selected routes and time slots for developing the DDC. • Microtrip approach has been followed to derive the final driving cycle. This has helped in capturing the representative data from the huge volume of raw data set acquired during the entire study.

• The maximum speed of DDC, i.e., 60 kph is equal to the maximum allowable speed in the city of Delhi.

• Fuel economy of vehicles running on DDC is comparable to their onroad fuel economy.

• Characteristics of DDC match with the raw data: • The deviations in the characteristics of DDC vis-à-vis MIDC are in consonance with the changes in the driving pattern in Delhi since the adoption of MIDC in the year 2000.

Such changes are due to extraordinary increase in vehicle population, changes in land use pattern, influx of vehicular population from neighbouring states, changes in life styles etc.

Conclusion Based on the above facts, it is concluded that the Delhi Driving Cycle represents the real world traffic scenario experienced on the roads of Delhi. Further, the fuel economy data obtained by following DDC match with the on-road fuel economy. Also, other driving characteristics like average speed, % idling, % cruising, % acceleration & deceleration are well within the acceptable limits as compared to the on-road data.

Acknowledgements: Authors wish to acknowledge, the initiative and encouragement provided

by Mr Anand Kumar, Former Director (R&D), IndianOil, but for him we would not have taken up this challenging maiden initiative for developing Delhi Driving Cycle, the untiring efforts put in by the Team-DDC of IndianOil-R&D, in generating & compiling data for the development of Delhi Driving Cycle, and to IndianOil management for according permission to publish the paper.

References 1. Pundir B.P, Vehicular Air Pollution in India: Recent Control measures and related issues (2001), pp 260263, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

2. Booth. et.al, “The measurement of vehicular driving cycle within the city of Edinburgh”, Transportation Research Part D 6 (2001), pg. 209220.

3. Pelkmans et. al, “Development of a simulation tool to calculate the fuel consumption and emissions of vehicles operating in dynamic conditions”, SAE Paper no. 2004-011873.

4. www.dieselnet.com 5. Marathe Mathuri, “Evolution of Indian Driving Cycle”, Report by Automotive Research Association of India, 1986.

April 25th:

DNA DAY

That's right April 25th is National DNA Day. It was proclaimed by both the US Senate and the House of Representative in 2003 and while you might not have the day off you might want to stop and think about just what DNA has done for us.

DNA Day is a remembrance of the day in 1953 when a ground breaking article on the structure of DNA was published as well as the day that the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003.DNA has made big changes in our lives whether we know it or not. So this April take some time to think about DNA and some of its many uses: 1. In archeology DNA helps record genetic information of life on earth many centuries ago. This creates a data base that can be used to learn more about our planets past.

2. Genetic testing is used to determine the paternity or maternity of a child.

3. DNA testing can be used to help create a family tree or genealogical chart. Through genetic data bases one can trace lost relatives or find ancestors. Using both the Y chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA people can use DNA testing to establish ancestral lines (both remain unchanged for generations).

4. Prenatal genetic tests can help doctors determine whether or not the unborn fetus will have certain health problems.

5. DNA tests are also used to help solve murders and other crimes. In recent years many unsolved mysteries have been solved due to new ways of analysis as well as clearing many people found guilty of crimes that they did not commit.

6. DNA testing finds great use in the health field as DNA sometimes is the cause of rare medical conditions or heritable diseases.

7. Genetic testing is used in health's checks. For example it can be used to help determine the presence of viruses or cells that have mutated (causing cancer).

8. DNA tests are often used to reunite lost siblings or families or identify remains of the unknown. The genetics of a person leaves an indelible mark and this is used by police, military and authorities as well as individuals to confirm relationships.

9. DNA tests on new species or on material from outer space help scientists and researchers determine the origins of a species and where they stand with reference to known living forms.

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Innovation

Bharat Metal Cutting Gas Gas for cutting & brazing applications

V. S. Dhaneesh, Sudha Tyagi, R.K Brahma, P. V. C. Rao, & N.V. Choudary Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Corporate R&D Centre, Greater Noida, U.P.-201306

V S Dhaneesh Sudha Tyagi

Dr. Sudha Tyagi holds Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Roorkee, Roorkee. She has over20 years of experience in research and development.

Presently she is working as Deputy Manager at the Corporate Research & Development Centre of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. She is working in the areas of Analytical Sciences, biofuels, Fuel additives development and new product development. She has 4 patents and 19 Research publications in national & international journals.

Dhaneesh VS is a Senior Research Scientist at Corporate R&D Centre of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, India. He holds M Tech degree in chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

He has been working in the area of Refinery plants Corrosion, fouling problems mitigation, Pipeline internal corrosion, product development at BPCL R&D Centre and having 5 research publications.

N V Choudary Dr. P V C Rao

Dr. P.V.C.Rao holds Ph.D. in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He has over 23 years of experience in R&D in Refining and Petrochemicals. Presently he is working as Senior Manager at the Corporate Research & Development Centre of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. He is working in the areas of Biofuels, crude assay & compatibility, Fuel additives, Corrosion & Fouling and new products development. He has 8 patents and 62 Research publications in national & international journals.

Dr. N. V. Choudary is presently working as Chief Manager at Corporate R&D Centre, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., India. He has over 26 years of research experience in petroleum refining, and petrochemicals. He holds MSc., and Ph.D., degrees in Chemistry from Shri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. His areas of Research include petroleum refining and petrochemical processes, catalysis and adsorption, fuel additives, bitumen and alternate fuels. Dr. Choudary has filed 55 patents both in India and abroad including 10 US patents and published about 65 research papers in international journals. He has also presented about 100 papers in national and international conferences.

Introduction Iron and steel are among the most important components required for the infrastructure development in the country. In India, the demand for the same is increasing day to day basis.

We can say that metal and engineering industry is the mother of every industry and they are a powerful driver for economy-wide productivity, growth and jobs. It is a well recognized fact that all our modern day components and assemblies rely on iron and steel to a large extent, and further, cutting operations in the manufacturing process. Laser beam cutting, plasma cutting and oxy fuel cutting are the commonly used cutting methods by the end users. Every process has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Laser Beam cutting is carried out utilizing the energy of coherent photons or laser beam, which is mostly converted into thermal energy upon interaction with most of the materials.

As laser interacts with the material, the energy of the photon is absorbed by the work material leading to rapid substantial rise in local temperature.

This in turn results in melting and vaporisation of the work material and finally material removal.

In plasma cutting, the gas is compressed air and the energy is electricity. Plasma arc cutting machines control this powerful energy by constricting the arc and forcing it through a concentrated area (the nozzle). By increasing air pressure and intensifying the arc with higher amperage, the arc becomes hotter and more capable of blasting through thicker metals and blowing away the cuttings, with minimal cleanup required.

Oxy-fuel cutting involves chemical reaction between pure oxygen and steel to form iron oxide. It can be described as rapid, controlled rusting. Preheat flames are used to raise the surface or edge of the steel to approximately 1800째F (bright red color). Pure oxygen is then directed toward the heated area in a fine, high pressure stream. As the steel is oxidized and blown away to form a cavity, the pre heat and oxygen stream are moved at constant speed to form a continuous cut. Only metals whose oxides have a lower melting point than the base metal itself can be cut with this process. Only low carbon steel and some low alloys meet the above condition and can be cut effectively with the oxy-fuel process.

One of the major requirements of a cutting operation is selecting proper gas or gas mixture for the process being used.

Each cutting process has its own unique characteristics and requirements.

Figure 2. Oxy-fuel cutting

Process Selection The selection of a cutting process depends very much on the business needs and areas of criticality e.g. cut quality, productivity, operating costs, profitability, and flexibility.

Cut Quality Comes First

Depending on downstream processing of the cut parts, the cut quality may be

Figure 1. (a) Laser beam cutting (b) Plasma cutting

of lesser or greater importance. There are a number of different aspects to cut quality.

Angularity

Each process produces different edge quality in terms of angularity. This is measured by looking at the edge deviation or how large the angle is as a deviation from a straight edge. Laser cutting will typically give the lowest edge deviation, followed by plasma and oxy-fuel, in that order.

Kerf

Kerf is the width of the material that is removed during the cutting process.

For laser, this typically varies 0.006 to 0.020 of an inch depending on the thickness of the plate. Plasma cutting produces a kerf in the range of 0.053 to 0.340 of an inch, depending on the thickness of the plate. Oxy-fuel kerfs are in excess of this.

Metallurgical changes on cut face

All cutting processes will produce some heat-affected zone (HAZ) on the edge of the cut. Laser gives the smallest depths (0.004 to 0.008 of an inch); oxy-fuel produces the largest, and plasma is in the middle. HAZ is generally related to speed, which explains why the slower oxy-fuel process produces the largest HAZ. For both laser and plasma, the hardness levels are somewhat dependent on the gases used. Nitrogen gas produces the hardest, most brittle edge, while oxygen gas produces the least.

Dross

All processes can produce a certain amount of dross or slag. Oxy-fuel produces the most, and since it is the slowest of the three processes, it is often the hardest to remove. As dross is formed, it melts and re-solidifies, welding itself back to the metal. It adheres most easily to hot surfaces, which means processes that have the largest heat-affected zone, such as oxy-fuel, produce the greatest amount of dross, or slag. Both laser and plasma offer virtually drossfree cutting up to certain thicknesses, beyond which some dross is produced.

Tolerances

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(skill of the operator, thickness of plate, speed, torch height etc.) that do have an impact on tolerances. In general, laser will produce tolerances typically between +/-0.006 to 0.015 of an inch.

Plasma tolerances range from +/-0.015 to 0.030 and oxy-fuel ranges from +/0.020 to 0.030.

Productivity is more than Speed

One factor that is critical for productivity is cutting speed: there are many factors which influence the productivity viz., preheat time, delays associated with piercing, secondary operations, productivity enhancers such as automated features.

Operating Cost

Another factor is operating cost which depends on consumables, power, gas, and spare parts etc required for thermal cutting machine. Consumables are the major contributors to the operating costs in case of plasma cutting. Power costs are less for oxy-fuel cuttings, a small expense with plasma and a bit

higher for laser. Gas is the largest cost associated with laser due to high flow rates. Spare Parts are mainly a consideration for laser. Therefore, one should include a portion of this cost when calculating operational expenses. Besides these expenditures, the amount of time spent on secondary operations should also be considered when figuring out the cost to operate a system.

Figure 5: Flame Cutting Setup

Flexibility

Plasma is considered the most flexible of the three cut methods because of its ability to cut a wide range of metal types and thicknesses, and its ability to mark, and gouge in addition to cutting.

Oxy-fuel Cutting Oxy-fuel can only cut low to medium carbon steels and wrought iron. High carbon steels cannot be cut because the melting point is very close to the temperature of the flame and so the slag from the cutting action does not eject as sparks, but rather mixes with the

Figure 3. Cutting cost comparison for various fuel gases

clean melt near the cut. This keeps the oxygen from reaching the clean metal and burning it. As iron oxide melts at a lower temperature than mild steel, the material is removed from the base metal. Iron oxide formation requires large volumes of oxygen with a minimum purity of 99.5% combined with intense heat, which results in rapid oxidation.

The fuel gas heat-transfer properties, flame temperatures, oxygen consumption, distribution, safe operating pressures and handling should be evaluated when choosing the most economical fuel gas for cutting operations. Factors such as the time required for preheating steel to its ignition temperature and heat distribution have a greater impact on the total cost of the cutting operation.

Heat transfer is a function of the Btu content of both the primary and secondary flames produced by combustion of the fuel and oxygen mixture. When cutting heavy plate (thickness>8“), the majority of the heat being generated during cutting comes from the exothermic reaction between oxygen and iron and only a small percentage from the preheat. The opposite occurs when cutting thin plate.

Figure 4: Basic setup for an oxy-fuel gas cutting operation

Basic requirements for oxy-fuel cutting

• Melting point should lie above its kindling temperature with oxygen.

• The oxides of the metal to be cut should melt at a point lower than the metal itself.

• Heat produced by combustion of metal with O2 jet should be enough to make cutting self sustaining. (Fe burning supplies 70% heat & 30 % from preheating) • The metal to be flame-cut must not have excessive thermal conductivity.

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Figure 6: Oxy-fuel cutting methods

neutral, oxidizing or reducing and (c) Heat of combustion - heat of combustion is greater in the outer part of the flame Oxy-Acetylene for cutting applications

• The oxides formed in cutting should be fluid.

• For a metal to be readily flame-cut, it should have a limited content of the impurities (C, Cr, Si).

3Fe + 2 O2 → Fe3O4 + 266.9 Kcal/gr-mole 2Fe + 1.5 O2 → Fe2O3 + 198.5 Kcal/gr-mole.

Function of the preheat flames

Reactions Involved in primary & secondary flame processes Reactions occur in two distinct zones:

• In the inner cone or primary flame, the fuel gas combines with oxygen to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen which for acetylene & propane, the reactions are given by (hottest part of the flame is at tip of primary flame) Acetylene: 2C2H2 + 2O2 → 4CO + 2H2 + 558.9 kcal/mol Propane: 2C3H8 + 3O2 → 6CO + 8H2 + 208.64 kcal/mol • Combustion continues in the secondary or outer zone of the flame with oxygen being supplied from the air (heat of combustion is greater in the outer part of the flame) Acetylene: 4CO+2H2 +3O2 → 4CO2 +2H2O + 407.56 kcal/mol Propane: 6CO+8H2 +7O2 → 6CO2 +8H2O + 951.79 kcal/mol Cutting is initiated by heating the edge or leading face of the steel to the ignition temperature using the pre-heat jets only, then using the separate cutting oxygen valve to release the oxygen from the central jet. The oxygen chemically combines with the iron in the ferrous material to instantly oxidize the iron into molten iron oxide, producing the cut. Initiating a cut in the middle of a work piece is known as piercing.

Fe+ 0.5 O2 → FeO + 64.3 Kcal/gr-mole

• Raise the temperature of the work piece to the kindling temperature.

• Add heat energy to the work to maintain the cutting reaction.

• Provide a protective shield between the cutting oxygen stream and the atmosphere.

• Remove rust, scale, paint, other foreign substance from the upper surface of the steel.

Advantages of Cutting Using Oxy-fuel

Oxy-fuel cutting employs multipletorch capability that is advantageous in high production runs. Oxy-fuel cutting is an excellent choice for metal cutting since it often requires secondary operations to produce a satisfactory finished product.

Acetylene has a high heat release in the primary flame and a low heat release in the secondary flame. The triple bond in acetylene makes it the hottest burning gas. Acetylene releases heat rapidly in a small, concentrated area. Heat content of acetylene (kJ/m3) is lower than all fuel gases except natural gas. Acetylene may not be the most economical for cutting heavy material because of the high fuel cost and the need for large volumes of the fuel to obtain the required total heat. To maintain cutting speeds, heavy materials require high heat output in the secondary flame. The lower secondary flame Btu capacity may reduce travel speeds when cutting heavy material. Acetylene becomes more difficult to use above 2” because of tendency to backfire and flashback during piercing. As thickness increases, fuels with lower inner BTU content are preferred because they tend not to burn and round top edge of plate.

While using, acetylene withdrawal rate should not exceed 1/10th of cylinder capacity when the cylinder is fully charged and maximum safe delivery pressure is 15 psig. Concentrations of 2.5 to 81% acetylene by volume in air are easily ignited by a low-energy spark and may cause an explosion..

Oxy-BMCG (Bharat Metal Cutting Gas) for cutting applications

Type of Fuel Gases

Traditionally, in India cutting of metals has been carried out using expensive acetylene, which is having safety and availability constraints. The industries requirements are being met either through imported calcium carbide, mainly from China or Bhutan, or dissolved acetylene from Belgium. Hence there was a need for the development of cost effective alternative fuel for acetylene

Fuel gases are characterized by their (a) flame temperature - the hottest part of the flame is at the tip of the primary flame (inner cone) (b) fuel gas to oxygen ratio - the amount of fuel gas required for combustion but this will vary according to whether the flame is

Bharat Petroleum has taken up these challenges/issues associated with oxyDA cutting and developed a cost effective novel product called Bharat Metal Cutting Gas (BMCG) for cutting applications. It is a hydrocarbon based fuel with performance improving additives,

• Equipment is not dependent of electrical power.

• Equipment is easily portable.

• Equipment is less expensive.

• Can produce a high quality cut on low carbon steel.

• Can be performed using either a manual or automatic application.

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developed to cater to the needs of cutting and brazing industries.

The salient features of BMCG are:

• Less Fuel & Oxygen Consumption compared to DA

• Higher flame temperature than most fuel gases • Superior heating value allows for faster heat transfer to the metal.

• No Backfire tendency & Less slag formation

Figure 7: Heat flux comparison for various fuel gases

• Smooth surface finish and better keyhole formation compared to acetylene • Non-toxic, non injurious & Non sensitive to shock, Safer & Operator friendly • Overall result is greater productivity. One BMCG cylinder (19Kg) shall be equivalent to 3 acetylene cylinders of 7m3 capacity- less space for inventory compared to DA Reduced Carbon emissions

The consumption of BMCG for cutting the same length of carbon steel plates of different thickness is low compared to that of Acetylene. This resulted in reduction of CO2 emissions which can be considered as an improved process for claiming the carbon credits (1.69 Carbon credits per ton of acetylene replaced with BMCG). The Carbon credits are measured in terms of Certified Emission Reductions (equal to 1 metric ton of CO2 equivalent)

Figure 8. Comparison of fuel gas consumption

Because of its superior performance BMCG has been has been adjudged as a good substitute for acetylene by various industries.

BMCG for Brazing Applications

Figure 9: Slag formation in 38 mm thick carbon steel plate

Bharat Metal Cutting Gas (BMCG) has been evaluated for brazing applications at the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) Pune using vehicle fuel tank modules. Brazing trials were conducted to compare brazing process by Acetylene Gas and BMCG. Brazed samples were analyzed using an Instron Model 5582 tensile tester. Data for the load applied was recorded by the tensile tester during the test, and then was analyzed for tensile strength. Following the analysis, it was observed that both the samples have good brazing strength and the failure location is not at the Braze area but at the parent material. Test results are given in the below table Based on the test methods (Chemical composition of Brazing alloy and Microscopic Examination) on brazed samples obtained using BMCG and DA, it has been observed that the micro of the brazed tank sample prepared using both fuels does not show any gap and oxidation and shows a good dispersion of the braze material on the base material. As brazing is a low temperature process compared to metal cutting,

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Figure 10: Emerging applications for BMCG ( a) Glass fabrication Industry; (b) Fuel Tank Brazing- Auto industry

Figure 11: Brazed Samples using acetylene and BMCG

it is easier to control the heat with BMCG than Acetylene

Types of flame The welder/cutter can adjust the oxy-fuel flame to be carbonizing, neutral, or oxidizing. The neutral flame is the flame most generally used for welding or cutting applications. This flame is attained when the oxygen valve open slowly on to the torch body and at that point, the fuel is being completely burned in the oxygen Figure 12 :Instron 5582- Set-up of Tensile Test and broken sample

The acetylene carbonizing flame is characterized by three flame zones; the hot inner cone, a white-hot “feather”, and the blue-colored outer cone. The feather is adjusted and made ever smaller by adding increasing amounts of oxygen to the flame. The unburned carbon insulates the flame and drops the temperature to approximately 5000 °F (2800 °C). The reducing flame is typically used for hard facing operations or backhand pipe welding techniques. The feather is caused by incomplete combustion of the fuel to cause an excess of carbon in the flame. The carbonizing flame will tend to remove the oxygen from iron oxides which may be present, a fact which has caused the flame to be known as a “reducing flame”.

The oxidizing flame is the third possible flame adjustment. It occurs when the ratio of oxygen to acetylene required for a neutral flame changed giving excess of oxygen. This flame type is observed when more oxygen added to the neutral flame. This flame is hotter than the other two flames because the combustible gases will not have to search to find the necessary amount of oxygen, nor heat up as much thermally inert carbon. This flame adjustment is Figure 13. Bunsen burner: leftmost: reducing flame, rightmost: oxidizing flame

Figure 14. Oxygen Rich Torch Flame Table 1: Tensile strength results of the Brazed samples.

Sample preparation fuel Acetylene Acetylene BMCG BMCG

Max. Load (N) 12400.92 28169.71 12070.51 28087.94

Tensile Strength (MPa) 310.67 284.26 304.04 280.71

and surrounding air. The two parts of this flame are the light blue inner cone and the darker blue to colorless outer cone. The inner cone is where the fuel and the oxygen combine. The tip of this inner cone is the hottest part of the flame.

Figure 15. Fuel Rich Torch Flame

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generally not preferred. The oxidizing flame creates undesirable oxides to the structural and mechanical detriment of most metals. In an oxidizing flame, the inner cone acquires a purplish tinge, gets pinched and smaller at the tip, and the sound of the flame gets harsh.

A slightly oxidizing flame is used in braze-welding and bronze-surfacing while a more strongly oxidizing flame is used in fusion welding certain brasses and bronzes.

The size of the flame can be adjusted to a limited extent by the valves on the torch and by the regulator settings, but in the main it depends on the size of the orifice in the tip. In fact, the tip should be chosen first according to the job at hand, and then the regulators set accordingly.

On the basis of flame velocity, combustion may be classed into three types:

Figure 16 Oxy-fuel cutting torch – Manual and Pug machine

ter quality cut 99.5-100 % pure oxygen is required. High pressure is used to provide adequate quantities of oxygen to react sufficiently with a narrow band of steel and to blow slag clear of the cut. A decrease in purity of 1% will typically reduce the cutting speed by 25% and increase the gas consumption by 25%.

Cutting Torches

The main difference between the cut-

ting torch and the welding torch is that the cutting torch has an additional tube for high-pressure cutting oxygen. The flow of high-pressure oxygen is controlled from a valve on the handle of the cutting torch. In the standard cutting torch, the valve may be in the form of a trigger assembly like the one in below figure. On most torches, the cutting oxygen mechanism is designed so the cutting oxygen can be turned on gradually. The gradual opening of the cutting

Figure 17 Types of nozzles

• Quiet burning, with a flame velocity of not over 10 or 15 m/sec; • Deflagration, with a flame velocity of several hundred meters per seconds; • Detonation, with a flame velocity of over 1000m/sec.

Elements of Oxy-fuel cutting Preheat flame

The elements of oxy fuel cutting are pre heat flame, oxygen stream, torch and cutting nozzle, cutting speed and material being cut.

Figure 18 Nozzle work piece arrangement

The preheat flame is composed of fuel gas and oxygen at a proper mixture (ratio) to produce maximum flame temperature for greatest heating efficiency.

Oxygen Stream:

This is the single most important factor in cut quality. Desired Characteristics of oxygen stream are high purity, high pressure, long uniform stream and sized to thickness being cut. For a betTable 2 Typical characteristics of different gaseous fuels Total Heat Capacity Fuel Types Oxy/Fuel Ratio* (BTU/Ft3) Acetylene Methyl Acetylene type Propylene Propane Natural Gas

20

1470 2406 2371 2561 1000

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1.5/1 3.5/1 3.5/1 4.5/1 1.9/1

Maximum Temperature

5720 0F 5340 0F 5240 0F 5130 0F 5040 0F *Pertains to materials up to 2” thick.

oxygen valve is particularly helpful in operations, such as hole piercing and rivet cutting.

Cutting Torch Tips

The tips and sears are designed to produce an even flow of gas and to keep themselves as cool as possible. The seats must produce leak proof joints. If

the joints leak, the preheat gases could mix with the cutting oxygen or escape to the atmosphere, resulting in poor cuts or the possibility of flashbacks.

Plate Chemistry

Alloying elements such as carbon, nickel, chromium, manganese and silicon can have a noticeable effect on oxy-fuel cutting even when concentrations are very low. Each of the elements act as contaminants in the plate. They present concentration that is not easily oxidized and, in doing so, upset the smooth formation of the slag stream.

Typically, the elements will be in varying concentrations throughout the plate and will cause erratic operation of the cutting process.

As alloying elements increase in concentration:

• Roughness of cut and drag lines will also increase. Loss of cut frequency will increase.

• Usable cutting speed will slow because of reduced oxidation.

• Preheat intensity needs to be increased to compensate for loss of oxidation heat. Top • edge rounding is more difficult to control without risking frequent loss of cut.

Carbon

Up to 0.4 per cent carbon does not affect the cutting of steel. Over 0.4 or 0.5 per cent carbon impairs the efficiency of the cutting process, while over 1.0 or 1.2 per cent carbon renders it impossible. Steels high in carbon are difficult to cut because their kindling temperature is higher and their melting point lower than of low-carbon steels. Another trouble due to the increased carbon content is probably due to the fact that lot of CO2 is formed, contaminating the cutting oxygen which in turn reducing the cutting speed, and impairing the quality of the kerf faces.

Manganese

Up to 4 per cent manganese does not practically affect the cutting operation. More manganese (5-14%) handicaps the operation, while over 14 per cent manganese makes it unfeasible.

The combination of over 0.8 per cent manganese and over 0.3 per cent carbon makes the steel more susceptible to hardening, and the metal near the kerf grows hard and embrittled.

Silicon

When present in the quantities usual for steels, silicon does not affect the cutting operation markedly. Increased silicon content causes some trouble due to the formation of the refractory oxide SiO2 which adds to the viscosity of cutting slag and reduced flowability of slag. The high percentage of silicon makes the cutting of steel impossible Chromium

The effect of up to 4 or 5 per cent chromium on the cutting operation is that the slag grows more viscous and the kerf faces tend to harden. More chromium makes conventional flame cutting unfeasible because of much refractory Cr2O3 forming on the metal Nickel

Up to 7 per cent nickel does not hamper the cutting of steel. The cutting speed is somewhat reduced, though it remains satisfactory, as the nickel content rises to 34 percent. According to some investigators, in high-nickel steels, this element diffuses towards the kerf faces.

Molybdenum

When present in small amounts (under 0.25 percent), molybdenum does not affect the cutting speed, but increases the hardenability of the metal and the hardness of the kerf faces.

Vanadium

The small amounts of vanadium usually found in steels do not affect the cutting operation. Its effect on the hardness of the kerf faces is similar to that of molybdenum, tungsten, and other carbide-forming elements.

Aluminium

When contained in negligible amounts (up to 0.5 per cent), aluminium has no effect on the cutting operation. When it runs over 10 per cent, steel is impossible to flame-cut.

Phosphorus and sulphur

The quantities of these two impurities usually contained in steels do not affect the cutting operation.

Oily Plate

Oil has little negative effect on performance and cut quality. Other than a slight speed reduction in very thin

material and the production of smoke there is little impact.

Safety Oxy fuel welding/cutting is not difficult, but there are a good number of subtle safety points that should be learned.

The importance of eye protection

Proper protection such as welding goggles should be worn at all times, including to protect the eyes against glare and flying sparks. Special safety eyewear must be used—both to protect the welder and to provide a clear view through the yellow-orange flare given off by the incandescing flux.

However, the lack of protection from impact, ultra-violet, infrared and blue light caused severe eyestrain and eye damage.

Safety with cylinders

When using fuel and oxygen tanks they should be fastened securely upright to a wall or a post or a portable cart. An oxygen tank is especially dangerous for the reason that the oxygen is at a pressure of 21 MPa (~200 atmospheres) when full, and if the tank falls over and its valve strikes something and is knocked off, the tank will effectively become an extremely deadly flying missile propelled by the compressed oxygen, capable of even breaking through a brick wall. On oxyacetylene torch system there will be three types of valves, the tank valve, the regulator valve, and the torch valve. There will be a set of these three valves for each gas. The gas in the tanks or cylinders is at high pressure. Oxygen cylinders are generally filled to approximately 2200 psi. The regulator converts the high pressure gas to a low pressure stream suitable for welding.

Flashback

Flashback is the condition of the flame propagating down the hoses of an oxyfuel welding and cutting system. To prevent such a situation a flashback arrestor is usually employed. The flame burns backwards into the hose, causing a popping or squealing noise. It can cause an explosion in the hose with the potential to injure or kill the operator.

Using a lower pressure than recommended can cause a flashback.

JoP, January-March 2011

21

Conclusions It is a well recognized fact that all modern day components and assemblies rely on iron and steel to a large extent and further cutting operations in the manufacturing process. Even though a lot of methods are available for metal cutting operations, selection of suitable cutting gas and process plays an important role. Cutting process selection should include the parameters like cut quality, productivity, cutting cost and flexibility etc.

For the oxy-fuel cutting, the main factors affecting the performance are

pre-heat flame, oxygen stream, cutting speed, torch and nozzle, nature of fuel gas and plate chemistry. Bharat Metal Cutting Gas has been found to be superior product in terms of cutting cost, cut quality, performance, fuel-oxygen consumption and reduced pollutions compared to DA. BMCG has been tested extensively for brazing applications and it has been found to be a good alternate for DA. Therefore, it has been found to be a good substitute for acetylene by various industries like cement, glass, textiles, brazing and various structural /manufacturing industries.

References 1. Carlisle, Rodney (2004). Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries, p.365. John Wiley & Songs, Inc., New Jersey.

2. White, Kent. "Authentic Aluminum Gas Welding - The Method Revised." Booklet. Published by TM Technologies 3. Oxy-fuel cutting – process and fuel gases- TWI 4. Innovative technology summary report- DOE/EM -0401 5. US patent on metal cutting processes. 6855907.

Hydrogen Generation & Storage Made Easy with Nano-Technology Fuels like gasoline, based on hydrocarbon, create pollution and carbon footprint. Hydrogen has been claimed to be a good alternative to replace fossil fuel since the 1970s. But hydrogen’s potential has not been realized even partially mainly because of storage and commercial production difficulties.

There have been research being done on renewable energy sources like hydrogen for quite some years. Recently, breakthrough research has been successful in creating a new method for storing hydrogen.

Difficulties faced in usage of hydrogen Hydrogen is a cleaner renewable energy source if only the two problems of safe storage and easy access are overcome. The traditional way of fastening hydrogen into solids has not been very successful. Too less volume of hydrogen was absorbed while storing and too convoluted methods like too high heating or cooling was needed for releasing it which did not make it commercially viable.

New way of storing hydrogen A team of scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab),Department of Energy (DOE), US have discovered a new material called air-stable magnesium nanocomposites which can help in storing hydrogen without complex methodology. This composite material con-

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JoP, January-March 2011

sists of ‘nano-particles of magnesium metal sprinkled through a matrix of polymethyl methacrylate – a polymer related to Plexiglas.’

Advantages of new material This nano-composite is a pliable material and it is capable of absorbing and releasing hydrogen at an ordinary temperature without oxidizing the metal. This capacity has been touted as the major step towards a better design for hydrogen storage, hydrogen batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The scientists have been able to design for the first time successfully composite materials that are nano-scale and which are capable of overcoming the barriers that are thermodynamic and kinetic in nature.

Observing the new material scientifically The team observed the material and its behavior via TEAM 0.5 microscope at National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM). They tracked the behavior of hydrogen in the new storage material. They further studied the performance of hydrogen in the nano-composite material at Energy and Environmental Technologies Division (EETD), at the Berkeley Lab. EETD has been pioneering research about technologies about renewable energies, their generation and storage etc including hydrogen.

Role of DOE – Nano-scale Science Research Centers (NSRCs) The NSRCs are a group of five facilities with state-of-art wherewithal to research in depth about nano-scale materials. The National Nanotechnology Initiative from DOE has resulted in huge investments for developing the infrastructure of these facilities. The team has put together and manufactured this new material at Materials Sciences Division. In words of team member Urban, “The successes we achieve depend critically upon close ties between cutting-edge microscopy at NCEM, tools and expertise from EETD, and the characterization and materials knowhow from MSD.”

The team Jeff Urban, Deputy Director, Inorganic Nanostructures Facility, Molecular Foundry, Office of Nano-Science Center DOE, Berkeley Lab, Christian Kisielowski and Ki-Joon Jeon were the co-authors and Hoi Ri Moon, Anne M. Ruminski, Bin Jiang and Rizia Bardhan were the rest of the team. DOE’s Office of Science supported the research work.

Future of Energy

Fuel Cells for Backup Power Ashish Jain Chief Engineer (E), ONGC, Tripura Asset, Agartala

Ashish Jain

Ashish Jain is BE (Electrical) and MBA (Marketing).

Mr Jain has done a specialized diploma on “Renewables and Hydrogen Technology”. He is a Certified Energy Auditor and a Project Management Professional. He has about 24 years of experience and is presently working as Chief Engineer (E) in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. He has about 25 papers to his credit.

Introduction India, with over a billion people, many of whom lack access to reliable power, represents a huge prospective market for fuel cells. Further, the energy distribution system is unreliable, leading to a large market for back-up power especially in urban India. Most businesses and better-off households have back-up diesel generators, which add to urban air pollution, and are used during frequent power outages. Aware of the shortages of supply, many Indian companies have their own private distributed power supply either for primary or back-up power.

Indiscriminate use of fossil fuels have added to the green house effect which is today one of the biggest environmental issues. This problem is even more acute for developing economies like India which are already struggling with power shortages. As a result, innovators are constantly seeking for solution on this issue. Some temporary solutions like gas generators have eliminated / reduced the

production of SOX and NOX. However, amount of CO2 produced is still too much for the nature to cycle. Hydrogen can be used to power nearly every end-use energy need.

Fuel cells which directly convert the chemical energy in hydrogen to electricity with only water and heat as byproducts are the key to making it happen. Fuel Cell is safe, clean, efficient and CO2 free.

Hydrogen polymer electrolyte membrane, also called proton exchange membrane or “PEM” fuel cells are leading candidates for use in fuel cell vehicles. PEM fuel cells are commercially available today for certain applications. One of these near-term markets is emergency back-up power.

Today’s commercially available PEM fuel cells are particularly appropriate for Indian markets typically for low-power applications (generally less than 5 kilowatts) requiring intermittent back-up. This includes a wide range of communication and data control systems for which back-up power is essential.

The large potential market for fuel cells in the country raises the prospect for significant economies of scale in the commercialization of fuel cells, although this potential has yet to be realized.

The Case for Fuel Cells The cost of oil dependence has never been so clear. What had long been largely an environmental issue has suddenly become a deadly serious strategic concern. Oil is an indulgence we can no longer afford, not just because it will run out or turn the planet into a sauna, but because it inexorably leads to global conflict.

What we need is a massive, Apolloscale effort to unlock the potential of hydrogen, a virtually unlimited source of power. The technology is at a tipping point. Terrorism provides political urgency. Consumers are ready for an alternative. From Detroit to Dallas, even the oil establishment is primed for change. We put a man on the moon in a decade; we can achieve energy independence just as fast.

Virtually every aspect of modern existence is made from, powered with, or affected by fossil fuels. Now, however, some of the world's leading petroleum geologists are suggesting that global oil production could peak and begin a steep decline much sooner.

While the fossil-fuel era is entering its sunset years, a new energy regime is being born that has the potential to remake civilization along radical new lines. Hydrogen is the most basic and ubiquitous element in the universe. It is the stuff of stars and, when properly harnessed and made from renewable sources, it is the "forever fuel”. It produces no harmful CO2 emissions when burned; the only byproducts are heat and pure water.

Back up power technologies currently include batteries and generators operating on diesel, LPG or gasoline.

Most back up power communication and control systems use a combination of generators and batteries to provide redundancy to avoid disruptions. Although these systems are reliable and well established, concerns with bat-

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JoP, January-March 2011

teries and generators are encouraging consumers to seek out alternatives that provide high reliability and durability at a reasonable cost.

Compared to batteries, fuel cells offer longer continuous runtime and greater durability in outdoor environments under a wide range of temperature conditions. With fewer moving parts, they require less maintenance than both batteries and generators. They can also be monitored remotely, reducing actual maintenance time.

PEM fuel cells have the potential to offer significant cost advantages over battery-generator systems and batteryonly systems.

Apart from the absence of the green house gases and other by-products, there are still more advantages compared to traditional combustion engines. Internal-combustion engines capture only 15 to 20 percent of the energy in gasoline, and the conventional electric power grid is only 33 percent efficient. Fuel cells can convert 40 to 65 percent of hydrogen's energy into electricity.

In terms of noise pollution, there is virtually no noise except the “inaudible buzzing of the electric motor”.

Practical Use National Hydrogen Energy Board (NHEB) constituted by Government of India in 2003 has identified two major initiatives; the Green Initiative for Future Transport and the Green Initiative for Power Generation. The first of these aims at developing hydrogen powered IC engine and fuel cell based vehicles.

By adopting established technologies early, India hopes to eventually be a regional leader in hydrogen vehicles.

The second part of the Roadmap aims to develop and demonstrate a hydrogen powered engine/turbine and fuel cell based decentralized power generating system of about 1000 MW capacity by 2020.

Of the companies actively engaged with developing fuel cells in India, almost 51% are concentrating on small stationary units followed by 21 % for automotive applications. (reference

Fuel Cell Today). As India struggles with effective power distribution in domestic and agricultural settings as well as some urban areas, the stationary fuel cells could fill this gap.

Several organizations are already using or have tested fuel cells as back up power for communication or other systems. This can specially be useful in case of adverse weather conditions.

Hydrogen – powering the fuel cells Chemically bound hydrogen is found everywhere on Earth: in water, fossil fads and all living things. Instead, it has to be extracted from water or from hydrocarbons. Today, nearly half the hydrogen produced in the world is derived from natural gas via a steam reforming process. Coal can also be reformed through gasification to produce hydrogen, but this is more expensive than using natural gas and also releases CO2. Hydrogen can also be processed from gasoline or methanol, though again CO2 is an unwanted byproduct.

Although using steam to reform natural gas has proven thus far to be the cheapest way to produce commercial hydrogen, global production of natural gas is likely to peak sometime between 2020 and 2030, creating a second energy crisis on the heels of the oil crisis.

There is, however, another way to produce hydrogen without using fossil fuels in the process. The real question, then, is one of costs. Wind, hydropower and biomass (generating power by burning plant material such as wood waste and agricultural residue) are already cost competitive in many parts of the world and can be used to generate electricity for the electrolysis process. PV and geothermal costs, however, are still high and will need to come down considerably to make the process competitive with the natural gas steam reforming process now used most often in the production of hydrogen.

Renewable sources of energy--PV, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass-can be harnessed to produce electrici-

ty. The electricity, in turn, can be used, in a process called electrolysis, to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be stored and later used in a fuel cell to generate electricity, with heat as a useful byproduct that could be harnessed to heat homes, among other uses.

Hydrogen is the most suited alternate fuel as it produces water upon its combustion with oxygen in air. The idea of using Hydrogen as an energy carrier is not new, but interest in it has grown in recent years in view of the increasing pollution levels globally by the use of hydrocarbons as well as the fast depletion of the fossil fuel reserves of our planet. Iceland has become the first country to start the process of graduating to a full hydrogen economy.

Both developed and developing countries (USA, Canada, Germany, Japan, China, India etc.) are conducting Research and Development in the area of hydrogen production, storage, transportation, safety, generating standards and application.

Steel plants, fertilizer plants and ISRO in the country have experience in the production, storage and handling of hydrogen. The large number of Vanaspati industries in the country produce hydrogen by electrolysis of water in their captive units. Hydrogen is also available as a by-product in the chloro-alkali industries. Hydrogen availability initially does not seem to be a major issue as it is available in the market as a by-product of chloro-alkali industry. There are about 39 chloro-alkali manufacturers in India having almost 258,722 Nm3/ day of excess hydrogen available. (source: TERI) The optimism for hydrogen typically centers about the seeming abundance of hydrogen in the form of water and the fact that hydrogen burns cleanly, yielding water and no carbon dioxide.

Hydrogen has fascinated generations of people with good intentions. Promoters of hydrogen claim that a "Hydrogen Economy" will be the ultimate solution to all problems of energy and environment.

Commercial fuel cells powered by hydrogen are just now being introduced

into the market for home, office and industrial use.

The hydrogen economy makes possible a vast redistribution of electricity, with far-reaching consequences for society.

In the new era, every human being with access to renewable energy sources could become a producer as well as a consumer--using so-called "distributed generation."

This clean fuel could make obsolete our big-scale, polluting oil network through a locally based system.

Generating the electricity at or near the end users' location also reduces the amount of energy used because between five and eight percent of the energy transported over long distance lines lost in the transmission.

Fuel Cell Safety Nonetheless, there are some who speculate that hydrogen is simply too dangerous to ever be safely used for cars.

But hydrogen may still be safer than gasoline. When spilled, it simply escapes upward instead of puddling and presenting an ignition hazard. It's odorless, its flame is invisible, and it emits very little radiant heat. People standing next to a hydrogen fire might not even be aware it's there. Like gasoline, hydrogen can be dangerous. And, also like gasoline, we can learn to use it as safely as possible.

Conclusions Despite some investment in fuel cell technology and a good amount of expertise, India remains a small market for fuel cells at present. However, given the strong commitment of NHEB and MNRE to investing in a hydrogen infrastructure, the prospects for fuel cells penetrating the commercial market seems strong.

Fuel Cell A demonstration of the working mechanism of a full cell A fuel cell works by catalysis, separating the electrons and protons of the reactant fuel (at the anode), and forcing the electrons to travel though a circuit, generating electrical power. At the cathode, another catalytic process takes the electrons back in, combining them with the protons, which have traveled across the electrolyte and the oxidant to form waste products (typically simple compounds like water and carbon dioxide).

In many fuel cells, the fuel is hydrogen and the oxidant is oxygen (as depicted in the image). But not always, for example the microbial fuel cell converts chemical energy directly into electricity using a substrate, such as glucose or waste water, as the fuel and bacteria as the catalyst. Specific uses of fuels cells include: Heating District Building/Network, Hotel, Laboratory/Processing Plant, Manufacturer, Medical Facility, Military Housing/ Facility,Office Building, University/School.

Types of fuel cells Fuel cells are most often defined by the electrolyte material used. The different types determine the kind of chemical reactions taking place, the catalysts required, the fuels used and other factors. The different fuel cells available include4 : • Proton exchange membrane or Polymer Exchange Membrane (PEM)• from Ballard • Molten Carbonate (MCFC) • Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) • Alkaline (AFC) • Phosphoric acid (PAFC) • Direct Methanol (DMFC): a subset of PEM typically used for portable devices using under 100 watts of power.

• Zinc Air • Protonic Ceramic • Microbial Fuel Cell

Fuel cells have the potential to fulfill the two main objectives, namely energy independence and environment protection. PEM fuel cell technology is mature and ripe for induction. Demonstrative projects would slowly graduate to commercial projects once economies of scale are achieved.

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Petrochmicals & Polymers

Polypropylene A Versatile Thermoplastic Shashi Kant and G.S. Kapur R&D Centre, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Sector-13, Faridabad 12 007 G. S. Kapur Shashi Kant

Dr Shashikant is a Masters in Organic Chemistry and went on to obtain his PhD in Chemistry from Meerut University. He is presently working as DGM Petrochemicals at IOCL R&D Center.

Dr Shashikant has over 33 years of experience in industrial research and development out of which 28 years experience is in the field of Ziegler-Natta Catalyst and Polyolefin manufacturing processes, Polyolefin Plant Troubleshooting, Development of niche grades of PE and PP, Post reactor modification of polyolefins and “Structure-Property-Performance relationship in polyolefins.

He has over 25 research papers to his credit and more than 75 internal management information technical reports. He is also a PhD examiner for Saurshtra University and Sardar Patel University, Gujarat.

Polyolefin Scenario in India Among various types of polymers, polyolefin comprising of Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) are gaining importance due to their versatile properties. Global Polyolefin demand was more than 111 million metric tons which is likely to touch 150 million metric tons by 2015 and 200 million metric tons by the year 2020. In India, the domestic polymer industry (like global industry) is dominated by polyolefin’s (PE and PP), representing about 70% of all commodity resins consumed. While overall demand growth for polymers in 2007 increased by 13.4%, the demand for polyolefin’s grew by 14%. The demand for polymers is grown by 15.2% each in 2008 and 2009 and is expected to reach 6277 KT and 7229 KT respectively. The country has embarked upon sig-

Dr. G.S. Kapur is presently working as Chief Research Manager, Petrochemicals and Polymers at the IndianOil R&D. He did his M.Tech. and Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in the area of synthesis and characterization of polymers. After that, he carried out postdoctoral work at Institute of Macromolecular Science, Prague and at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He is a recipient of prestigious international fellowships like Alexander Von-Humboldt, Germany and UNESCO. He has 4 patents and more than 60 research papers to his credit, published in International peer reviewed Journals and presented more than 35 papers in various National/international conferences.

nificant capacity addition, which is expected to go on-stream in 2009-2010 (last quarter). It can be seen from the following table that as per the projected demand, the growth rate of polyolefin in India was expected in the range of 14-15%.

Polyolefins Demand in India Actual (in kT) 2006 2007 LEPE 250 267 LLDPE 844 947 HDPE 852 1023 PP 1535 1720 Total PO 3480 3951

Projected 2008 2009 293 328 1085 1237 1207 1424 1961 2236 4546 5225

% Change Year on Year 2007 2008 2009 4.5% 12% 12% 12% 15% 14% 20% 18% 18% 12% 14% 14% 14% 15% 15%

Source: Indian Petrochemical Industry: Review of 2007 and Outlook for 2008 (CPMA, New Delhi)

However, due to recession all over the world also affected the growth rate in India initially and the plant operating rates which were in the range of 75 to 90% in the beginning of the year, recovered back to their operating capacity late in the end of the year.

This impressive growth itself conveys their distinctive attributes in terms of their properties and the extended areas of applications replacing the conventional materials. As a matter of fact, in the history of large volume materials, no other polymers have experienced the surprising and explosive developments as enjoyed by polyethylene and polypropylene in the last two decades.

These polymers have emerged from commodities of marginal and economic relevance into fastest growing polymers finding their applications in the area of engineering thermoplastics.

In particular, Polypropylene which was discovered 56 years ago in March 1954 by Professor Giulio Natta in of Milan Polytechnic is an incredibly versatile thermoplastic polymer is still growing at a much faster rate due to its strong demand. The world plastic demand was estimated to be about 205 million metric tons in 2006 and it can be seen from the figure 1 that PP has the maximum share of 21% among various plastics.

Drivers of Polyolefin Growth Such an exceptional growth of polyolefinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and in particular PP is mainly due to the following factors: 1. Superior physico-chemical properties, that makes them suitable for diverse applications 2. The environmental aspects (polyolefinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s are absolutely non-toxic); 3. The superior saving in energy costs, both at production and application levels with respect to other conventional materials; 4. The low cost easy accessible raw materials, which are available in abundance (oil, natural gas based); 5. The possibility of adopting low cost, highly versatile and non-polluting processes for their manufacture; 6. Easy recyclables material; 7. Resources saving products; 8. Broad product portfolio; 9. Tailor made products.

Apart from the above-mentioned reasons, the exponential growth in the field

Figure 1 Source: Plastics Europe Market Research Group (PEMRG)

of polyolefin took place on account of exciting innovations in Ziegler-Natta catalyst systems, which provided the means to improve the product quality, develop new products and streamline new process technologies.

Polypropylene-The Product Polypropylene is a low density semicrystalline linear stereo-regular polymer which exists in three forms viz. isotactic, syndiotactic and atactic. It is the isotactic form of PP which is commercially used whereas syndiotactic PP though commercially produced but in small quantities since it requires special catalysts known as metallocene which are more costly. Since syndiotactic PP takes long time to crystallize making it uneconomical to mould on commercial scale. Atactic PP (APP) is an amorphous polymer which finds its application hot melt adhesives, in tackifiers etc. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a blend partner for bitumen used for waterproofing. With the advent of new generation catalysts, its availability is decreasing day by day.

Isotactic PP offers excellent resistance to various chemicals and exhibits good toughness and stiffness. It also possesses unique combination of thermal and mechanical properties making it most suitable material which can substitute engineering thermoplastics in some of the applications. It has excellent cost to performance ratio and possible to tailor to sit the end application. It offers ease in processing and can be melt processed by various commonly used techniques such as injection moulding, extrusion sheet and cast films, thermoforming etc.

Last but not least and one of the most important attribute is its ease of recyclability thus making it eco-friendly.

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There are three types of PP: homopolymer, random copolymer and block copolymer. The co-monomer used is typically ethylene. In random co-polymer ethylene content can vary from 2-6%.

Lower concentration of ethylene is preferred for rigid applications. Addition of ethylene also makes it a very useful product for low temperature application. Randomly polymerized ethylene monomer added to PP homopolymer decreases the polymer crystallinity and makes the polymer more transparent.

Ethylene-propylene rubber or EPDM added to PP homopolymer increases its low temperature impact strength.

Sometimes a third co-monomer e.g. butene-1 is also added along with ethylene to decrease its melting point making it most suitable material where low seal initiation temperature is required.

Impact copolymers (ICPsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;) also known as heterophasic copolymers are the

Catalysts for Propylene polymerization: The conventional Ziegler-Natta catalyst system comprises of a transition metal compound (halide, alkoxide, alkyl or aryl derivative) of group 4-8 transition metals and metal alkyl or alkyl halide of group 1-3 base metals.

Most of the commercially available catalysts employ Titanium (Ti) and Zirconium (Zr) compounds along with aluminum alkyls as co-catalyst to polymerize propylene. The propylene polymerization catalysts can be classified into two categories viz heterogeneous and homogeneous. The homogeneous catalyst system also employs vanadium metal apart from titanium and zirconium.

The catalyst systems developed initially in early 1950s (also called 1st generation catalyst system) though commer-

Typical Properties of Polypropylene Property Units Homopolymer Density Tensile Strength at Yield Elongation at Yield Notched Impact Strength Flexural Modulus HDT (455kPa) Glass Transition Temp. (Tg) Crystalline Melting pt. (Tm) Volume Resistivity Surface resistivity

g/cm3 MPa % J/m MPa 0C 0C 0C Ohm cm Ohm cm

0.90 32-36 8-1 25-48 1400-1700 100-110 5.0 160-175 10 16 to 10 17 10 14

Random Copolymer

Impact Copolymer

0.90 25-28 10-12 60-80 900-1300 90-95 -5.0 145-150

0.90 219-28 7-10 50 - >500 800-1300 90-105 -52 to-42 (Rubber) 160-170

Dissolves at higher temperature in solvents such as Toluene, Xylene, chlorinated aromatic solvents, Decalin etc Properties influenced by MFI, Isotacticity, commoner content, rubber content in ICP and additive's

Solvent Resistivity

block co-polymers wherein an amorphous rubbery phase is generated insitu while manufacturing the polymer.

Basically it is the in-situ generated blend of highly crystalline propylene homopolymer and ethylene-propylene random co-polymer. These ICPsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; exhibit an outstanding combination of impact and stiffness balance making them most suitable for their application in automobile sector. The polymer is manufactured in series of reactors sequentially and the rubber phase is generated inside the growing polymer particle resulting in toughening of PP. The following table describes some of the important attributes of the various form of PP:

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cialized to manufacture the polyolefins, however, exhibited lower mileage and poor stereo-regularity especially in the case of polypropylene. Because of their lower efficiency, the purification of the polymer to remove catalyst residues was necessary for the satisfactory performance of the polymer. Continued research efforts to improve the efficiency

of various catalysts led to the development of supported catalytic systems.

It was soon established that transition metal when anchored to MgCl2 provided higher yields during polymerization. In case of polypropylene, a third component is also used known as internal Lewis base and the co-catalyst is modified with an external Lewis base.

The supported catalyst systems brought a revolution in the area of propylene polymerization. These catalysts not only increased the yield of the polymer but also resulted in to simplification of the manufacturing processes. This development also enhanced the various properties of polypropylene homo and copolymers, which broadened their areas of applications. A brief summary of the polyolefin catalyst developments taken place in the last five decades is shown as below:

Process technologies for Manufacturing PP Polyolefins have experienced surprising and explosive developments in the last five decades transforming them from commodities of marginal technical and economic relevance into largest volume, fastest growing family of polymers.

This has been the result of a continuous technological innovation in the area of Ziegler-Natta catalysts. However, an important but silent revolution was also underway in the area of process technologies employed commercially for the production of polyolefins. It is worth mentioning that the properties of the chosen catalyst are critical to each process, thus making the choice of the catalyst and process design strongly interdependent. In fact the developments in Ziegler-Natta catalysts have compelled the process designers to build their plants around a specific catalyst in order to exploit optimum activity, selectivity and particle size distribution of the product obtained there from.

Development of Polyolefin Catalysts Polypropylene YIELD Catalyst (KgPP/gmTi) TiCl3.0.33AlCl3/DEAC Donor Modified TiCL3 Catalysts A) High Activity B) Super High Activity C) Controlled Morphology

3-5 10-12 MgCl2/ID/TEAL/ED 300-2000 >6000 SAME

II %

Generation

88-91 94-96

First Second

94-98 96-98 >97

Third Fourth Fifth

Gas Phase Process:

• Three types of fluid bed reactor geometries are available viz. Vertical Fluidized bed, Vertical Stirred bed and Horizontal stirred bed • Simple and safe to operate • Highly energy efficient process • Low operating cost • Easy to alter molecular weight and MWD • Gas phase plant with streamlined design has about 20-25% lower capital cost

Other Commercial Processes Conventionally, polyolefin processes can be classified into two major categories viz. high pressure and low-pressure processes. Whereas both processes can produce polyethylene, polypropylene is manufactured by low-pressure process only. Polypropylene is manufactured commercially in all the three processes viz. Slurry, bulk and gas phase processes. Initially, propylene was polymerized in continuous stirred tank reactor using heptanes or hexane as solvent. The sol-

vent helped in solubilising atactic PP and also helped in removing the heat of polymerization. With the development of new generation high yield – high stereo-specific catalysts, the concentration of atactic reduced considerably and processes such as liquid pool (bulk liquid propylene) and gas phase came in to existence. The following figure shows the developmental cycle of various PP processes:

Salient Features of Various Processes: Slurry Loop Process (Bulk)

• • • • •

Simple in operation Mild operating conditions High conversions High purity products Medium to High molecular weight products • Easy heat removal Vertical fluidized Bed Gas Phase Process

A number of other processes by various companies such as Mitsui, Sumitomo, Exxon-Mobil, Borstar (Borealis) are also operating worldwide. However, the bulk of PP produced is derived from Spheripol (Basell), Unipol (Dow Chemicals), Novolen (ABB) and Innovene (BP Chemicals). Basell also operates a proprietary gas phase Process known as “Catalloy” process which makes speciality grade PP using different co-monomers. A new technology has been established again by Basell known as “Spherizone” Technology having Multizone Circulating Reactor System (MZCR). All existing operating technologies employ their own proprietary catalysts to produce various grades of PP.

Applications of Polypropylene PP finds its applications in the area of Flexible Packaging (Films and Extru-

Vertical Bed Gas Phase Process

Horizontal Bed Gas Phase Process

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Polymer

Density

Equivalent Equivalent Equivalent Thickness Volume for Weight for for same same stiff- same stiffstiffness ness ness

HDPE 0.96 1.0 1.0 PP 0.905 0.9 0.9 HIPS 1.05 0.8 0.8 # Prices are only indicative and not the actual current prices

sion Coating), Textile, Automotive, Furniture and Toys, Rigid Packaging (Injection molding), Electrical Appliances etc. PP has excellent cost to performance ratio and therefore a preferred material. The following table de-

0.96 0.82 0.84

Price # Rs/Kg 48 50 62

Cost for same stiffness 48 42.71 54.25

PP can be oriented under temperature to give enhanced modulus and low elongation. The slit tapes when used for weaving the fabric can make tarpaulins, woven sacks for packing of cement, fertilizer and polymers etc.

Filtration Cloth

Geotextile being unrolled

scribes cost comparison PP with HDPE and HIPS for the same stiffness: It therefore can be seen from the above table that the cost of end product moulded out of PP comes out to be cheaper as compared to HDPE and HIPS thereby explaining the cost to performance ratio.

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FIBC bags are used for packing the bulk quantities. Some of the examples are shown in the following figures: Biaxially oriented PP (BOPP) film is one of the most important applications of PP as far as consumable films are concerned. The resin employed to

produce the film generally has medium to broad molecular weight distribution, having optimum crystallinity maintained by controlling the isotacticity without hampering the stretching. The metallised BOPP film is used widely in packing food items. Some of the examples of BOPP film are as follows: As per one of the studies fibres today represent 30% of PP consumption on a global scale. The fibres mainly find

ing interiors of dishwashers, washing machines, refrigerators etc.

Due to its light weight and very good stiffness â&#x20AC;&#x201C; toughness properties stabilized PP finds extensive use in moulding luggage and furniture for outdoor applications since PP exhibits resistance to humidity, acid rains and other harsh environmental conditions.

applications in carpet manufacturing, non woven fabrics for baby diapers, disposable medical garments, geotextiles, spunbond fabrics for filtration etc. Apparels are made out of partially oriented yarn which is light weight.

From its early stage of application development, PP is being widely used to fabricate the article through injection moulding technique. Today PP has emerged as material of choice to mould intricate parts of various electrical appliances, electronics and household goods. Due to its excellent chemical resistance, rigidity, appearance and durability, it is extensively used for mak-

The other consumer products where PP is commonly used are the household products such as portable ice coolers, lunch boxes, containers for storing food articles both opaque and transparent, lids, and liners for coolers etc. because of its versatile stress crack resistance. PP is also a designerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s material of choice since it is used for moulding toys as they are non toxic and therefore safe for children to handle. The light weight of PP along with exceptional stiffness toughness balance makes it most suitable for such applications.

Reusable folding crates used for transportation and storage of fruits, vegeta-

ble and packed goods represent another area of application where PP is broadly used. In the area of rigid packaging, such as margarine tubs, yogurt containers, trays, bottle boxes and closures, PP is broadly used throughout the world since it is a food grade material approved by FDA. Moreover, since it can be used in the microwave ovens for heating the food items, it is massively used for moulding the household articles for microwave application. The PP copolymers both random and impact can also withstand refrigerated conditions and hence find widespread usage for low temperature applications.

The use of PP in medical application is increasing since it can be steam or radiation sterilized. The most notable application is the disposable syringes. In additions to syringes, PP is extensively used in other laboratory and hospital devises such as diagnostic devices, Petri dishes intravenous bottles, specimen bottles food trays, bed and urine pans etc.

Bumper Facia

JoP, January-March 2011

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The single largest application area worldwide where PP finds its massive use is the automobile sector. The interior of a car comprising of instrument panel, door panel, arm rests, pillar cover, consoles, seat backs, head liners, sun visors, mirror housings, handles and cowl panels are made up of PP. It is worth mentioning that to improve certain physical characteristics; the virgin material is first compounded and then moulded to get the desired component. Similarly, for exterior application, bumper facia for passenger cars are moulded out of compounded PP. However, with the recent development in catalyst and polymerization technology it is possible to tailor PP impact copolymers in situ so as to avoid compounding of PP which resulted in cost and energy savings. In addition to bumper facia, air scoops, side body claddings, rear door, rocker panels and grills are made out of compounded PP. Similarly for under the hood applications, battery cases, bottles for antifreeze cooling water, brake fluid, for cleaning the wind screen etc are made from PP. Talc filled or high crystallinity PP is also used for manufacturing housings for car air conditioning as well as heating systems. Since PP has outstanding sound absorption capabili-

ties, such applications also help in reducing the noise emerging from rotating parts.

Future Developments The technological progress both in the field of Z-N catalysts and proceses has resulted in to tailor made PP having variety of end applications. However, polypropylene requires modification in its structure in order to replace the engineering thermoplastic. Being a linear polymer, PP does not possess melt strength. Hence, it is not considered the right material for its aplication in deep drawn thermoforming, injection stretch blow molding as well as for foaming. Intorduction of the branches on PP back bone can increase the melt strength of the polymer. Through post reactor modification of PP in melt by free radical initiators has resulted in to branched PP yet it has its own disadvantages. Research efforts are being made to develop branched PP through metallocene catalysts.

Simlarly unlike polyethylene, PP is not used for making blown films except that some of the old BOPP lines still use double bubble process. However, again due to poor melt strength upward

blown film process is not used commonly. Recently, a new garde has appeared in the market manufactured by LayondellBasell through their propreitary catalloy technology.

Another area where PP use is still at the infant stage is the rotomolding.

Efforts are being made to prodcue PP powder of suitable partcles and its distribution ex-reactor so that same can be used for making artcles through roto moulding.

Another area of application where PP is making stride is the pressure pipes for plumbing aplications in the field of servicing the hot and cold water which has been traditionally an area serviced by PVC. It is because of the ecofriendlyness of PP due to its recyclability that it is repalcing PVC very fast. It also redcues the corrosion in pipes and therefore lasts long in this service.

In time to come it is expected that PP manufcturers will devlop more and more applications to replace PVC. Calendering is one such process where substantial gains are seen and the an economical process and grades has yet seen the light of the day replacing PVC.

Trends and innovations in Plastics Innovations in Thermally Conductive Plastics

materials capable of providing thermal management solutions to ensure a reliable, robust product design. (For full article

Modifying plastics to improve their thermal conductivity is an area of opportunity for specialty plastic compounders. Heat sinks and other heatremoval approaches are among the few remaining prospects for thermoplastics--inherent thermal insulators-to replace metals. Heat buildup in electronic components and other devices that generate unwanted heat can severely limit product service life and reduce product operating efficiency.

Manufacturers in computer, appliance, lighting, automotive, aerospace and industrial market segments are increasingly focused on highly efficient and compact circuit designs. The resulting densely packed components as well as the limited ventilation in portable electronic equipment enclosed against moisture and dust ingress all contribute to the growing demand for

pls refer to: http://www.specialchem4polymers.com/ resources/articles/article.aspx?id=5918&lr=mpa111 64&li=100083692, free registration will be required to access the article)

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Nanotechnologies Enhance Packaging Barrier Protection Nanotechnology use in the food and beverage market has only recently emerged, but is expected to grow quickly in the next few years. Advances of nanotechnology in high barrier food packaging are driven by multiple consumer demands. The movement toward natural/organic foods characterized by heart-healthy but O2 sensitive unsaturated fats are fueling development of barrier packaging in flexible and rigid designs. Additionally consumers insist on easy-to-open see-through packaging while also requiring protection

against oxygen, water vapor, and aromas that remain economical. Furthermore, a light-weighting trend throughout the beverage industry to reduce material in blow molded PET containers in response to consumer demand for sustainable packaging has added another dimension to the barrier coating challenge as thinner walls result in increased permeation of non-barrier bottles. The addition of well dispersed high aspect ratio nanomaterial creates a tortuous path that increases barrier properties by reducing gas permeation rates through the plastic matrix. With their very large aspect ratios, a comparatively low concentration of nanoparticle additive is needed to modify the properties of packaging materials without significant changes in density, transparency and processing characteristics. (For full article pls refer to: http://www.specialchem4polymers.com/ resources/articles/article.aspx?id=5153&lr=mpa1116 0&li=100083692, free registration will be required to access the article)

Future of Energy

Shale Gas

Emerging Solution for Energy Security Tulsi Das General Manager (Production), ONGC New Delhi

Tulsi Das

Mr. Tulsi Das is the General Manager at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd shouldering the responsibility of Office of Director (Technology & Field Services) at New Delhi. He joined Oil and Natural Gas Commission in 1981 as Asst. Executive Engineer (Production). Having extensive exposure in well services and production testing in North Eastern fields, Mr Tulsi Das was posted in 1989 at Institute of Oil and Gas Production Technology (IOGPT), a R&D Institute of ONGC. He is the pioneer in establishing the institute and bringing its credential to an international level. He is the man responsible for introducing the concept of selling services of the Institute to international companies with an objective of garnering international exposure as well as earning revenue for the organization. With the initiatives of Mr. Tulsi Das the institute was bestowed with the international acclaim for the first time in the history of ONGC e.g. acquiring ISO certifications, Golden Peacock Award etc.

A born innovator, Mr Tulsi Das is spearheading the application of emerging technologies and facilitating the field services by working as an interface between ONGC and global technology providers. He is also at the fore in organizing the International Conferences & Exhibitions being organized by Petrotech Society and bringing it to global bench mark.

A Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University, Mr. Tulsi Das, as a corporate social responsibility, has also extended his passion for advocating social causes to the differently abled section of society. Mr. Tulsi Das is the Founder and President of Utthan Prayash Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to reform the underprivileged class of society especially the differently abled individuals.

Introduction Shale Gas is the natural gas produced from shale and has become an important alternative source of energy in recent time, especially after large scale discoveries in the United States over the past two decades. In case of shale gas, the same rock acts as source, reservoir and sealing cap rock.

Usually shales are mature source rock and rich in organic matter (TOC=0.5% to 25%). Gas is stored by adsorption onto organic matter, trapped in fractures or trapped in pore spaces. Adsorbed gas content varies directly with organic content of the shale. Source of gas may be primary thermogenic diagenesis or biogenic microbial decomposition of contained organic matter. Unlike conventional oil/gas, shale gas accumulation is not controlled by structurization, migration or entrapment.

Occurrence of Shale Gas showing Source, Cap & Reservoir all within Shale

Gas shales were earlier viewed as uneconomic ventures because of shale’s low permeability (around 0.01mD or less), but now latest emerging techniques like horizontal drilling or hydro fracturing have made shale gas projects profitable. Regional occurrence over continuous, large geographical extent (100-1000 sq.km) enable relatively lower gas volume sustainable for longer period. The risk factor of prospect generation and subsequent discovery is less due to involvement of a single lithology but the potential profit per successful well is usually lower.

The “Paradigm Shift” Driven by a new understanding of the size and availability of gas shales and unconventional gas, a “paradigm shift” is underway on world natural gas supplies. This “paradigm shift” began a decade ago in North America with exploitation of low cost coal bed methane. Next was the introduction of highly productive tight gas development followed by emergence of the Barnett Shale and other great gas shale basins/ plays of North America. The worldwide pursuit of gas shales and unconventional gas has only just begun. Gas shale geology is challenging, but its resource endowment and potential are large.

Low rates of gas production from shallow, fractured shale formations in basins of the U.S. have been underway

Production from North American Gas Shales

for decades. What “changed the game” was the recognition that one could “create a permeable reservoir” and high rates of gas production by using intensively stimulated horizontal wells.

This break-through in knowledge and technology enabled the deep, low permeability gas shale formations to become highly productive.

India also has huge organic rich (TOC=0.5-14.3%) shale deposits in formations like Cambay Shale, Barren Measures, Baisakhi-Bhadasar, Bhuvanagiri & Raghavpuram shales in KG Basin and Mandapeta, Andimadam & Sattapadi shales in Cauvery Basins.

India can emerge as a prolific player when a Shale Gas policy, involving identification and allocation of shale

Perspective locations with shale gas deposits

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blocks, is put in place. Given the nature of global enthusiasm in the form of participation of large companies in shale gas exploration and exploitation, vast shale deposits of Indian Sedimentary Basins, with high TOC and maturity value, together with increasing oil/ gas price, larger Demand Vs Supply ratio and availability of improved modern technologies, can bring India in the top bracket of Shale Gas producers in world.

Evolution of Shale Gas Development Although, gas has long been found in shales across the world, its extraction has been viewed as uneconomic because of shale’s low permeability to allow significant fluid flow to a well bore therefore, exploration for oil and gas was traditionally focused on limestone and sandstone, which have high permeability. Most shales were not commercial sources of natural gas and hence termed unconventional sources of hydrocarbon like coal-bed methane, tight sandstones and gas hydrates.

Shale gas exploration has become an important alternate source of energy only recently over the last decade.

Older shale gas wells were vertical and used to be non-profitable due to very less permeability & producibility of the shale. Recent introduction of horizontal wells, hydraulic fracturing, improved techniques of artificial stimulation; drilling and well completion has made Shale Gas projects technically and economically profitable.

A number of big discoveries in the United States in Barnet Shale, Marcellus shale, Ohio, Fayetteville, Antrim, New Albany, Lewis and Woodford shales in the last 20-22 years together with increasing oil/gas price, larger Demand Vs Supply ratio and introduction of improved modern technologies have brought Shale Gas in the limelight all over United States of America.

Shale Gas is also an environment friendly gas and its exploitation is on the rise. There are potential resource of shale gas in Canada, Europe, Australia, India, China and other Asian countries like India too. As per analysts, if exploited properly, shale gas may supply as much as half the natural gas production in North America by 2020. The resource, discoveries and production of shale gas over the past few years have ensured a larger share of it to the total production & supply of Natural Gas in United States. The contribution has increased from 6.4% from 3-4 years back to nearly 20% in the last year.

Such is the boom in new business enterprise for shale gas, that the sagging US economy has revived considerably by the total investment for Shale Gas projects.

Technologies Introduction of new techniques like horizontal drilling or hydro fracturing in shale gas reservoirs, developed in the 1980s, opened the possibility of larger scale production. The hydraulic fracturing is used to increase or restore the rate of fluid flow within the shale reservoir and horizontal drilling creates maximum borehole surface area in

contact with the shale. Even with new techniques, significant progress in the shale gas exploration and exploitation did not begin until natural gas prices increased in the late 1990s when the ventures gradually started becoming profitable.

Indian Scenario India also has huge shale deposits in basins of Gangetic plain, Assam-Arakan (TOC values range from less than 0.8 percent to more than 12 % in the Barail Coal-Shale Unit), Gujarat, Raj-

Massive Infrastructure Deployment for Hydrofracturing in Shale

The companies are experimenting with two technologies; one of them is horizontal drilling. Instead of merely drilling straight down into the resource, horizontal wells go sideways after a certain depth, opening up a much larger area of the resource-bearing formation.

The other technology is known as hydraulic fracturing where a mixture of water and sand is injected into the formation at high pressure to create multiple fractures throughout the rock and in the process, the trapped gas is liberated to flow into the well.

asthan (TOC up to 4.99% and Tmax of 415-431째C in Baisakhi-Bhadasar Formation & TOC up to 7.92% in Pariwar Formation, Jaisalmer basin) and many coastal areas particularly in KG and Cauvery basins.

1. Cambay Basin (TOC ~ 2 -6 %) 2. Gondwana (Damodar Valley) (TOC ~ 3-4 %) 3. KG & Cauvery (onland) Basins a. KG: Bhuvanagri & Raghavpuram Shales (TOC up to 1-2.5%) b. Cauvery: Andimadam & Sattapadi Shales (TOC ~ 2-2.5%) 4. Assam Arakan Basin a. Kopili (~1-6%), Disang & Barail Coal Shale (~2-10%) in Assam b. Bokabil & Bhuban Shales in Tripura 5. Indo Gangetic plain a. Lower Vindhyan shales, particularly, Hinota and Pulkova shales ( TOC up to 4%)

Introduction of horizontal drilling & Hydrofracturing in Shale

India can soon become a leading player of this unique unconventional energy, JoP, January-March 2011

35

volved drilling of four wells in Damodar Basin was operationalised with the help of Schlumberger.

• Two wells in Raniganj sub-basin in West Bengal • Two wells in North Karanpura subbasin in Jharkhand ONGC decided to explore the Damodar Basin first as it was already working there for CBM projects. The Damodar Basin has some natural advantages given the shallow nature of its shale formations, and abundant water availability as water is a prerequisite for doing massive hydrofracturing.

Shale Gas Basins in India

if a Shale Gas policy is put in place at the earliest. The broad outline of the policy may include: I. Generation of data to have a shale gas data base for prospective basins & areas..

II. Estimation of shale gas resource III. Carving out of exclusive Shale Gas blocks.

IV.Preparation of basin information dockets & data packages.

V. Bringing in necessary Amendments/ modifications in relevant rules & regulations in order to include Shale Gas as another producible hydrocarbon.

VI. Finalization of a policy framework for offering the blocks under international bidding rounds like NELP/CBM in order to have participation of best international players of Shale Gas in India.

VII. Policy for simultaneous exploration & exploitation of shale gas with oil & gas and CBM in the same area.

Exploration for oil and Gas in India is going back to early 19th century and India is equipped with all possible exploration & exploitation tools for search of conventional oil & gas.

However, initiation of shale gas ex-

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ploitation has still not been taken off in India and therefore, technologies for developing shale gas for resource characterization, prospect generation in the form of fracture identification, water management and carbon mitigation to minimize the environmental concerns, are to be transferred from countries those are pioneers in shale gas exploration & exploitation. Identification and development of shale gas resources can surely help to ensure global, energy security, lower carbon emissions by off-setting the use of coal and oil resources, and the achievement of a broad range of economic development goals.

ONGC created an exploration landmark when gas flowed out from the Barren Measure shale at a depth of around 1,700 meters, in its first R&D well RNSG-1 near Durgapur at Icchapur, West Bengal. This is the first such discovery in sedimentary shale gas rocks outside the United States and Canada.

The well RNSG-1 was drilled down to a depth of 2,000 meters. The Barren Measure Shale, which is the main target, was encountered from 985 to 1,843 meters, the well is still under assessment. The R&D project, which in-

The future of India’s energy sector does not look that bleak after all.

Rough estimates have pegged the reserves of gas in shale deposits as 3002,100 trillion cubic feet (tcf) across the country which is much higher than Reliance’s Krishna Godavari (D6) basin, by far the largest gas field in the country.

Recovering shale gas from such massive reserves may not be that easy though. According to a leading energy expert, land acquisition would be a challenge. “Land is the most precious resource in India now. Unlike conventional oil exploration, shale gas exploration is continuously mobile and moves from one spot to another, requiring more land for exploration.

Besides, there is the fear that the pursuit for shale gas would cause irrevocable damage to the environment as it involves pumping chemicals into rocks with water. It is not going to be as easy as it is in the US,” the expert said requesting anonymity because he is advising a leading energy company.

In order to realise its shale gas potential, India needs to create a conducive regulatory environment and the local oilfield services industry has to double or triple in size so that producers can tap the resource economically. Service providers will have to step up rig availability three-fold to 300 units across the eight shale gas basins including Cambay and Damodar. That is not an insurmountable task but service providers would need a clear market signal to make the investment.

Shale Gas Economics Although shale gas has been produced for more than 100 years in United States, the wells were often marginally economical. Higher natural gas prices in recent years and advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal completions have made shale gas wells more profitable. Shale gas tends to cost more to produce than gas from conventional wells, because of the expense of massive hydraulic fracturing treatments required to produce shale gas, and of horizontal drilling. However, this is often offset by the low risk of shale gas wells.

Given the wealth of geologic and reservoir data now available on gas shales, there is a growing consensus that the resource endowment and the recoverable resource are, most likely, quite

large. Consistent with the “paradigm shift”, the higher quality gas shale basins and plays are today the low cost portion of the North American natural gas price/supply curve.

Conclusion Shale Gas exploitation is no longer an uneconomic venture with availability of improved technology as the demand and preference for this clean form of hydrocarbon have made Shale Gas, an energy in demand. Given the nature of global enthusiasm in the form of participation of large companies in shale gas exploration and exploitation world over, vast shale deposits with high TOC and maturity value in the above mentioned petroliferous basins of India, together with increasing oil/gas price, concern for carbon emission & avail-

ability of improved modern technologies, can bring India in the top bracket of Shale Gas producers in the world.

However, to harness this form of energy few concerns have to be addressed and a Shale Gas policy is to be put in place. Clearly, two changes in exploration policy are urgently needed.

• First, the government needs to come out with a shale gas policy. It should facilitate seismic surveys that can quickly delineate potential shale gas deposits, and then invite bids for exploration.

• Second, all future exploration contracts for oil should permit exploitation of shale gas as well as conventional gas. That will make it worthwhile for companies to investigate shale gas they may find while drilling for conventional hydrocarbons.

These policy changes will not cost the government a rupee. They will simply relax the boundaries of exploration. That alone can make a big difference

Conventional Vs Shale gas Extraction

Shale Gas Economics – Changing Perception

In reality India’s gas demand is limited by its access to gas supplies based on domestic production and imports availability. If India can produce more gas then it can reduce its coal imports which is environmentally more unfriendly, its gasoline consumption through the use of compressed natural gas, and its demand for LPG through piped natural gas to meet residential cooking and heating requirements.

This is high time India should consider setting a shale gas mission to make efforts to develop India’s shale gas reserves on a war footing. In short, we should actively endeavour to develop shale gas reserves in India in the shortest time with all the human, geologic and financial resources we can assemble.

JoP, January-March 2011

37

Overseas Shale Work shaping up, but not big yet: Baker Hughes CEO Houston (Platts)--27Apr2011/331 pm EDT/1931 GMT Oil and gas shale opportunities appear to be shaping up in the global E&P sector but projects outside North America remain a minor part of overall oil services business so far, in part because there is just not enough equipment capacity in the market, giant oil services company Baker Hughes said Wednesday.

contributor in the US and are also increasing in Canada--are just getting off the ground internationally.

Outside North America, operators are just starting to drill vertical wells--a prelude to developing fields through horizontal wells--and fracturing them "to understand what's there," said Deaton.

"All in all it's a very small part of our business now, but in time I think it will be a significant player," Baker Hughes CEO Chad Deaton said during a company earnings conference call.

Baker Hughes has also had preliminary shale success helping development in China, which is also exploring its unconventional oil and gas potential, he said. In fact, the company was recently awarded contracts for two big fields for what Deaton called "high-end technology support services" such as horizontal drilling and completions.

Moreover, each region has some specific issues that have kept shale opportunities from exploding the way they have in North America and particularly the US, where a number of key plays have boosted both oil and natural gas production, he said.

For instance, Eastern Europe has what Deaton called "logistics challenges" to get its shale plays put together, although he did not immediately elaborate on them.

But for now, shale plays--which are becoming an important production

Argentina is another area that is starting to gear up for unconventional oil and gas drilling, according to Martin Craighead, Baker Hughes' president and chief operating officer.

"Recently we were in discussions with a pretty big operator" there, Craighead said. But he added the capacity for fracturing, which is widely used in shale well completions in the US and Canada, is not there for jobs

of the magnitude that will be required internationally.

Supplying a fracturing job for a field similar to say, the large Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas play in south Texas, "would have taken all our horsepower and that of our two biggest competitors," said Craighead. "That's the limitation out there on ... frac capacity."

Deaton said Saudi Arabia plans to devote six drilling rigs to "look at" shale gas in the kingdom, where a push is on to develop more gas for internal consumption.

Also, the CEO said he just returned from Oman where energy officials there are "talking about" that country's oil shale potential. "The opportunity is there, but I think we're talking years of evolution to get meaningful," Craighead said.

Houston - headquartered Baker Hughes reported first-quarter net income of 87 cents/share or $381 million, beating analysts' 78 cents/share target, according to the Thomson Financial Network data. That compares to 41 cents/share or $129 million for the comparable 2010 quarter.

IOCian presents research paper in STEPS, USA Dr. Kumar during his visit Dr. Ravindra Kumar, Deputy Manager (Research), R&D Centre, presented a research paper titled, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Techno-Eco-

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nomic Feasibility of H-CNG Blends in Indiaâ&#x20AC;? at a conference, recently organised by Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways (STEPS) at Renewable Energy Department, the University of California, Davis, USA. The paper was discussed with several scientists working in the same field and was highly appreciated. The conference was attended by senior executives from the leading global oil companies, including British Petroleum and Shell. Dr. Kumar also visited the Energy Institute at

UC, Davis and interacted with several faculty members, including Professor Joan Ogden, STEPS Director. He also held discussions with the members of Environmental Science and Policy Department regarding bio-hydrogen production study.

Innovation

IndianOil-SERVO® Agro Spray Oil Bags CSIR Science & Technolgoy Innovation Award Pankaj Bhatnagar, R T Mookken & K P Naithani Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., R&D Centre, Sector-13, Faridabad – 121 007

Dr. B. Basu R T Mookken

Dr R T Mookken is presently GM, Lubricant Technology at IOCL R&D Centre. He completed is doctorate from Centre of Energy Studies, IIT, New Delhi.

He has over 33 years of experience in the field of research and development in the areas of automotive oils, greases, industrial metal working & synthetic lubricants and Tribology.

He is a recipient of many awards in the areas of lubricants for energy saving and environmental friendly oils from PCRA, DSIR & Golden Peacock. Recently his team was awarded the CSIR Innovation Award for development of Agricultural Spray Oil. He is affiliated with the Society of Automotive Engineers, Tribology Society of India and ISAS and has published more than 70 scientific papers and has 5 patents to his credit.

Dr. B. Basu has obtained his Masters in Organic Chemistry in 1974 and PhD. in Theoretical Chemistry in 1978 from Allahabad University, India. He joined Indian Oil’s Research & Development Centre, Faridabad in 1978. Since then, he worked in various areas of Lubricant Development, Additive Synthesis, Chemical Analysis, Information Technology, Fuels & Emissions, Engine Testing and Pipeline Transportation. He was also responsible for implementation of Knowledge Management in Indian Oil R&D Centre in 2003. His current assignments include application of Hydrogen-CNG in Automotive Sector, Emissions, Pipeline Transportation and Engine Testing for Fuels & Lubricants. His areas of expertise include Chemical Analysis, particularly in the areas of Chromatography & Mass Spectrometry, and Artificial Intelligence based Modeling. He has 40 publications in National & International journals and 5 patents to his credit. He has also presented large number of papers in National & International symposia.

B

asic constituents of life i.e. soil, water and air someway or other get affected by evils of modernization. While Science & Technology tries to provide a healthy life style; but because of some of the side effects of the same technology, certain problems are thrusted upon the environment. One such issue which has been prominent in the agricultural sector for some years is the use of pesticides by farmers to protect their crops from being affected by the menace of pests. Most of the pesticides or insecticides which are used in India are imported and are based on harmful chemicals. To ward off the pests and maintain their quality of yield, farmers have no solution but to use these pesticides which form large part of their expenditure per annum and also affect their health.

Indian Oil R&D has developed an environment friendly alternative to this harmful yet necessary pesticides used widely by farmers across the Indian agro terrain. This Centre has announced the solution by formulating a bio-degradable spray oil called Servo Agro Spray Oil for pests and disease management in the farms and subsequently this novel product has been commercialized through IndianOil’s Servo Network.

Though the use of chemical pesticides might result in an increased yield and control of unwanted diseases and insects, they prove to be more harmful.

In the end, as they leave chemical toxic residues in the crops thereby polluting the nearby soil, water and air. Presence of such residues also affects the export of such crops to other countries , thus affecting the business of the farmers in India. Prolonged use of these kinds of chemical sprays in agricultural lands leads to resistance of pests to these products and even outbreak or resurgence of secondary pests.

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As a part of the mission of Research and Development Centre to create environment friendly products which are oil based but have inherent bio-degradable constituents, the new Servo Agro Spray Oil is based on a highly refined petroleum stream , the base of which is mineral oils and thus whole product is bio-degradable in nature with no harmful chemicals. Because of this nature, this new oil does not leave behind chemical residues on the food crops which is meant for consumption.

This new spray Oil has been developed to cater to a myriad range of crops such as rice, mango, banana, apple , mustard, tea and have been tried-out to find effective in the various plantations. The ‘T’ type of Servo Agro oil has been launched for use in tea plantation while ‘M’ type for Mango trees and the ‘S’ type for other crops such as Paddy, Mustard and rape seed. The oil is sprayed before flowering for best results and has been reported as crop friendly, farmer friendly bio-degradable spray by some of the cotton and vegetable farmers. The oil spray works in killing the insects by an oxygen-cutoff method. An oil in water emulsion (0.5 to 2.5 %) is sprayed on the plantation. Once the water evaporates, the oil creates a thin film over the pests, insects or pathogens which acts like a physical barrier, cutting off their oxygen supply and thus killing them.

This spray seeps into crevices where insects generally lay their eggs thus killing them at the source and stopping them from spreading.

As per an estimate based on the spray oil used and the number of frequency in cultivated area for important crops like tea, grapes, rice, mango, apple, citrus, mustard, banana, mustard, vegetables etc., oil concentration and rounds of spray, the total potential for agriculture spray oil works out to be 10000 KL per year.

Servo Agrospray Oil possesses >70% bio-degradability as per CEC test method and meets the criteria of ECOMARK notification of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

In order to establish the performance of “Servo Agrospray Oils” with respect to bio-efficacy and non phyto-toxicity, joint evaluations were conducted by leading Agriculture Institutes of IARI and Agriculture Universities. The performance of this oil evaluated in detail in crops like tea, grapes, rice, mango, apple, citrus, mustard, banana, mustard, vegetables etc. From the study, it was found that the new oil is very effective in killing pests such as Mites, San Jose scale, hoppers, Aphid, Caterpillar, Mealy Bug, Sucking pests etc.

Besides above studies, extensive toxicological studies were also conducted on livestocks and plant friendly pests (honey bee, useful for pollination) and animals (Rats, Rabbits, fish, chickens, pigeons) by Shriram Institute of Industrial Research, Delhi, where the nontoxicity and safe nature of this spray oil were established. After thorough analysis of all the data, approval was obtained from “Uttaranchal State Organic Certification Agency (USOCA), Dehradun” as well as suitability certificate from “IMO Control Private Ltd. (Institute of Market Ecology), Bangalore” for organic farming.

Since this new Agro Spray Oil has been developed indigenously, it proves to be cost effective solution for Indian farmers than buying imported pesticides. As the oil does not have dangerous chemicals, the spraying is easier for a worker not requiring to wear any kind of goggles or gloves or take any other extra precaution or even worry about the after affects.

An Indian & Russian patent has been obtained for this innovative spray.

The Servo Agro Spray Oil has been awarded the prestigious CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) Science & Technology Innovation Award for Rural Development. The citation along with the trophy for this new unique oil was received by Chairman and Director(R&D), Indian Oil Corporation, from the Honourable Prime Minister of India.

Sustainability

Capturing Fugitive Methane Emission

An Important Potential Sustainable Development Initiatives in Indian O & G Sectors K D Kalita, P Choudhary, V Dixit ONGC P Choudhary K D Kalita

Sh K D Kalita is a Superintending Engineer in ONGC having over one and half decade of work experience at various positions. At present he is posted in Carbon Management Group in ONGC, Delhi and involved in various activities such as Fugitive emission detection, measurement and monitoring at production facilities in ONGC. He is also involved in Sustainable development and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Reporting in ONGC and various activities related to Carbon Management.

Piyush Choudhary, Deputy Superintending Engineer (Electrical) ONGC, is a team member of Fugitive Emission team for the Project Global Methane Initiative (formerly Methane to Markets M2M). He is also leading a solar energy based low carbon initiative project. He had also dealt with activities related to development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Projects in ONGC. He joined ONGC in April 2001.He has worked in offshore drilling rig as maintenance Incharge & currently working in the Carbon Management Group (CMG).

In educational qualification he is a BE (Mech) from Assam Engineering College, M.Tech from IIT Delhi and EPGDBM from MDI Gurgaon.

V Dixit

Vivek Dixit, Dy Suptdg Engineer(Mech), ONGC Educational Qualification: Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) Career:Former Lecturer: MIT, Mandsaur ,former Visiting Faculty: ITM, MPCT Having eight year experience of maintaining power packs, compressors, water makers, pumps and various drilling equipments on offshore floater rig (sagar bhushan) Presently working in climate division of ONGC, involved in exploring various clean development mechanism projects and making them registered with UNFCCC Handling infrared camera for the detection of fugitive emissions Working on various renewable projects like electricity/biogas generation from biomass/night soil/pine needle, also involved in exploring the possibility of developing bio â&#x20AC;&#x201C;diesel from algae and use of solar energy in various ONGC operations to reduce fossil fuel consumption

Foreword According to IPCC1 there are six major gases (GHG)2 (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) for global warming. Methane (CH4) is one of the most potent greenhouse gases that remain in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective (GWP) in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 100-year period and is emitted from a variety of natural and humaninfluenced sources. Human-influenced sources include landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial process.

Methane is also a primary constituent of natural gas and an important energy source. As a result, efforts to prevent or utilize methane emissions can provide significant energy, economic and environmental benefits. In many countries across the Globe, many companies are working closely with USEPA3 in voluntary efforts to reduce emissions by implementing cost-effective management methods and technologies.

The detail properties, its global warming potential & other characteristics of Methane can be found in the http:// www.epa.gov/methane/scientific.html Methane’s unique role as a greenhouse gas and as the primary component of natural gas means that reducing methane emissions can yield significant economic, environmental and operational benefits. Methane emission mitigation activities undertaken by oil and natural gas companies prevent the loss of a valuable non-renewable resource by directing this clean energy source to beneficial use either via sales or internal use. At the same time, companies are reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases, improving operational safety and enhancing the efficiency of their operations. Further economic and operational benefits can result when methane mitigation activities reduce maintenance and fuel requirements or result in the capture of other valuable hydrocarbon resources.

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Numerous proven cost-effective technologies and practices exist that oil and natural gas companies world-wide have implemented to reduce methane emissions while also generating positive cash flows from utilizing the methane.

This paper summarizes a number of established methods to identify, measure, and reduce methane emissions from a variety of equipment and processes in oil and gas production and natural gas processing and transmission facilities.

This information is supported with case studies covering mitigation activities that have been undertaken by ONGC in the Indian Oil & Gas Sectors. For the case study, operational, economic and environmental considerations are discussed to show how ONGC through its M2M Campaign has been delivering and has been preparing to deliver greater revenue as well as environmental, efficiency and safety benefits while also conserving natural gas resources in its entire business.

Background EPA analysis revels the following

• By 2010, it is estimated that annual methane emissions from the global oil and natural gas industry will total 1.354 billion tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent. This equates to 94.2 billion m3or U.S.$10.0 billion to U.S.$23.3 billion (at gas values of U.S.$106/thousand m3 to U.S.$247/ thousand m3) worth of natural gas lost to the atmosphere.

• By 2020, it is anticipated that these figures will increase by 35%, reaching 1.827 billion tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent, which equates to 127.9 billion m3 of natural gas lost to the atmosphere.

• Methane represented 14 percent of total anthropogenic (man-made) emissions of greenhouse gases in 2004.

• Emissions from the oil and natural gas industry are the largest anthropogenic source and second largest overall source of global methane emissions, accounting for 18 percent of worldwide methane emissions.

• With an avg atmospheric lifetime of 12 years, methane plays a criti-

cal role in achieving short-term climate impacts. A 2008 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that, over a relatively short time frame (20 years), the warming effect of year 2000 methane and carbon dioxide emissions will be the same, even though the volume of methane emissions is significantly smaller.

In the oil and natural gas sector, the majority of methane emissions result from oil and natural gas production, gas processing, transmission, and distribution operations. These emissions can happen through varieties of form as under; • Unintentional leaks • Intentional or designed venting from operational processes and • Emissions due to maintenance or operational disruptions.

Emissions from normal operations include: natural gas engines and turbine exhaust that includes • Un-combusted methane • Bleed and discharge emissions from natural gas-driven pneumatic devices • Vents from reciprocating and centrifugal compressors wet seal degassing • Emissions from storage tanks • Well work-over, blowdown and completion activities.

Fugitive leaks from system components can occur as gas moves through hundreds of valves, processing mechanisms, compressors, pipe connectors, pressure, level and temperature control valves, and other equipment. Whenever the gas moves through valves and piping connectors under high pressure, leaks can develop that allow methane to escape to the atmosphere. Maintenance emissions originate from pipelines, compressors, and other equipment when they are taken offline and natural gas is vented in order to safely perform maintenance activities.

M2M Initiatives in ONGC The Methane to Markets (M2M) Partnership is an action-oriented initiative from USEPA that will reduce global methane emissions to enhance economic growth, promote energy secu-

rity, improve the environment, and reduce greenhouse gases. The Partnership currently focuses on four sources of methane emissions: Agriculture, Coal mines, Landfills and Oil and gas systems.

ONGC entered into a MoU with the United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) in August 2007, to undertake Methane to Market (M2M) projects in ONGC under its Natural Gas STAR Program to promote development, implementation and reporting of profitable, voluntary methane emission mitigation activities.

ONGC – USEPA Collaboration Builds Capacity for Methane Reductions The technical collaboration between the U.S. EPA and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) under the MoU, administered under the Methane to Markets Partnership now GMI4 from Oct 2010, is building a strong base of knowledge and capacity within ONGC to cost-effectively reduce methane emissions now and into the future.

Based on methane emissions identified and quantified during collaborative measurement studies in May 2008, and a resulting directive from the Board of Directors to actively implement mitigation projects, ONGC has reduced methane emissions by 3.2 MMSCM in 2008-09 and by 4.72 MMSCM in 2009-10.

removing over 8,000 cars from the roadways for a year.

And this is just the start. ONGC has formed an internal measurement team and is currently in the process of procuring methane emission detection and measurement equipment in order to be able to replicate measurement studies in the future. EPA and ONGC have also collaborated to train these employees on the use of the measurement study equipment and conducted additional detailed technical studies to support implementation plans for more extensive capital investment projects to reduce methane emissions in the future. These plans include capturing low-pressure vented and flared gas at the Heera and Neelam Offshore Platforms in order to compress the gas for sale and internal use, and capturing oil storage tank emissions from ONGC’s Uran Plant near Mumbai. These projects are underway and are anticipated to reduce nearly 2.8 million cubic meters (Approx 100 Million cf) of methane emissions from ONGC’s Uran Plant operations and 1.5 million cubic meters (Approx 54 Million cf) ever year from Heera field.

Working together under the Methane to Markets Partnership, ONGC and EPA are having a significant impact on reducing methane emissions now and building capacity to increase and maintain those reductions well into the future.

These reductions were achieved through the implementation of Directed Inspection & Maintenance (DI & M) activities which include repairing pipeline leaks, changing valves and replacing valve packings and through the replacement of leaking rod packing seals in reciprocating compressors.

ONGC has also chalked out an elaborate plan to map all its production installations for fugitive hydrocarbon emission and make the installations leak free in the coming few years. It would be a remarkable feat for ONGC and the Oil & gas Industry at large in India.

For implementing these simple maintenance activities, in the first year ONGC is reaping the benefits of saving natural gas valued at $134,116 (at local natural gas values), increasing operational efficiency, and enhancing workplace safety by reducing fire hazard. The 3.2 MMSCM of methane saved is equivalent to 46,707 tons of C02e, which from a climate change perspective is equivalent to the carbon stored by over 10,000 acres of forest for one year or

Imperatives for Other Oil & Gas Companies in India In the M2M Partnership wide report 2009 of EPA, India is ranked 2nd after China in the Global Methane Emissions Ranking. This is indeed a grave area of concern for India but at the same time an opportunity as well for Indian O & G Sector to arrest this emission and reap the benefit of increasing the environmental & operational effi-

ciency together with increased production. Some of the capturing initiatives of this fugitive emission have also the potential to qualify as CDM projects and bring additional revenue in terms of CER to the company.

The other companies in the O & G sectors in India can emulate ONGC’s successful experience and also can take part in collaborative capacity building and share experience & knowledge then after for effective detection, measurement, arrest of the Fugitive Hydrocarbon Emission and its reporting.

USEPA’s Natural Gas STAR program is the most effective collaborative platform internationally in this regard.

Through this program USEPA has contributed to these goals by drawing on a 16-year partnership with the oil and natural gas industry to promote technology transfer and capacity building in relation to numerous cost-effective methane mitigation options. Since 1993, oil and natural gas companies have partnered with the U.S. EPA’s Natural Gas STAR Program to promote development, implementation and reporting of profitable, voluntary methane emission mitigation activities. This collaboration has resulted in the identification by industry of over eighty cost-effective methane mitigation technologies and practices.

Technology and Practices to leak Detection, Measurement and Arrest of Fugitive Emission from Oil & Gas Sectors Oil & Gas up-stream Industries can be classified broadly into four sectors depending on the scope, scale and type of emission. The sectors are Production, Processing, Transmission and Distribution sectors. The detailed Methane Emission Reduction Technologies & Practices- in these four sectors have been put in the Appendix 1, 2 & 3.

Leak Detection

A key barrier to addressing methane emissions has been the inability of companies to quickly and accurately detect, and subsequently quantify, methane emissions. Methane is a colourless, odourless gas and therefore emissions often go unnoticed. Though there are a variety of leak detection methods availJoP, January-March 2011

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able, including soap bubble screening, electronic screening (“sniffers”), Toxic Vapor Analyzers and Organic Vapor Analyzers, ultrasound and acoustic leak detection, recent technology developments are improving operators’ ability to comprehensively identify methane emission sources. One relatively new technology to detect hydrocarbon emissions is an infrared (IR) camera, which gives the camera operator a live, real-time visual image of methane emissions.

Hydrocarbon emissions absorb infrared light at a certain wavelength. The IR camera uses this characteristic to detect and visually show the source of methane or other hydrocarbon emissions. The IR camera scans the components in real time at 30 to 50 Hz scan frequency and spectral range of 3 to 5 microns. This scanned area is then converted into a live image in real time such that the gas plumes are visible due to their absorption of the IR light. Imaging can be performed from a distance from the target and the process doesn’t impact plant operations. Operators regularly state that infrared cameras pay back in the first several uses due to the value of the gas saved from the leaks that are found and repaired.

Another infrared emission screening device is the Remote Methane Leak Detector (RMLD).

The handheld RMLD allows remote detection of methane gas emissions, indicating presence of methane with audible signals and a Parts-per-MillionMeter (ppm-m) numeric display. Methane emissions absorb infrared light at a certain wavelength and the RMLD uses this characteristic to detect and indicate the presence of methane. The RMLD transmits an infrared laser beam and has a separate, visible spotting laser to guide the operator in pointing the IR beam. If methane is not present, the infrared laser is reflected back at the instrument by a background object. The extent to which the reflected beam is absorbed by methane indicates the extent to which methane gas is present in the beam’s path, reported in ppm-m.

Leak Measurement

Once emissions are identified, the next step is to measure volumes of emis-

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sions to quantify emissions levels and fully analyze costs, benefits and outcomes of mitigation options. High volume samplers and calibrated bagging can be used to accurately quantify emissions rates from components in a DI&M program.

High volume samplers work by pulling the emissions, plus a large volume sample of the air around the leaking component, into the instrument through a vacuum sampling hose. Dual hydrocarbon detectors then measure the concentration of hydrocarbon gas in the captured sample, as well as the ambient hydrocarbon gas concentration. Sample measurements are corrected for the ambient hydrocarbon concentration, and a mass leak rate is calculated by multiplying the flow rate of the air and gas pumped through the instrument by the difference between the ambient gas concentration and the gas concentration in the air stream.

Methane emissions are obtained by calibrating the hydrocarbon detectors to a range of concentrations of methane-in-air.

High volume samplers measure leak rates up to 0.2 m3 per minute, equivalent to 326 m3 per day.

Leak rates greater than 0.2 m3 per minute can be measured using bagging techniques or flow meters. Calibrated bagging uses bags of known volume (e.g., 1 m3, 2 m3), made from antistatic plastic with a neck shaped for easy sealing around the emission source.

Measurements are made by sealing the bag around the emissions stream (usually a vent pipe) and measuring the time it takes for the bag to inflate to full capacity. This rate is used to calculate annual flow rates. Leak rate measurement using bagging techniques is accurate within ± 10 to 15 percent.

Turbine meters and other flow meters are used to measure large leaks that would overwhelm the high flow sampler or calibrated bags.

In addition to detection and measurement, a key element to accurately calculate methane emissions rates is knowledge of the composition of the gas stream. This allows the operator to calculate the volumes of methane and

other valuable hydrocarbons they are losing, which will facilitate economic analysis of mitigation options.

Capturing the Methane Use of Vapor Recovery Unit

Production field tanks hold crude oil and condensate to stabilize flow or for trucking or pipeline transportation.

During transfer from the gas-oil separators to field storage tanks, light hydrocarbons dissolved in the liquids— including methane—vaporize (flash) and vent to the atmosphere. Tanks can vent 0.2 to 1.2 m3 per year of methane per barrel of oil or condensate. Sites without vapour recovery therefore may lose significant volumes of product in this manner. One way to capture this gas and yield significant economic savings is to install vapour recovery units (VRUs) on storage tanks.

VRUs can recover about 95 percent of tank vapours, which contain methane as well as other valuable heavier hydrocarbons. The volume of gas vapour coming off a storage tank depends on many factors. Vapour losses are primarily a function of oil or condensate throughput, gravity, temperature, and gas-oil separator pressure. There are three types of losses: • Flash losses occur when crude oil or condensate is transferred from a gas-oil separator at higher pressure to a storage tank at atmospheric pressure; • Working losses occur when crude or condensate levels change and when liquid in tank is agitated; and • Standing losses occur with daily and seasonal temperature and barometric pressure changes.

The makeup of these vapors varies, but the largest component is often methane (between 40 and 60 percent). Other components include more complex hydrocarbon compounds such as ethane, propane, butane, and natural gasoline.

Production gas often includes other nonhydrocarbon gases such as nitrogen, helium, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. Since recovered vapors contain hydrocarbons heavier than methane, on a volumetric basis, they can be more valuable than methane alone.

VRUs can provide significant environmental and economic benefits for oil and gas producers. The gases flashed from crude oil and condensate and captured by VRUs can be sold at a profit or used as a fuel in facility operations.

Additionally, other sources of lowpressure methane vented throughout the facility can be directed to the VRU for capture. These recovered vapors can be: • Piped to natural gas gathering pipelines for sale • Used as a fuel • Piped to a stripper unit to separate natural gas liquids (NGLs) and methane

Conclusion Reducing methane emissions can yield significant, quantifiable benefits that can be replicated throughout oil and natural gas operations. Identification and quantification of existing methane emissions constitutes a key first step for project evaluation and implementation.

Once emissions sources and levels are identified, quantified, and monetized, proven methane recovery technologies can provide compelling economic and environmental benefits, in addition to operational and maintenance improvements, cost savings, and enhanced safety.

In some cases, these benefits also include recovery of other valuable hydrocarbon

resources, which can further improve project economics. With mitigation options that range from installation of new technology, to retrofit of existing technology, to changes in operating practices, Indian Companies in the O & G sector can choose activities that fit within available resources and can accelerate implementation by aligning resources and capital to implement a range of methane emissions reduction projects.

1. IPCC- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change 2. GHG- Green House Gases 3. USEPA- United States Environment Protection Agency 4. GMI- Global Methane Initiatives

Appendix A-1 Methane Emission Reduction Technologies & Practices- Production Sector Dehydrators • Convert gas-driven chemical pumps to instrument air • Install condenser on glycol vent • Install flash tank separators on glycol dehydrators • Install zero emissions dehydrators • Link dehydrator unit to incinerator • Pipe glycol dehydrator to vapor recovery unit • Replace gas-assisted glycol pumps with electric pumps • Reduce/optimize glycol circulation rates in dehydrators • Replace glycol dehydration units with methanol injection • Replace glycol dehydrators with desiccant dehydrators • Reroute glycol skimmer gas • Use portable desiccant dehydrators Pipelines • Inspect flowlines annually • Install ejector • Use composite wrap repair • Use improved protective coating at pipeline canal crossings • Use portable compressors Tanks • Consolidate crude oil production and water storage tanks • Convert water tank blanket from natural gas to produced CO2 gas • Install pressurized storage of condensate • Install vapor recovery units on crude oil storage tanks • Recover gas from pipeline pigging operations • Recycle line recovers gas during condensate loading

Pneumatics/Controls • Convert gas pneumatic controls to instrument air • Convert pneumatics to mechanical controls • Install electronic flare ignition devices • Install flash tank separators on glycol dehydrators

Compressors/Engines • Convert engine starting to nitrogen • Install automated air/fuel ratio control systems • Install electric compressors • Install electric starters • Install instrument air systems • Redesign blowdown systems and alter ESD practices • Reduce emissions when taking compressors off-line • Reduce emissions from compressor rod packing systems • Reduce frequency of engine starts with gas • Replace gas starters with air • Replace ignition/reduce false starts • Replace wet compressor seals with dry seals Valves • Inspect and repair compressor station blowdown valves • Install BASO® valves • Replace burst plates with secondary relief valves • Test and repair pressure safety valves • Test gate station pressure relief valves with nitrogen • Use ultrasound to identify leaks Wells • Connect casing to vapor recovery unit • Install capillary strings • Install compressors to capture casinghead gas • Install downhole separator pumps • Install plunger lift system in gas wells • Install pumpjacks on low water production gas wells • Install gas well “smart” automation system • Install velocity tubing strings • Optimize gas well unloading times • Perform green completions • Use foaming agents Other • Conduct facility/process optimization audit • Conduct directed inspection and maintenance at remote sites • Eliminate unnecessary equipment and/or systems • Install electronic safety devices • Install flares • Lower heater-treater temperature • Recover field gas

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Appendix A-2 Methane Emission Reduction Technologies & Practices- Processing Sector Dehydrators • Convert gas-driven chemical pumps to instrument air • Install condenser on glycol vent • Install flash tank separators on glycol dehydrators • Install zero emissions dehydrators • Pipe glycol dehydrator to vapor recovery unit • Reduce/optimize glycol circulation rates in dehydrators • Replace gas-assisted glycol pumps with electric pumps • Replace glycol dehydration units with methanol injection • Replace glycol dehydrators with desiccant dehydrators • Reroute glycol skimmer gas

Compressors/Engines • Convert engine starting to nitrogen • Install automated air/fuel ratio control systems • Install electric compressors • Install electric starters • Lower purge pressure for shutdown • Modify compressor shutdown logic • Redesign blowdown systems and alter ESD practices • Reduce emissions when taking compressors off-line • Reduce frequency of engine starts with gas • Replace gas starters with air • Replace ignition/reduce false starts • Replace compressor rod packing systems • Replace wet compressor seals with dry seals

Pneumatics/Controls • Convert gas pneumatics to instrument air systems • Convert pneumatics to mechanical controls • Install electronic flare ignition devices • Replace high-bleed pneumatic devices

Tanks • Install pressurized storage of condensate • Install truck-loading VRUs on liquid storage and transfer • Recover gas from pipeline pigging operations • Recycle line recovers gas during condensate loading

Valves • Inspect and repair compressor station blowdown valves • Replace burst plates with secondary relief valves • Test and repair pressure safety valves • Test gate station pressure relief valves with nitrogen • Use of YALEâ closures for ESD testing • Use ultrasound to identify leaks

Pipelines • Use composite wrap repair • Use hot taps for in service pipeline connections • Use improved protective coating at pipeline canal crossings • Use fixed/portable compressors for pipeline pumpdown • Use inert gases and pigs to perform pipeline purges

Other • Conduct facility/process optimization audit • Conduct helicopter leak surveys • Conduct nitrogen rejection unit optimization • Conduct directed inspection and maintenance at gas plants and booster stations • Conduct directed inspection and maintenance at remote sites • Eliminate unnecessary equipment or systems • Install flares • Use IR camera/optical imaging for leak detection

Making Bio-based Butanol More Competitive We all want to live in a clean and green environment and leave this planet in a livable condition for future generations. Scientists are continuously trying to find alternative clean and green fuel for our daily use. These days we hear and read about ethanol and biobutanol as alternative fuels. Biobutanol seems to have several advantages over ethanol. New pipelines are not required for transportation of biobutanol – existing pipelines will do. Biobutanol is less corrosive compared to ethanol. Biobutanol is less prone to water contamination. Biobutanol can be used alone in internal combustion engines or it can

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be mixed with gasoline. Biobutanol provides more energy per gallon than ethanol.

Using biobutanol as fuel is nothing new.

Earlier it was produced from fermented sugars drawn from corn glucose. But large scale commercial production of such biofuels was not possible due to high recovery costs, low yields and easy availability of conventional fuels.

But conditions are different now. Our environment is more polluted, reserves of conventional fuels are not going to last forever and gasoline prices keep fluctuating alarmingly.

Appendix A-3 Methane Emission Reduction Technologies & Practices- Transmission and Distribution Sectors Pipelines • Identify and rehabilitate leaky distribution pipe • Inject blowdown gas into low pressure mains • Insert gas main flexible liners • Install ejector • Reduce distribution system pressure (manual) • Reinject blowdown gas • Use composite wrap repair • Use hot taps for in service pipeline connections • Use inert gases and pigs to perform pipeline purges • Use fixed/portable compressors for pipeline pumpdown • Use improved protective coating at pipeline canal crossings • Use automated systems to reduce pressure (e.g., smart regulators/ clocking solenoids) • Use flares for pipeline pumpdown/maintenance

Compressors/Engines • Automate systems operations to reduce venting • Convert engine starting to nitrogen • Install automated air/fuel ratio control systems • Install electric compressors • Install electric starters • Install static pacs at compressor stations • Lower purge pressure for shutdown • Redesign blowdown systems and alter ESD practices • Reduce emissions when taking compressors off-line • Reduce frequency of engine starts with gas • Replace compressor cylinder unloaders • Replace compressor rod packing systems • Replace gas starters with air • Replace ignition/reduce false starts • Replace wet compressor seals with dry seals • Use turbines at compressor stations

Valves • Close main and unit valves prior to blowdown • Design isolation valves to minimize gas blowdown volumes • Inspect and repair compressor station blowdown valves • Install excess flow valves • Move fire gates in to reduce venting at compressor stations • Perform leak repair during pipeline replacement • Replace burst plates with secondary relief valves • Test and repair pressure safety valves • Test gate station pressure relief valves with nitrogen • Use YALEâ closures for ESD testing • Use ultrasound to identify leaks Dehydrators • Convert gas-driven chemical pumps to instrument air • Install condenser on glycol vent • Install zero emissions dehydrators • Pipe glycol dehydrator to vapor recovery unit • Replace gas-assisted glycol pumps with electric pumps • Replace glycol dehydrators with separators and in-line heaters • Reroute glycol skimmer gas

Pneumatics/Controls • Convert gas pneumatic controls to instrument air • Convert pneumatics to mechanical controls • Identify and replace high-bleed pneumatic devices • Install electric flare ignition devices • Reduce frequency of replacing modules in turbine meters • Replace bi-directional orifice metering with ultrasonic meters

Other • Conduct helicopter leak surveys • Conduct directed inspection and maintenance at compressor stations • Conduct directed inspection and maintenance at gate stations and surface facilities • Conduct directed inspection and maintenance at remote • sites

According to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemical engineer Nasib Qureshi tried a modified method of producing biobutanol. His quest for preparing biobutanol from wheat straw started in 2003 because wheat straw is present in abundance and its cost would be lower than corn-glucose dependent feedstock.

Clostridium bacteria is a favorite of scientists for the purpose of fermentation.

Nasib Qureshi also used this Clostridium for the important task of fermentation. Preparation of biofuels mainly involves four preparatory steps such as pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation

Tanks • Capture methane released from pipeline liquid tanks • Install pressurized storage of condensate • Install vapor recovery units on storage tanks • Purge and retire low pressure gas holders • Recover gas from pipeline pigging operations • Recycle line recovers gas during condensate loading

• • • • •

Eliminate unnecessary equipment and/or systems Increase walking survey from 5 to 3 year basis Install flares Require improvements in the quality of gas received from producers Use IR camera/optical imaging for leak detection

and recovery. These steps have to be carried out separately and sequentially.

But Qureshi and his team members deviated from this traditional method and combined three of the four steps. They employed a procedure known as “gas stripping” to extract the biobutanol.

First the wheat straw has been pretreated with dilute sulphuric acid or other chemicals. Next the material is fermented in a bioreactor containing three different types of commercial enzymes and a culture of C. beijerinckii P260, a strain Qureshi obtained from Professor David Jones of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Here Qureshi has combined the two steps.

The bacteria and enzymes do their jobs simultaneously. First the enzymes hydrolyze the straw and release simple sugars then the bacterias start fermenting those sugars into acetone, butanol and ethanol.

Butanol is produced in greatest quantity but other two are also valuable components. “Feb batch feeding” method increased the butanol production. Qureshi says he is planning to scale up production levels in 2009.

“Then, we’ll look at the economics of using hydrolyzed wheat straw to see how we’re doing and move this process forward.”

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Asset Reliability

Total Productive Maintenance IndianOil - Barauni Refinery leads the way M K Padia, G C Sikder & Team Baraunians Executive Director, Barauni Refinery, Indian Oil Corporation Limited G C Sikder M K Padia

Mr. M K Padia is a Chemical Engineer and have vast experience of refinery operation / optimisation with execution of mega projects from concept to commissioning including process, engineering, material procurement, execution & commissioning. He joined Indian Oil Corporation Limited in 1976 and worked at various locations in different capacities. He has got extensive exposure to various aspects of Project, commissioning of plant after major revamp, operation of various units of refineries and trouble shooting of running plants.

Currently working as Executive Director, Barauni Refinery. He is deeply involved in TPM activities of Barauni Refinery and instrumental in getting TPM Excellence.

Introduction Starting from a humble crude oil processing capacity of 1 Million Metric Tonne Per Annum (MMTPA) of sweet crude ex-Assam, Barauni Refinery has steadily added and expanded its capacity to the current 6 MMTPA capacity with capability of processing partial sour crude also. The 3.3 MMTPA capacity since 1969, was augmented to 4.2 MMTPA capacity in 2000, and then subsequently to 6 MMTPA capacity in 2002. During the last decade of last century, the Barauni refinery underwent total turnaround of its process, products and people, from when a work culture deeply rooted in TPM. Total Productive Maintenance: A Panacea

With a view to ensuring reliable and uninterrupted Refinery Operations along with customer satisfaction on quality

Mr. G C Sikder earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineer from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur and Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. He is a Life Fellow Member of Indian Institute of Plant Engineers and Member of The Institution of Engineers (India), Kolkata. He also earned “Black Belt” certificate from Motorola University, Asia Pacific.

He joined Indian Oil Corporation Limited in 1988 and worked at various locations in Refinery Division including handling foreign assignments. He has got extensive exposure in the various aspects of maintenance along with plant reliability improvement, Turnaround Maintenance, Project Management, Planning etc.

He brought many changes in plant reliability at Barauni Refinery including successful implementation of Total Productive Maintenance and obtaining “TPM Excellence Award in category - A“ by JIPM, Japan, Presently, he is working as Dy. General Manager (Maintenance) of Barauni Refinery. as well as cost optimization, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) was adopted at Barauni Refinery in January 2003, as improvements that gave a holistic approach to all aspects of management – the TPM way of life. Barauni Refinery adopted TPM to remain a dominant force in Downstream Oil sector in post APM scenario with the following objectives.

• • • • •

Maximization of Equipment availability.

Increasing effective service life of equipment.

Minimization of Maintenance cost.

Minimization of life cycle cost of Equipment.

Safety of equipment and personnel.

What is TPM

TPM is an approach that integrates both operation and maintenance functions to create a common area of understanding

and functioning to bring in change of working culture & mindset of people that finally results in increased overall equipment effectiveness, minimum downtime and finally return on investment in multiple folds.

The concept of maintenance as an engineering function started with the onset of industrial revolution. The industry has progressed and so has the concept of maintenance starting with breakdown maintenance to predictive maintenance. Maintenance always carried a meaning of “Preserving physical Assets”. Now, the era has changed. APM (Administered Pricing Mechanism) has been abolished & Crude price is touching new heights everyday. What matters most today is the net operating margin.

Today “change” is the only constant thing & it is fierce, unpredictable & at times unimaginable. Instead of maintaining the physical assets, today people have started talking about preserving “Functions of physical Assets”.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a process that has the power to transform the work environment & culture. It is “for”, “of” & “by” the people. Whatever be the name, TPM is basically a systematic approach that is highly effective for improvement of productivity mostly explained in terms of ”Overall Plant Effectiveness (OPE)”, prolonging economic service life of equipment and increasing life cycle profit. It is a cultural change in the working environment, which starts with cleanliness and orderliness of the work place / equipment and ends with achieving and sustaining quality of work life with a well-pronounced emphasis on operator driven reliability.

TPM has a concept of eight pillars and 5”S” at its base encompassing all management tools which help in improv-

ing profitability of a company through focused loss-elimination and developmental programmes for improving the bottom line of the company on the equipment front as well as on the human resources through ownership concept for improvement of morale of the employees. The whole idea is to generate the concept of “My equipment – My unit – My refinery”.

During the journey of TPM implementation, Barauni Refinery practiced the concept of Eight pillars & 5”S” (Seiri To Sort, Seiton - To set in Order, Seiso - To Shine, Seiketsu - To Standardrize and Shitsuke - To Sustain) which are narrated in brief subsequently.

tent of maintenance plan and highlight ineffective recurrence – prevention measures. In TPM, Planned Maintenance activities emphasizes monitoring of MTBF and using that analysis to specify the intervals for tasks in annuals, monthly & weekly maintenance calendar.

Education & Training

A Company’s workforce is priceless asset and all companies must train their employee’s systematically. Visualize the type of people you want, your training programs to produce. In other words, identify the specific knowledge, skills and management skill you want them to have and then design training that will achieve your vision.

Focused Improvement

Focused improvement is an improvement activity performed by cross functional project teams composed of peoples such as production engineers, Maintenance personnel and Operators.

These activities are designed to minimize targeted losses that have been carefully measured and evaluated.

Autonomous Maintenance

Autonomous Maintenance is one of the most distinctive activities in TPM. After preventive maintenance was introduced operator lost ownership of their equipments & they gradually lost their sense of responsibility for maintaining it. The autonomous maintenance practice in TPM reverses the tendency.

Operator becomes involved in routine maintenance and improvement activities that halt accelerated deterioration, control contaminations and help prevent equipment problem.

Early Management

Early Management includes both early product & early equipment management. The purpose of these activities is to achieve quickly & economically those products data which are easy to make and equipment data which are easy to use. It addresses the areas like Equipment investment planning, Process design, Equipment design, fabrication and construction, Test operation, Start up management etc.

Quality Maintenance

Quality Maintenance is a method for building in Quality and preventing quality defects through the process and through the equipment. In quality maintenance, variability in a product Quality characteristic is controlled by controlling the condition of Equipment components that affect it.

Office TPM

Planned Maintenance

Planned or scheduled maintenance embraces three forms of maintenance i.e.

Breakdown, Preventive & Predictive.

The purpose of performing predictive and preventive maintenance is to eliminate breakdowns even when systematic maintenance practice is carried out, unexpected failure still occurs. Such failure reveals inadequacies in the timing and con-

Administrative & support department play an important role in backing up production activities. The quality & timeliness of the information supplied by Administrative & support department has a major impact on these activities.

SHE (Safety and environmental management)

Assuring safety and preventing adverse environmental impacts are important issue in Process industry. Operability studies combined with accident prevention training and near miss analysis are effective ways of addressing these concerns. Safety is promoted systematically as part of TPM activities.

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With the help of aforesaid eight pillars, TPM involves all workforce from bottom to top as depicted in the picture below :

TPM implementation at Barauni

Refinery Thanks to the untiring initiatives of Mr Anand Kumar, starting 1994, the Barauni had experienced a total turnaround in its plants, processes, people and work culture, The Coker A unit of the refinery, was revamped, and commissioned in the year 2000, incorporating heat exchanger train and India's first Coker furnace with on line spalling. it was the call given by Mr Anand Kumar, to turn the Coker into a plant cleaner than FCC or Hydrogen unit, which the Baraunians took as challenge. And thus the culture of TPM was born at the turn of mew millennium, not exactly knowing teh what they are going to do, was defined as TPM. In fact the Panipat refinery had already gone ahead with implementation of TPM, with the help of CII consultant.

It was almost a year later, during the visit of the then Director (Ref) , Mr Jaspal Singh, Barauni was asked to call the consultant Mr Prasad, who after his visit declared that what Barauni has already done, is far ahead of others who have been doing under his guidance. Its township maintenance, already, having set benchmark since 1996, has culture of TPM a inseparable part of the work culture of Baraunians.

Thereafter, there was no looking back, and Barauni went ahead to set a benchmark in Plant TPM. Barauni Refinery, then formally, adopted & implemented the concept of eight pillars along with 5”S” in the refinery

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with the major stress on Autonomous Maintenance, Planned Maintenance, Focused Improvement and Education & Training initially. Through Autonomous Maintenance ownership concept was introduced while Planned Maintenance was to help the equipment owner for specialized maintenance only. Thus gap between Operation & Maintenance was bridged to a large extend by way of improvement of morale. Equipment owners were further facilitated with training and education while major improvement initiatives were taken up under “Focused Improvement Pillar”.

Under the pillar of Autonomous Maintenance, equipment owner had taken various steps like initial cleaning of equipment, Counter measures against sources of contamination, Creation of tentative standards & General Standards, Autonomous Inspection, Standardization etc. for abnormality identification & looking for solution of perennial problem by way of doing Kaizens i.e. effective change in existing system.

Barauni Refinery had made the persistent effort for bringing TPM culture in their long journey. In Jan’ 2003, Barauni Refinery declared of intention of TPM implementation and started communication process to convince people what it is & why TPM is required. As per the concept, Coker-A was selected as pilot model unit, considered to be the dirtiest & most problematic plant.

The unit was divided into two parts (Groups). Under each group, 10 nos. of circles were introduced for proper autonomous maintenance of the equipment. CLIT (Cleaning – Lubrication – Inspection -Tightening) campaign started with the involvement of all individuals in Oct’03.

CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) was engaged in Sep’03 for guidance as per JIPM (Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance) guidelines. Preliminary visit of Mr. Prasad, CII Counselor, was there in Oct’03 to give initial directions regarding implementation & abnormality identification in the plant.

With his guidance, equipment ownership matrix was prepared. Both, staff and officer members were the part of TPM Implementation in model unit i.e.

Coker-A. With daily CLIT schedule, visual improvement noticed immediately.

Thereafter, on 8th Jan’04, Autonomous Maintenance was launched in presence of all the members of model unit, union & association representatives. A new concept of ownership came in as the relation between mother and child.

No example of ownership can be better than that how a mother owns her child. To change the mindset of people, Management took lot of initiative, discussed with employee at shop floor & convinces people that this system is meant to improve your workplace & subsequently you will be benefitted.

Cleaner workplace will make your job easy & safe & arresting hydrocarbon/ steam leak will help you, as you are the primary people who will inhail the same. Employee initially who thought it is a additional burden, took this in very right spirit & actively participated which is evident from number of OPL (One Point Lesson) & Kaizen (Improvement idea) which took quantum jump.

On 30th Aug’04, TPM kick off was done in the Refinery to involve other area of the Refinery and Coker-A was handed over for continuing the TPM activity to unit people. It was separately launched in all the major places including all process units, OM&S, Fire & safety, Central Stores & Workshops.

In the mean time, pillar activities also started after kick off and TPM review meetings were being organized regularly wherein the steering committee reviews progress of TPM implementation process. The review meeting had become a platform for sharing knowledge & discussion on key issues affecting reliability and profitability of the refinery. Kaizens had been benefiting us either through reduction of losses or through improvement of housekeeping whereas one-point lessons had been bettered our understanding on small things, which matter a lot for us.

TPM for Barauni Refinery is a means to achieve the desired level of performance, productivity and profitability.

TPM for Barauni Refinery is not just a method but a habit which has led to system simplification, system im-

provement, helped maintain cleanliness and orderliness. TPM is not a fad but a way of people management which is evident from the ownership and participation it has developed amongst employees. Some of the glimpse of pre & post TPM scenario as well as training initiatives by workmen is given here under: Autonomous Maintenance activities in Coker-A during initial days of TPM.

Equipment condition after practicing Autonomous maintenance.

terruptions, improving distillate yield and overall productivity. It has also adopted the MAKIGAMI approach of continuous improvements in Office TPM and the results of this are evident not only in the apparent improvements in work culture but also in the greater delight of both our internal and external customers.

Improvement & future journey Through internalizing the TPM way of life, Barauni Refinery has taken a focused approach to reduce losses progressively since the past few years. In 2009-10, it achieved lowest ever MBN of less than 62 which implies a significant reduction in energy consumption.

The breakdown of equipment has also come down from drastically. People have started owing the equipment & actively participating in reducing the losses. Through inculcation of the TPM culture & strong commitment and safety consciousness, Barauni Refinery has been able to achieve record no. of fire free days. There have also been noteworthy achievements like reduction in coke chamber cycle, improvement in distillate yield in Coker-A etc. through in-house developments – to speak of only of a few crucial developments.

With the improvement in all the indicators of performance, Barauni Re-

finery challenged “Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM)” for auditing for “TPM Excellence Award in Category-A” in Jan’08 in three stage.

Efforts were recognized by JIPM by awarding the TPM Excellence Award in Jan’09. The refinery is now gearing up for the next higher level of award i.e. TPM Sustenance Award, in which refinery is to sustain whatever they had achieved so far including adopting „‘T’ concept i.e. wider & deeper implementation of TPM. In Jan’2011, pre-health check up audit was conducted by JIPM for the same where in they have given go-ahead for 1st stage assessment in Jun’11. Accordingly, the 2nd stage audit will be held in Dec’11.

Thereafter, the same journey will continue to get “Special Award of TPM” which would be requiring another three years of practicing TPM on sustain basis.

Conclusion The whole idea of TPM implementation was to generate the concept of “My equipment – My unit – My refinery”. The visible results have come in all area of operation in refinery in various forms like emphasis of ownership, cultural change in work procedure, reduction in loss, improvement in productivity, reduction in specific energy consumption etc.

Training through cut-model by workmen

TPM culture have borne fruit - resulting in reduction in plant interruptions & enhancing plant safety in addition to improved housekeeping & loss reduction all over the Refinery which is demonstrated in all facets of Refinery. Barauni Refinery has adopted the LEAF concept (Lifetime Estimation Analysis based on Failure Mechanism) in process units, thereby reducing inJoP, January-March 2011

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Petrotech Award 2010 Excellence Project Management

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Project Management

Naphtha Cracker (Project at Panipat)

Indian Oil sets another Benchmark in Mega Project Management

N K Khosla Executive Director (PNCP)

N K Khosla

N K Khosla is Executive Director (PNCP) and also Executive Director (H,S&E), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. He is one of leading project expert of IndianOil, who is responsible for successful execution of several large green and brown field projects, including India’s largest Linear Alkyle Benzene Plant (LAB) and recently commissioned World Class Naphtha Cracker at Panipat refinery.

Naphtha Cracker Project at Panipat –Introduction – Yet another project management success story in IOC

In its continued foray towards horizontal integration in the Hydrocarbon sector and in order to achieve its vision of becoming a partner in the league of Global Petrochemical player, IOC established a world scale Naphtha Cracker plant with comprehensive downstream block at Panipat, Haryana to produce a variety of polymers. The country is presently deficit in Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP) products, and most of its demand is met through imports. The Naphtha Cracker plant would bridge that gap between demand & supply to a large extent.

The project has been designed to synergize with existing Panipat Refinery of IOC and would utilize the surplus naphtha

produced in IOCL Refineries to generate value added products. Naphtha shall be used as the main feed for Naphtha Cracker unit, for production of polymer grade Ethylene and Propylene. The Ethylene and Propylene form the feedstock for the downstream units, viz. Polyethylene (Low/High Density)/Mono Ethylene Glycol and Polypropylene units respectively.

The Naphtha Cracker Plant at Panipat, the single largest capacity plant in the country, uses the state-of-the-art process technologies, incorporating the latest development in design, and, enabling it to be high energy efficient with minimum emissions. There would be zero discharge of liquid effluent from the complex and SO2 & NOX emissions would not exceed 138 kg/hour and 150mg/NM3 respectively during normal operation.

Product usage

End products from Naphtha Cracker plant are LLDPE, HDPE, PP, MEG and Butadiene which find use in the following areas: • Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) is used in manufacture of garbage bags, heavy duty film, stretch wrap film, general purpose films, roto moulded items like overhead tanks, injection moulded toys etc.

• High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is used for Injection of moulded caps, heavy duty crates, woven sacks, automobile parts, wa-

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ter tanks, brief cases, containers, bins, textile bobbins, luggage ware, thermo wares, etc.

• Polypropylene (PP) is used for woven sacks, fibrillated yarn and monofilaments for ropes and twines, strapping film tubular quenched and oriented, pipes and sheets, house ware, medical and hospital use products, blow moulded bottles, moulded industrial products, staple fiber, moulded luggage, food containers, thin walled products, batteries, automobile parts, heavy duty transport containers etc.

• Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG) is used for polyester staple fiber, fila-

ment yarn, film, explosives, resins, lamination, printing ink, wire enameling, pesticides, insecticides, varnishes, paints, refrigeration for brine solution, cosmetics, anti-freeze and coolant in automobiles etc. MEG is also used as stabilizers against gel formation.

Project Benefits/Business Plan:

• Currently, Polyethylene and MEG are deficit in the country and significant volumes are being imported.

With the generation of Polyethylene and MEG at Panipat, the same will help in import substitution and saving of valuable foreign exchange for the country.

• With Naphtha Cracker and Polymer Complex becoming fully operational, IOC would be able to generate incremental revenue of Rs. 10,00011,000 crore and the bottom line is likely to improve in the range of Rs. 3000-3500 crore.

• Implementation of naphtha cracker complex and generation of polymers thereof will help in promoting the development of processing industries in the State of Haryana and given the demographics of Northern region, will facilitate in formulation / development of a hub in Panipat region.

• The project will also help in development of ancillary industries, besides propping up the social infrastructure of the State, enabling the State to jump in the industrial league of the country.

• In addition to creation of direct employment for operation and maintenance of the complex, the overall project including marketing and

distribution of the products will indirectly help in creation of additional employment for setting up of facilities / infrastructure, as may be required, for outsourcing such activities.

The project comprises of the following key processing facilities: Process Units Configuration [in Tonnes per Licensor/ Technology annum (TPA)] (a) Mother Plant Naphtha Cracker Unit (NCU) & Associated Units: viz.

- C4 Hydrogenation Unit - Pyrolysis Gasoline Hydrogenation unit

Ethylene - 857,000 TPA Propylene - 660,000 TPA

Technology licensed by ABB Lummus, USA

- 142,000 TPA - 541,000 TPA

- Benzene Extraction Unit - 168,000 TPA (b) Downstream Block Linear Low Density/ High Density 350,000 TPA Polyethylene (LLDPE/HDPE) Swing unit

Based on “Sclairtech Solution Process Technology” licensed by Nova Chemicals, Canada.

High Density Polyethylene Unit (HDPE)

300,000 TPA

Based on “Hostalene Technology” licensed by Basell, Germany

Polypropylene Unit (PP)

2 x 300,000 TPA

Based on “Spheripol Technology” licensed by Basell, Italy

Mono Ethylene Glycol Unit (MEG)

300,000 TPA

Technology licensed by Scientific Design, USA

The Block Flow Diagram is given in Annexure-A To meet the utilities requirement of the total complex, state of the art utility facilities has been constructed, and he same are listed below: (C) Offsite & Utilities Compressed Air N2/O2 Plant Flare Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) Raw Water treatment Cooling Tower Captive Power Plant (CPP) Utility Boilers De-Mineralized (DM) Water

2x 12000 NM3/hr 10,484 NM3/hr of Nitrogen & 744 TPD of Oxygen 3 Nos New ETP facilities with capacity of 200M3/hr 24.9 MGD(5100 M3/hr) 36 cells of 4000 M3/hr each 5 GTs (25.59 MW each) with HRSG (95 TPH each) & 3 STG of 36.8 MW. Total = 238.35 MW (Gross) 2 nos. of 406.5 MT/hr each (Total Steam 850 TPH) 2x185 M3/hr Chain

Board Approval, Project cost & completion schedule:

The Project was approved by the Board of Directors on 22nd Dec 2006 for implementation at an estimated capital investment of Rs. 14,439 crore with completion schedule of 42 months (with zero date as May 2006) i.e. completion

by Nov’09 and stabilization of plant by 1st quarter of 2010.

Plant configuration:

The Naphtha Cracker unit (NCU), designed to produce 857,000 MT/year of Ethylene and 660,000 MT/year of Propylene, is based on utilization of around 2.35 MMTPA of paraffinic naphtha feedstock to be pooled from Panipat, Mathura and Gujarat refineries. The naphtha cracker unit, besides generation of ethylene and propylene as the main product, will also generate LPG, Pyrolysis gasoline and Benzene.

Location:

Naphtha Cracker Complex, built on around 850 acres of land, is located near Baljatan village, which is about 2 km on the southern side of the existing Panipat Refinery. The ‘Delhi Main’ & ‘Delhi Parallel’ Canal and Gohana distributaries of Western Yamuna canal separate the PNCP site from the Refinery.

Execution/Contracting philosophy:

The project has been executed in hybrid mode i.e. in Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK) Contract basis, Conventional basis and Build Own and Operate (BOO) basis. For LSTK and BOO JoP, January-March 2011

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contracts, M/s EIL & M/s Uhde were the Project Management Consultant (PMC), while for conventional package, M/s Uhde is the Engineering/ Procurement/ Construction Management Consultant (EPCM).

A) Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK) Contract: PNCP was divided in to 19 packages, out of which, 17 are being executed on Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK) Contract basis where Front End Engineering Design (FEED), tendering for lining up LSTK contractor and overall project management activities are carried out by Project Management Consultant (PMC), while engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning activities are carried out by LSTK/EPCC Contractor.

B) Conventional Mode: Four packages were executed in conventional mode, where engineering, procurement, construction supervision activities was carried out by Engineering/ Procurement/ Construction Management (EPCM) consultant, Construction at site is done by contractor and Commissioning by owner.

C) Build Own and Operate (BOO): One package, viz. N2O2 Plant, was executed on Build, Own and Operation (BOO) basis, where the party invested and build the Nitrogen-Oxygen plant, is contractually bound to operate the same and provide Nitrogen & Oxygen on cost reimbursement basis and as per requirement of IOC. The consortium of M/s Toyo & L&T was awarded the biggest contract in hydrocarbon industry worth Rs 2,755 Cr in May 2006 for executing EPCC1 package (Naphtha Cracker & associated unit) on LSTK basis. [Details of PNCP Contracts are shown in Annexure-B1 and Responsibilities of key players are given in AnnexureB2] Job quantum

Huge quantity of Steel, cement, pipes, pipe fittings, Flanges, Valves, cable etc have been consumed in the project.

Also large numbers of equipments, storage tanks & package items were erected. Following table gives job quantum of PNCP:

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1.7 Project Implementation Set-up:

1.8 Project Organization Structure

Sl.

Description

Total Quantity

1.

2.

Equipment (from 100 to 1050 MT) Tanks (18,250 MT) - Cryogenic Tanks - Atmospheric Tanks - Horton Spheres - Mounded Bullets - Misc tanks Piping (from 2â&#x20AC;? dia to 108â&#x20AC;? dia) - Welding - Erection Fittings/ Flanges/ Valves - Fittings - Flanges - Valves Civil Works - Piling - RCC - TMT Steel - Structural Steel - Cement Cables (Elect + Inst)

2,925 Nos (42,931 MT) 100 Nos

3.

4.

5.

6.

4 Nos 34 Nos 7 Nos 6 Nos 49 Nos 1,600 KM 33.6 Lac Inch Dia (ID) 63.7 Lac Inch Metre (IM) 9.1 Lac Nos 6.3 Lac 1.8 Lac 1.0 Lac 12,394 Nos 4.6 Lac CuM 55,000 MT 46,000 MT 2,18,400 MT (43.7 Lac Bags) 8,000 KM

Resource Deployment

During execution of the project, around 6,360 nos of equipments used at project site. Following table showing some major equipment quantum used in PNCP: Description

Total Quantity

Construction Equipment - Cranes (from 3T to 3600 T) - Hydras - Batching plants - Welding Machines - JCB/Excavators

6,360 Nos 439 Nos 105 Nos 20 Nos 1,131 Nos 50 Nos

More than 5,000 engineers from India, Korea, Japan, Germany, Singapore, United States and other parts of the globe and, around 35,000 skilled/ unskilled labours toiled day and night to craft a success story. More than 160 million accident free man hours have been completed in this project which is a record for IOC IOC Staffing/Manpower Planning

• Head Quarter Project Team: 35 IOCL multi disciplinary engineers were deployed at Refinery Head Quarter form design stage. A dedicated planning cell was established from the start of the project for project plan. Since Naphtha Cracker & Polymer plants were new technology for IOC, 13 experienced personnel at mid level were recruited from Indian petrochemical industry for providing valuable inputs during design/engineering/ordering stage of the project.

• Site Project Team: For site, similar set up was developed but with extensive site supervision & back up engineering support including Quality Assurance & Site Safety Co-coordinators. 85 Nos of IOCL engineers were mobilized at site for construction supervision.

• Operation/Maintenance Team: A Manpower committee was formed to assess the requirement for operation/maintenance of plant. The team studied the existing similar plants in India/abroad and gave recommendation for requirement of around 800 personnel for operation and maintenance of plant. A broad strategy was also evolved to decide on the activities of plant that could be outsourced (like ETP, Lab, etc). Core team of operation and maintenance was formed

around 2 years ahead of plant commissioning. This gave sufficient time to operation team to absorb the technology and gain trained for establishing flawless startup of the units. Balance personnel (officer/staff - mix of fresh & experienced) were recruited around 1 year to 6 months in advance of plant commissioning.

Training of PNCP Personnel:

In view of IOCL’s maiden entry into Naphtha Cracker technology, extensive exercise of imparting training to our people in India and abroad was carried out. Around 138 Officers were imparted training in 14 different programmes (of 1 week to 4 weeks duration) at various locations across the globe (India, Canada, USA, Japan, Germany, Thailand, Brazil etc). In India, training was imparted to around 292 officers and 306 non-officers at plants of M/s GAIL at Pata and M/s IGL at Kashipur.

Classroom/site training by Licensors, Vendors & IOCL experts at Site were also conducted in addition to DCS related training at Bangalore and Pune.

The Project Personnel of PNCP were exposed to latest skills in project management through exposure to training programmes conducted by IPA Institute Singapore and U-21 Global Singapore.

Project personnel were also provided training in important area of ‘Hazop’.

Cost Control:

To complete project with in approved cost, cost monitoring was exclusively done on monthly basis. Cost monitoring was done in 14 heads. Budget for each financial year with monthly break up, expenses, anticipated completion cost etc. were calculated & expenses were critically monitored through IOCL Head quarter as well as from site.

‘Financing’ was handled by Treasury/ Corporate Finance department of IOC and it was ensured that there was no negative cash flow during the project execution. Financial progress vis-àvis physical progress were constantly monitored for any aberrations and corrective actions initiated. Payments to contractors/vendors were monitored closely to ensure prompt payments.

Project Planning, Monitoring & Control:

The project was broken down into manageable packages (21 Nos) and

further broken down in to work breakdown structure (WBS). The time estimation for each package and project as a whole was done during project definition phase and was based on inhouse data, global experience/benchmark, and/or licensors'/consultants' advice.

The project schedules was prepared on primavera package, broken down up to level 5/6 levels (broken in to functions - Process, Engg, Manufacturing, Construction and commissioning and further in to disciplines – Civil, Mechanical, Instrument, Electrical). The Schedule were ‘loaded’ that is, resource planning/availability/limitation was integrated with Project Schedule.

Resource planning includes availability of Heavy duty cranes, equipment parts/vendors, manpower availability during festivals etc. ‘What if’ analysis was carried out periodically for risk management/planning.

Weightages were assigned for packages/WBS and S-curves were drawn for each function and for overall physical progress and percentage progress monitored.

Project priorities/sequencing are fixed at the beginning of the project and scheduled is prepared based on the above priorities. Example ensure utilties (Air, DM & Cooling Water, Steam, Power) readiness in advance for meeting unit flushing & pre-commissioning requirement. Integrated schedule was also prepared covering all interfaces, proper sequencing & prioritization of Utilities for process unit startup and linkages between process units [Integrated Schedule enclosed in Annexure-C].

Constructability review is done for sequencing of heavy equipments/tall columns and same is incoporated in the projecty schedule. Example: few equipment foundations or technological structure construction were required to be delayed to enable placement of heavy duty crane for heavy erection work.

Construction Execution plan: are always developed and documented. The plan includes construction resource planning, utilities plan, labour camps JoP, January-March 2011

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IOC/PMC/EPCM/Contractor resource requirement were estimated and allocated both for HQ and site in phased manner. Activities were monitored based on early start and early finish dates derived from Primavera schedule (internal), while critical milestones monitoring for Corporate & Ministry level was done based on late start/finish dates. Catch up plans (with additional resources) were drawn for activities which were lagging and project schedule revised based on these revised plan.

A Dedicated Planning Cell was setup at HQ and site with a view for strengthening the planning process in IOC. Project Implementation Plan (PIP) a central document for Project Control was prepared for smooth operation of the Project.

Risk Management:

Risk Identification and Mitigation plan were developed and recorded in Risk Register which was reviewed periodically. Brainstorming exercises were carried out with the project team along with PMC/EPCM and major LSTK Contractors to identify the perceived risk at venture level (overall project) as well as EPCC Package level. Risks were categorized as high, moderate or low risk based on their probability of occurrence & their impact on project scheduled/cost/safety. Suitable mitigation/contingency plans were developed with responsibilities and time frame for execution.

Quality Management Plan:

Quality Assurance plan as decided during the design basis and approved by PMC/EPCM was applied uniformly across the project both for procured items and site construction work. Performance of Third Party Inspection (TPI) was monitored as part of quality assurance plans, with strict penalty clause in the contract (to the extent of debarring them in case of failure) so as to ensure quality material arriving at site. Surveillance Quality Audit, QA/QC Initiatives for Civil/Mechanical Activities: For the first time, a structured “surveillance plan” and stage wise inspection plan was implemented for all EPCC packages. To ensure quality of civil activities 2 Senior IOCL executives were solely deployed

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for this purpose. Surveillance/ quality audit were done at site by PMC/IOC, and non compliance report of audit and its liquidation status were monitored monthly at site.

“Positive Material Identification Check” (PMI) was being on receipt of material and after installation of piping to avoid metallurgy mixup/contamination, along with colour coding to avoid mix-up.

Also IOCL lined up a separate agency for Ultrasonic thickness gauging of pipe fittings and ensured quality through random surprise checking before fittings were cleared for use.

Construction Safety:

During peak time, more than 5,000 engineers from India, Korea, Japan, Germany, Singapore, United States and other parts of the globe and around 35,000 workers of contractors/sub-contractors/vendors toiled and worked efficiently for design, procurement and at site to create a success story. More than 160 million accident free man hours have been completed in this project which is a record in the history of Indian Oil. A well documented HSE policy for contractors and strict vigilance for adherence to safe practices during construction phase at site was key to the success story. Safety awareness was imbibed in the workers through training at the time of induction, safety talks by PMC, every morning tool box meetings, safety week drive, incentives to workers, citation to companies for safe practices. Health: For the first time in Indian Oil, a Centralized First Aid Centre with two air conditioned Ambulances with ventilators and provision of qualified doctors & Para-medical staff was in operation on round the clock basis. The First Aid Centre was also fully used for Health Check up of workmen of various EPCC Packages. Unique concept of sharing establishment & operating cost by all the contractors was implemented successfully Environment Protection:

IOC has taken enormous steps in area of environment protection. Ultra Modern Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) has been built at a cost of around Rs 45

Cr including Sulphide removal facility.

ETP has been provided with Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Control System. Volatile organic compounds are released from the effluent tanks as a result of the breathing / displacement losses. The VOC control system prevents these fugitive emissions (VOC) from being released to atmosphere thereby avoiding consequent pollution.

Benzene Vapor Recovery System (BVRS) has been installed for the first time by IOCL for air pollution control in benzene loading area in gantry MDEA Facilities: For proper and safe disposal of acid gases viz. hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide from Naphtha Cracker Unit, Mono Di-ethyl Amine (MDEA) facilities comprising of MDEA Absorber and lean/rich amine lines from Panipat Refinery have been constructed. This facility is equipped to dispose off the acid gases safely to the refinery, where, they would be treated in the Amine Unit and finally in the Sulphur Recovery Unit.

Plant Safety/Fire Protection:

- To increase the safety of control room & rack room, clean agent system has been introduced through out PNCP - State of the art Fire detection and alarm system has been installed in the plant which gives real time indication of the location of alarm and shortest route for fire tender movement - Remote control monitors at elevated locations have been installed for fire protection of tall columns. Dedicated fire water pumps for tall columns have also been installed - Rim seal fire protection system has been installed on all floating roof seal tanks.

- Hydraulic Platform: Oil Industry’s

first Hydraulic platform has been procured for PNCP Fire station.

This state-of-the-art Rescueâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;CumFire-Fighting vehicle is equipped for rescuing persons from elevated locations (columns etc) up to a height of 55 meters, and, also for carrying out fire fighting up to the height of 100 meters by use of water as well as foam.

Major Highlights of Project: Given below are some of major highlights of PNCP: Double Wall Storage Cryogenic Tanks:

For the first time in IOCL, 4 nos of, for Cryogenic tanks for storing propylene (operating temperature - 45 Deg C) and ethylene (operating temperature -103.6 Deg C), were constructed. Also more than 100 nos of other floating /fixed roof tanks, Horton spheres, Bullets (using around 18,250 MT of structural steel) has been constructed at site.

tonnage of 2,700 MT were constructed in Naphtha Cracker Unit (NCU). Also 50.4 MW Charge Gas Compressor having capacity of 407 T/hr, is the largest compressor manufactured by M/s Ebara, Japan (the biggest supplier of compressors worldwide). The cracker unit built on a plot area of 550 M X 300 M also has another mega 30.6 MW propylene compressor, in addition to 27 columns, 216 static equipment and large numbers of reactors and static equipment.

Main Control Room in NCU (105 M long & 55 M wide) is one of the biggest control rooms of IndianOil. For ease of

Wash tower is the heaviest equipment

in MEG weighing 1,050 MT and was erected in single piece by a 3,600 MT

Rajasthan & Haryana, and, covering a distance of around 1,680 KM in about 7 months time. The transportation of these giant reactors involved construction of 34 Nos of Bypasses around fragile bridges/flyovers for crossing Rivers, Canals, railway lines (longest being 1.5 KM over Luni river) as well as handling tough traffic management on highways & crowded cities of Sonipat, Panipat etc.

Construction of Flyover

For integrating Panipat Refinery & Naphtha Cracker project (which are separated by water canal), a motor able flyover (first of its kind in IOC) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1.72 KM long, has been constructed to carry vehicles, as well as, pipelines for transporting fuel, feed & utilities between the complex. Ten pipelines from Refinery to PNCP carrying hydrocarbons and chemicals required for PNCP (like Naphtha, RLNG, IFO, C-9 etc), running over 3 tier pipe-rack (15 M above ground) on the flyover.

Ultra Modern Lab Facilities

operation & maintenance, single master control room has been constructed for all process units and is connected to different units through five satellite rack room (SRR) located in each of the process unit.

One of the most modern laboratory

Biggest ODC Consignment:

Two nos of MEG Reactors (Gross Wt 632 MT each, height of 6.6 M) have Mammoet crane (biggest ever crane mobilized in IOCL) with 750 MT trailing crane (Liebherr). The crane was brought in 118 containers from Thailand and 5 Nos of cranes, having capacities of 750 MT, 300 MT, 180 MT, 150 MT and 50 MT were involved in assembly of this mammoth crane.

Seven large cracker furnaces of 110 Million Kilo Calories/Hr of Heat Duty (biggest in IOCL) and total erection

been successfully transported from L&T Hazira via Kandla Port to Panipat Site on 32-axles 256-Tyres Hydraulic Trailers, crossing 3 states of Gujarat,

in oil & petrochemical industry, with state-of-the-art furnishings and equipment, has been established in PNCP. With 1.2 MW power load, the lab is equipped with around 280 LAN points for real time monitoring of test results.

The lab is equipped with 370 lab testing equipment and 32 Nos of highly advanced & sophisticated modules for Fume Extraction System, to take care of hydrocarbon vapours generated dur-

JoP, January-March 2011

59

ing handling of samples and analysis.

For the first time, award of work for setting up of Lab Facilities along with five years Operation and Maintenance Contract has been done through a German Company on Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK) basis.

Communication

For the first time in IOCL, a single optical fiber cable has been laid for both telephone and LAN connectivity.

Cooling Towers

There are three cooling towers with 36 cells of capacity 4,000 M3/Hr each in PNCP. Cooling Tower -1, which is supplies cooling water to NCU and Associated Units, is having 16 cells with 108” diameter underground cooling water piping network, is one of the largest cooling towers in Asia.

Flare System

Three flares, namely, NCU Flare (Ht. 119 M), Polymer Flare (Ht. 130 M – tallest in the Hydrocarbon Industry in India) and LP Flare (Ht. 20 M) are in operation in PNCP. These flares cater to loads from NCU/Associated Units, Polymer Units, and Cryogenic Storage Tanks respectively. Flare network with 72” and 76” diameter piping running throughout PNCP over pipe-racks at a height ranging from 15 to 21 M above ground level has been laid.

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JoP, January-March 2011

Transportation of huge quantity of chemicals to site

Around 15,500 MT of liquid chemicals, required for PNCP commissioning, were transported from various places in India & abroad to PNCP site. This required movement of more than 1300 tankers for transportation The transportation of around 9000 MT of Butene-1 from Kandla port (imported from Taiwan) was a challenging task. For maintaining high purity of Butene-1 (at 99.4% minimum), a dedicated tank storage facility at port along with tankers for transportation to Panipat site have been lined up. The storage tanks and transporting tankers require extensive process of purging & inertization to make them suitable for storing/transporting Butene-1.

Product Application & Development Centre (PADC)

PADC is a vital link between polymer plant and market. It is a full scale laboratory with 55 lab equipments for testing of polymer products as well as new polymer products developed with IOCL produced polymers. It is also providing technical support for establishing IOCL polymer products in market and extending the technical support for customer.

The modern Administration Building

One of the most modern Administration Building, comprising of state-ofthe-art facilities has been constructed at PNCP. The building is equipped with rain water harvesting facilities, Optimum energy utilization concept and Intelligent Building Management System (IBMS).

The IBMS system provides integration (under single platform) of various facilities like Access control, climate control, lighting control, Fire Alarm, PA system, CCTV including interface with security system, electrical power load and solar water system monitoring, The world class landscaping includes plantation of around 600 tress, 1000 plants and more than 30,000 shrubs for ground cover.

Township/Infrastructure

A new township with 628 Nos of quarters for staff & officers has been established on 66 acres land adjacent to old Panipat Refinery Township External development includes roads, independent water and power supply facility, market, rain harvesting, cable TV & landscaping have been developed in the new township. It is supported with excellent sewage treatment facility for pollution control.

LNG Pipeline

Indian Oil’s maiden venture into natural gas transportation through crosscountry pipelines, 132 KM long, 30 inch diameter Dadri-Panipat pipeline has been constructed (by IOC Pipelines

Division) to transmit re-gassified LNG. This LNG will be used in power plant gas turbines, boilers and furnaces of Refinery and Cracker.

running turbine driven charge gas compressors of NCU for unit drying.

Many Value Added decisions were taken during various stages of project implementation which had long term impact in terms of technology advancement, quality improvements and/or reduction in execution time or cost. A detailed list is enclosed at Annexure E.

in availability of steam was having a cascading effect on subsequent activities, that is, steam flushing of lines, which is a long drawn activity requiring enormous time, putting in danger of over shooting the time schedule. IOC management took a decision to go for compressed air blows/flushing of these lines, till the time, steam is made available. This innovative idea, tried for the first time in IOC, helped in cleaning the lines early on (which as per initial indications by experienced personnel were found to be as good or better than steam blows in effectively removing material that could damage turbine), and later, actual steam flushing took just fraction of time, thus saving around 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6 weeks time.

Strategic Initiatives undertaken during Project Implementation

The hallmark in execution of Naphtha Cracker Project was Pro-active Decisions and Strategic Initiatives taken

by IOC management for pre-empting the risks and overcoming challenges/ problems faced during the course of the project. Listed below are some wide ranging control mechanism adopted & key decisions undertaken by IOC management for successful completion of the project.

Close monitoring by top management

was done at all level in IOC. Monthly review meeting by top management with Project team and regular meetings with top management of critical LSTK/Conventional Contractors kept IOC management updated on project progress and crucial decisions were given from time to time on critical issues to push the project.

Expediting completion of Utility Boiler

In spite of having the best contractor for power plant, viz. M/s L&T and close monitoring, the utility boiler construction & commissioning were delayed enormously, thus delaying the availability of steam and jeopardizing the pre-commissioning/startup activities of all the process units and putting the completion of whole project at stake.

IOC took a bold decision, and team of IOC specialist, headed by an Executive Director, was placed at site exclusively for expeditiously commissioning utility boiler in Power plant work & to bring back the project on track. This decision had a great impact of project execution.

With senior IOC officials available at power plant round-the-clock to offer guidance & quick decision at site itself, it helped in speedy commissioning of Utility Boiler, and ensured availability of steam to Process units for flushing &

Implementation of Innovative Ideas: Air Blowing of Steam Lines: The delay

Expediting Extruder Commissioning: In order to make the extruders ready in advance in PP & HDPE unit, a well thought of strategy was evolved, wherein, without waiting for plant to produce the powder, around 500 T of PP & 250 T of MDPE powder were procured from outside source for extruder trial early on. The extruder in PP & HDPE unit (which are the most important equipment in the unit), were made ready & commissioned with this powder, resolving all the teething problems that are usually encountered with commissioning of such a huge equipment much before the actual trial of extruder during plant commissioning. This strategy helped in faster commissioning of PP & HDPE plant and production of on-grade pellets from the unit.

Change in definition of Module-1 completion of Captive Power Plant

For initial power requirement for process units for pre-commissioning activities, it was envisaged commissioning of one Steam Turbine Generator (STG), with one Utility Boiler (as part of Module-1), at least 6 months prior to total plant commissioning. However, the delivery of STG was delayed by more than 8 months by M/s BHEL (sub vendor to M/s L&T, LSTK contractor of Power Plant. IOC management took

quick decision to change the module-1 configuration (as stated in CPP Contract) and instead of commissioning STG, prioritized commissioning of Gas Turbine (GT), which by the time had arrived at site. This decision helped in meeting the initial power requirements for pre-commissioning activities of the process units and keep the project on track.

Assertiveness in decision making:

The delivery of two numbers of MEG reactors, 630 MT each, ordered directly

by IOC on M/s L&T Hazira, were delayed by the vendor and the delivery was getting shifted to the month of July, which is a peak monsoon season in India. The transportation, which require numerous river/culvert crossing, bypassing weak bridges in state of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana etc, would have left the reactors stranded midway and delayed the delivery by 5 to 6 months time. Instead of waiting for the welding of 2 circumferential joints of reactor, IOC management took a far reaching decision of shifting the Reactor to Panipat site in dismantled condition during early summer so as to beat the monsoon. The PMC and L&T team advised against this decision apprehending factory like setup/ infrastructure may not be possible to be put up at site and therefore quality of welding/heat treatment/testing may not be possible. However, because of IOC's management persuasiveness, the challenging job was undertaken by the team, and, reactor was transported safely, welded to the quality standard and then subsequently erected on time, saving about 5 months time.

Quick Recovery Plan/Effective Crisis Management

At the time of any crisis situation, IOC Management took some sharp & and judicious decisions for overcoming the same & keep the project schedule on track: Expeditious re-ordering of Cryogenic Tanks Plates:

The ASTM A537, CL-1 plates (imported) brought by the LSTK contractor for double walled cryogenic for Propylene tanks were not cleared by the licensor, M/s Whessoe (UK) due to test parameters not meeting the specifications. In spite of acceptability of test results by JoP, January-March 2011

61

metallurgical experts of PMC & Contractor, IOC management quickly took a stand of not compromising the quality and went for replacement of whole lot of 385 MT of plates, even though this would put great pressure on project schedule. Immediate orders were placed for new plates, and a high powered IOC team visited vendor’s work at Czech Republic for expediting. All plates were rolled & tested within six weeks time. To speed up shipment, initial 50 MT dispatched by road to Antwerp for shipment through Conti Lines (fabrication could start at site with 1st lot) and balance 335 MT booked for normal shipment ex Antwerp. The plates were available at site within next 4 weeks and cryogenic tanks fabrication was taken up on war footing to complete the same on time and meet the plant schedule.

Expediting DCS commissioning:

Due to non-commissioning of Air Conditioning system in Control Rooms, the DCS was not getting powered on, thereby delaying the instrument loops checking, which were falling on critical path. The commissioning of AC units were directly linked with availability of steam from Power Plant for VAM machines, which was getting delayed. Without waiting for Power plant readiness, IOC management took quick decision to go for procurement of Aux Boiler for giving steam for VAM on priority basis, thereby expediting commissioning of ACs and subsequently DCS power on. In some control rooms split ACs were provided temporarily for DCS commissioning.

Change in execution strategy for HDPE Unit

As per original contracting strategy, HDPE unit was to be executed on LSTK mode. However, after opening of Price Bid, it was noticed that the Lowest Bidder’s quoted price were abnormally high as compared to IOC’s estimate. After due diligence, quick decision was taken by IOC’s management to change the execution strategy from LSTK to conventional method.

LSTK bids were cancelled and action was initiated to immediately line up EPCM consultant and take up the engineering and procurement activities immediately thereafter. Due to this decision, IOC was able to save around

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JoP, January-March 2011

Rs. 350 Cr, and, could also finish the project on time.

Out of the way financial help to Contractor

War room like project control stations were made in each units/EPCC Package site, complete with detailed project schedules and progress statistics on walls. Daily meeting in these rooms ensured taking stock of the project, proper briefing to project engineers for further course of action, debottlenecking/resolution of problems & resolving interface/integration issues with other EPCCs etc. Shutdown style 24 hrs working started at site almost 6 months in advance to plant commissioning.

During the course of the project, some LSTK contractors came under financial crunch due to negative cash flows.

IOC management immediately came to their rescue and some bold decisions were taken to help these contractor to tide over their financial crisis, like, a) Deferment of liquidity damages (LD) recovery till Mechanical Completion without amendment to BG; b) Direct payment to Vendors/Sub-contractors whenever LSTK contractor were unable to get deliveries due to fund shortage, c) Releasing advance to Contractors against secured Bank Guarantee

Turning around the LSTK Contractor:

Orders Expediting

War Room Style Working at Site

One of the LSTK Contractor of a critical process unit was continually failing for couple of months to meet the construction targets, in spite of the best follow-up by site team, and was lagging behind enormously in construction progress. The completion of this important downstream process unit was in jeopardy and high level management review was undertaken between IOC & the contractor management. The commitments made by the top management of the Contractor, were regularly reviewed at highest level of IOC and drastic improvements were made at site. With continuous monitoring, great strides were made in completing the work and commissioning the unit on time, meeting IOC's objective on time.

Even though, material procurement & expediting deliveries were in the scope of LSTK contractor, IOC officers made extensive visits to vendors works all over India & abroad for expediting the deliveries to meet the project schedule.

In such a mega & complex project, there were thousands of orders and tens of thousands of items which needed to be delivered at site on time. It was due to persistent follow-up by IOC engineers with vendors that most of the critical equipment like columns, vessels, adsorbers, compressors, pumps, exchangers, and bulk piping/instrument items etc were delivered on time.

In few instances, IOC engineers were also posted at vendors works for expediting deliveries.

Fostering Partnership through Team Building Exercise

In a move to foster the spirit of comradeship among all the key players of PNCP, a Team Building workshop was held at a Resort at the beginning of the project through a reputed faculty on Motivational Skills. The participants included team from IOC (Project, HR, Finance etc), PMC/EPCM, Contractors, Vendors, Licensors etc. The meet helped in sharing and communicating with all the stakeholders the project objective, infrastructure availability in and around project site, challenges, opportunities, rules and obligations of the owner/state government to be followed etc. Inputs were also taken from these key players for simplification/debottlenecking of IOC systems for project benefit.

Pre-project Activities

Fully aware of the huge infrastructure requirement during construction period, IOC management proactively carried out detailed pre project planning and developed huge Infrastructure at site (first time in history of IOC), well in advance, to meet the future construction requirements. These included: • Peaceful acquisition of around 900 acres of land for Naphtha Cracker Complex and township from neighbouring villages/gram panchayat • Soil investigation involving 90 bore-holes • Area grading/land filling involving 14.8 Lac M3 of Earth Work • Construction of 17 Nos of Construction Sub-Stations • Erection of 37 Nos of Light Masts, Laying of 28 KM of Cables • Construction of common Project Office for IOC/PMC for better coordination • Construction of 22 KM Road inside the plant, 37 KM of Drains, 58 Nos of Culverts, 7 KM of Boundary wall and outer periphery road • Over Dimension Consignment route survey • Around 41 KM of road widening/ strengthening and construction of new roads connecting State/National Highways to PNCP site, 3 Nos of steel bridges, 1 No of RCC bridge, Resizing of Drains etc. was completed for ease traffic movement during peak construction

Welders Training School

A welder training school was established at PNCP site to cope with huge number of welder requirement at PNCP site. A shed of size 15M X 15M, using old available scrap structural material and GI sheets from PR was constructed with 10 nos. welding demonstrations/ practicing stands, a class room, NDT room, store, toilet block. Resources like welding machines, grinding machines, cutting set, baking ovens, consumables & supervisor/ trainer etc with the assistance of working LSTK agencies & electrode manufacturers were provided in that school.

Use of Upgraded Technology for Higher Productivity

Following are some of Upgraded Technology aids used in PNCP for Higher Productivity: • Automatic Orbital welding machine for pipe, MIG welding machine for thin sections & SAW for thick section of structural/plates to achieve improved welding quality and productivity.

• Vacuum packed low hydrogen electrodes to avoid weld defects which are generally observed due to poor baking of electrodes.

• Automatic shot blasting machine introduced to achieve higher productivity & better quality of surface preparation & paint application besides improvement health / safety environment.

• Hydraulic concrete cutting tool for chipping of pile head resulting in time saving in concrete foundations.

• Usage of Pre-cast Pipe rack for speedy construction & better quality. Steam curing of pre-stressed pre-cast RCC girders of flyover for increased productivity.

• Automatic Electro forged gun for welding of Nelson studs / anchors to hold the embedded plates in concrete wall of Cryogenic tanks.

Communication Infrastructure:

For the first time, Satellite Line Link & Lease Lines were provided at PNCP Complex through M/s BSNL to IOC/ EPCC agencies/PMC to have direct voice, data, and drawings transmission with their HQs and other Vendors.

e-Procurement Implementation:

e-procurement (on line auction) was carried out for critical equipment like extruder package for HDPE unit, thus saving around Rs one million for IOC and quick finalization of order.

Model Labour Colonies:

Model labour colonies were developed at site with facilities for a better lifestyle of labours who worked in Naphtha Cracker Project.

Pre Start-up Safety Review (PSSR), HSE Review, Project Peer review, Instrument Health Check

M/s Shell Global Solution (SGS), who are having worldwide experience in construction and operation of Naphtha Cracker plants, was involved for carrying out the Pre Start-up Safety Review and Instrument Health check review of Naphtha Cracker and Associated Units to check the integrity of plant for smooth startup. Operation Implementation Plan (OIP) were also prepared for flawless startup and, it is worthwhile to note that Naphtha Cracker Unit startup at Panipat was one of the fasted in the petrochemical industry. M/S SGS were also involved in Project Peer Review and Health Safety & Environment (HSE) Review during construction to guide IOC during this important phase for smooth completion.

Operator Training Simulator for all process units of PNCP

To assist the training of PNCP operating group, a training simulator was established at PNCP site for all process units viz. Naphtha Cracker & Associated Unit, Mono ethylene Glycol (MEG), Polypropylene Unit (PP), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) & Linear Low Density Poly Ethylene unit (LLDPE)/ HDPE) Swing Unit.

Project close out activities

Action has been taken for deviation/extra claims closure, around one year and half year in advance. Mandatory spare list finalization, SAP codification of mandatory spares also started around 22 months in advance. This has ensured speedy closure of the contracts.

It is worth mentioning here the comments given by Mr. C S Rangaraj, Deputy Advisor to Govt. of India, Ministry of Statistics & programme ImplemenJoP, January-March 2011

63

tation in his letter addressed to IOC Chairman dated 26th Dec 2007 which speaks volumes of IOC’s preparedness for this mega project and extraordinary pace at which the project was executed: Quote “Last week, myself and two of my colleagues visited and reviewed the status of projects in Panipat Refinery Complex. I had also visited Panipat sometime in closing month of 2006, and was taken to the site where Naphtha Cracker was proposed to be set up. At that time itself, I was able to appreciate the level of detailed micro level layout planning, along with sub-stations, roads and other much needed infrastructure, which was hard to come by, in any other similar site elsewhere in India, private or public.

As MOS&PSI is monitoring projects on the basis of milestones, the progress in the last one year at Naphtha Cracker site is very fast. There were some activity in all the places, with many of the equipment having already been erected. The Cracker Furnace has recorded more than 50% completion (as it appeared to us visually) which itself speaks for the fast pace at which this complex is coming up and the commitment of contractor(s). ……….. From our experience of having monitored three Petrochemical complex in the public sector (GAIL at Pata UP, IPCL at Maharashtra Gas Cracker Complex and also at Gandhar, in late 80s and early 90s) we have been led to the conclusion that, without doubt, this gigantic project, which the largest on our monitor, is taking shape at an extraordinary pace mainly because of detailed pre-construction activity done by IOCL. I am sure IOCL will further improve the detailed layout planning and implementation technique, in its planned complexes elsewhere in the country.

We convey our good wishes to all your colleagues in the Project Division for such a good show at Panipat NCP construction site. We are sure this project will be commissioned as per schedule, perhaps ahead of schedule also.”

Unquote

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JoP, January-March 2011

Conclusion: Naphtha Cracker unit was commissioned on 11 March 2010, and balance downstream polymer units were commissioned progressively between April to May’10 The actual commissioning time of 46 months for Panipat Naphtha Cracker compares with Global standard for SL No 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

similar capacity plants and is ahead of average time taken by Indian Plants (Global Comparison of Cracker complex completion time are shown in Annexure C) Against the approved cost of Rs 14,439 Cr, an expenditure of around Rs 12,400 Cr has been made till date. The project is likely to be closed within the approved cost.

The important Milestone Dates of PNCP are given below Units/LSTK Contractor/ EPCM Zero Date Feed Cut-in NCU (Toyo/ L&T) PP (Tecnimont) MEG (Samsung) HDPE/LLDPE Swing (EIL) HDPE (Uhde - Conventional)

25 May 2006 25 Nov 2006 5 Feb 2007 18 Dec 2006 7 Dec 2006

11 Mar 2010 (46 Months) 13 Apr 2010 (40.5 Months) 17 Apr 2010 (39.5 Months) 1 May 2010 (40.5 Months) 18 May 2010 (41 Months)

Annexure-A

Annexure-B1

PNCP Contract Details Sl

Package

Project Description

Contractor

PMC/ EPCM

Value (Rs Crore)

LSTK Contracts 1.

EPCC-1

Naphtha Cracker Unit (NCU) + Associated Unit (AU)

Toyo & L&T

EIL

2,755.37

2.

EPCC-2A

PP Unit.

Technimont

EIL

1,598.80

3.

EPCC-3

HDPE / LLDPE Swing Unit

EIL

Uhde

919.63

4.

EPCC-4

Captive Power Plant (CPP)

L&T

EIL

1,143.08

5.

EPCC-5

Cooling Tower

PCTL

EIL

263.35

6.

EPCC-6

DM/RO Plant

VA Tech

EIL

76.02

EPCC-7

Effluent Treatment Plant, Sulphide Removal

NICCO

EIL

34.30 8.43

8.

EPCC-8

Offsite & Storage System

IOTL

EIL

1,085.95

9.

EPCC-9

Balance Utilities & Offsite

Naftogaz

EIL

370.08

10.

EPCC-10

MEG Unit

Samsung

EIL

1111.84

11.

EPCC-12 A

Non Plant Buildings

MSK

EIL

154

12.

EPCC-12 B

Non Plant Buildings

NBCC

EIL

98.25

13.

EPCC-12C

Non Plant Buildings

RKS

EIL

67.24

14.

EPCC-1A

Amine Treatment Unit

Toyo

EIL

135.91

15.

EPCC-14

Revamp of Propylene Separation Unit

Nicco

EIL

65.49

16.

EPCC-15

Polishing Pond

MSK

EIL

30.03

17.

EPCC-16

Setting up of Lab

OCS

EIL

154.65

1.

EPCC-2B

HDPE unit

2.

Rail Gantry

Mechanical Work

3.

PADC

4.

MDEA

7.

Conventional Mode EPCM - Uhde

704.38

Premco

RITES

3.98

Civil/Elect/Fire Fighting

HS Oberoi

CIPET

11.43

Composite work â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ATU

IOTEP

EIL

11.12

Air Liquide

EIL

---

BOO Mode 1.

EPCC-11

N2 / O2 Plant

Annexure-B2

Owner, Licensor, PMC, EPCM, LSTK, Conventional Contractor Responsibilities A) The owner responsibilities include: a. Financial Approvals, Financing, Cost management b. Lining up of Process Licensors c. Lining up of PMC/EPCM as per contracting strategy d. Lining up of LSTK /EPCM Contractors e. Procurement equipment/bulk items for Conventional Package f. Design basis, Front End Design Engineering Document (FEED) Review g. Finalization of Project Schedule h. Risk Identification/Mitigation Plan

JoP, January-March 2011

65

i. j. k. l.

Monitoring of project execution and compliance to HSE Approval of vendors and contractors for different EPCC Compliance with statutory requirement and government bodies Coordinate with all project entities- Advisor/PMC/Licensor/Contractor/Govt. authorities-Statutory Bodies/Vendorssuppliers/Ministry m. Timely payments to Contractors/Vendors n. Finalization of spares and consumables o. Approvals of deviations- technical/commercial, Time Extension p. Enabling jobs q. Insurance r. Availability of feedstock/utilities and integration with Refinery s. Overall responsibility for commissioning of the plant â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Including Pre-startup Safety check, Operating Manual, P&ID check, Pre-commissioning, Commissioning, Performance test run t. Developing Marketing and Logistics u. Project Close out B) The role of Licensor include a. Issue of Basic Design Engineering Package which covers Plant Configuration, Process Flow Diagram, P&IDS, Equipment list, Critical equipment specification, b. Typical operating manual, c. Pre-startup check d. Training e. Commissioning assistance & Guarantee test run C) The responsibility of PMC include f. Project cost estimation g. Preparation of FEED, a. Prepare bid document & tendering for lining up of LSTK Contractor b. Detail Engineering and Quality Assurance Plan review with all concerned LSTK Contractor c. Monitoring of materials expediting d. Construction Supervision & surveillance checks for quality assurance e. Review of 3D model for minimizing the complexity at the time of erection, making super structures etc. f. Hazop review g. Commissioning & PGTR assistance h. Safety meetings regarding safety of the individuals as well as the whole plant i. Weekly meeting to monitor Engineering document status for enabling smooth construction progress at site j. Weekly meeting for construction progress monitoring/ progress hold up k. Contract closure D) The responsibility of EPCM Consultant include: a. Residual Process Engineering, Hazop review b. Detailed Engineering, 3-D modeling, c. Project Management d. Tendering & Lining up Conventional Contractor e. Materials Procurement as per MTO f. Expediting of Materials to the site g. Construction Supervision & Quality assurance h. Stores Management at site i. Pre-commissioning & Commissioning assistance E) The responsibility of LSTK Contractor include: a. Residual Process Engineering, Hazop review b. Detailed Engineering, 3-D modeling c. Project Management d. Procurement, Fabrication & Supply. e. Expediting, Inspection & Transportation. f. Construction, Installation & Mechanical Testing. g. Pre-commissioning and commissioning F) The responsibility of conventional contractor includes site construction work, and in some cases might include procurement of some bulk items like pipe/fittings, structural etc.

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JoP, January-March 2011

The Panipat Nphtha Cracker, IndianOil’s Panipat Complex, built at cost of over Rs 14500 crores, was dedicated to the Nation by Hon’ble Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri S Jaipal Reddy, in the presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Haryana, Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Hon’ble Union Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Culture, Kumari Selja, Hon’ble Minister of State of Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri R P N Singh and Chairman indianOil, on 15th February 2011 JoP, January-March 2011

67

Annexure-D

Comparison of Cracker Complex Completion SL

Cracker

Commissioning

1

IPCL Nagothane (Gas Cracker) ‐ 100 KTA

2

Duration 53 months

Cracker, PP, MEG, Swing, Wire & Cable and Utilities

IPCL Gandhar ‐ Gas Cracker (400 KTA) Ph‐1: 1996 Ph‐2: Apr'2000

81 months

Ph‐1 ‐ Utilities, VCM, PVC, Chlor Alkali & 20% of Cracker Const Ph‐2 ‐ HDPE, LLDPE, MEG, Gas Cracker, C2‐C3 Separation

3

GAIL Pata (Gas Cracker) ‐ 400 KTA

Feb'98

65 months

Gas Cracker, LLDPE, HDPE, Butene‐1

4

HPL Haldia (Naphtha Cracker)‐ 420 KTA

Jul‐Aug'2000

48 months

Naphtha Cracker, PP, HDPE, LLDPE Bx Ext. unit

5

Shell Eastern Petroleum Ltd. Singapore, Naphtha Cracker (800 kta)

March'10

*50 months

Naphtha Cracker, Styrene monomer, Propylene oxide& MEG.*From Detailed engineering onwards

6

PNCP (Naphtha Cracker) ‐ 857 KTA

Mar 2010 (NCU) May 2010 (Polymer)

46/48 months

Naphtha Cracker Unit (NCU), Polypropylene Unit (PP) , Linear Low Density / High Density Polyethylene (LLDPE/ HDPE) Swing Unit, High Density Polyethylene Unit (HDPE), Mono Ethylene Glycol Unit (MEG), Associated Units namely Pyrolysis Gas Hydrogenation Unit (PGHU), C4 Hydrogenation Unit (C4HU), Benzene Extraction Unit (BEU), 239 MW Captive Power Plant, N2O2 plant

Global Comparison of Recent Ethylene/Cracker Plants Plant Cap Feed Piping EPC Contractor (KTA) Stock (Inch-Dia) EPC Start

EPC Period Product Route

Petro Rabigh

JGC

1,300

Gas

10 Lakh

Nov, 2004

Dec, 2009

5 years & 1 month

SHARQ

Linde/Samsung

1,300

Gas

10 Lakh

Jul, 2005

Apr, 2010

4 years & 9 months

Yansab

Technip

1,300

Gas

10 Lakh

May, 2005

Oct, 2009

4 years & 5 months

Ras Laffan

Technip

1,300

Gas

10 Lakh

Apr, 2005

Apr, 2010

5 years

Singapore

Shell

TEC-Lummus

1,000

Naphtha

12 Lakh

Jul, 2005

Apr, 2010

4 years & 9 months

Thailand

PMEC

TEC

800

Gas

6 Lakh

Jul, 2006

Feb, 2010

3 years & 7 months

Country Saudi Arabia

Qatar

India

68

Jan'90 (3 M)

Remark

Client

IOCL

JoP, January-March 2011

TEC / L&T

857

Naphtha

10 Lakh

Jun, 2006

Apr, 2010

Total period

3 years & 10 months

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70

JoP, January-March 2011

Annexure-F

Photographs

Unit Photographs

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Petrotech Activities

R&D Conclave – V

“Challenges in Research – Way Forward” January 10-11, 2011, Goa, India

Mr B. M. Bansal, Chairman IndianOil delivering special address

The Conclave of the Indian Scientists from Petroleum industry and academia, is one the unique initiatives of Petrotech, for promoting the culture of innovation.

Petrotech Society in association of IndianOil-R&D, organized the 5th R&D CONCLAVE at Goa, with about 60 invited scientists and academia, involved in Petroleum and Petrochemical related research. Two eminent scientists from abroad were also invited to share their experiences opinion on “Challenges in Research – Way Forward”, which was the theme of this year’s conclave.

Dr. R.K. Malhotra, Director (R&D), IOCL gave an overview of the conclave and impressed upon the R&D challenges in developing technologies.

While stating the basic purpose of organizing R&D conclaves, he touched

upon the main recommendations of the last two R&D conclaves in 2009 and 2010, which were focused on the issues related to actions industry needs to undertake to hasten the pace of commercialization of in-house developed technologies i.e issues and challenged with regard to Commercialization of R&D (2009 theme) and also the R&D Challenges being faced by the Petroleum Sector (2010 theme).

He recalled the innovative initiative taken by former Director (R&D) of IndianOil, Mr Anand Kumar, in starting this novel initiative in bringing the csintists of Indian Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals R&D on one platform. Dr Malhotra also recalled the role of IndianOil-R&D in compilation and communication of the recommendations of the last four Conclaves, and he called upon the participating organisations

to make consolidated effort for implementation of the same.

He also called upon PETROTECH SOCIETY to play a lead role and develop a mechanism for compiling such information from various participating industry, so that the same can further be deliberated and gap areas if any may be addressed.

He also called upon all the delegates & speakers to identify critical R&D challenges in bridging technological gap in both the streams of petroleum sector.

Special Address by Mr. B.M. Bansal, Chairman, IOCL During his special address, Mr Bansal emphasized the need of application oriented Research / Innovation and quick commercialization of JoP, January-March 2011

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Petrotech Activities the same. He also emphasized that today, Research and development— and as a result, technology—have tremendously improved the quality of human life. With the increasing significance of technology today, it becomes apparent that R&D has to take into account not only customers and business economics but the environment and society as well.

Looking at the rapidly changing business environment of industry in terms of technological advancements, international standards of operations and increased competition, we find that “being innovative” is the key to success and there is a need to inculcate innovation in our organizational DNA. He also impressed upon that the organizations should also ensure the availability of expertise as necessary for quick commercialization of innovation pertaining to process technology or products.

Inaugural Address of Mr. M. A. Pathan, Chairman Tata Petrodyne The inaugural Address was delivered

by Mr. M.A. Pathan, Former Chairman, IndianOil, and Chairman Tata Petrodyne Ltd. His inaugural address focused on 3 important domains of R&D, Energy Scenario and Global Warming.

In view of the US dominance in the World R&D spending of 1.2 Trillion USD during 2011 and a significantly visible trait of Asia’s progress he advocated for a radical change in the outlook for R&D in India. He pointed out that India has not been able to exceed 0.9% of the set 1% target of R&D to GDP spending with 0.61% coming from Government R&D establishments. In view of the current total target for R&D investing in India as a share of GDP being 1.2% by 2012 and a stipulated 220% increase for science & technology investments over the 10th Five-Year Plan in the 11th Fiveyear Plan, a whole-hearted concerted focus is warranted of the industry for fostering innovation.

Switching onto the energy scenario, the talk stressed for a requirement for not

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only maximizing the distillates with optimum use of the crudes but also gainfully utilizing these distillates as feed-stocks for petrochemical production. Congratulating IOC R&D for INDMAX process technology, he opined that the present-day refining technology derives its maximum strength by adopting the use of catalysts for maximum value added products, and that extensive research I required on catalysts for secondary processing of Refineries to bring down Refining cost.

Some major thrust areas like finding other unconventional sources of HC, integration of refineries with bio-refining and gasification, and conversion of ligno-cellulosic biomass to alcohol and algal based diesel were identified.

Emphasizing the requirement for reduction of carbon emissions and the need for restricting limit peak concentration of CHG to 450 ppm of CO2 from the global warming perspectives the following view points were forwarded – leap frogging to sustainable energy path and technologies as hydrogen, nuclear, solar, wind and biomass as an immediate measure; legislation for carbon tax, minimizing energy loss through tribo-chemical-mechanical options, emission compliance in the booming automobile sector with complimenting contributions from oil and gas industry, research into fuel cells , work into the areas of non-conventional gases as shale gas, coal bed methane, tight gas sands and efforts and research for finding the gas reserves such as gas hydrates on sea floors and commercially utilizing them.

Effective use of newer technology solutions relying on bio science and offering benefits of profitability coupled with the reduction of carbon foot print without encroaching the arena of food security was more than emphasized.

The inaugural speech, delivered by Mr. Pathan, is also publishes separately in this issue of the Petrotech Journal.

Summary of Deliberations of The 5th R&D Conclave: Session I: Energy Solutions

This session was devoted to discussing the opportunities and challenges associated with the Alternative Sources

of Energy i.e. Shale Gas, Gas Hydrate and CBM. Though, India is bestowed with tremendous potential reserve of these three, yet, we have to go along way before its commercial exploitation. The challenges are in form of understanding of right technology and elated R&D, development fo right infrastructure and right skill sets. Indian has, so far taken only small step in this direction, but the challenges of R&D is tremendous, which provides opportunity to Indian scientists and engineers to invest more and catch up with the developments already made in US , USSR, China and Japan.

The consensus was that we need to take lead in developing right technology, establish the country’s potential, and invest in its exploitation. Following three presentations were made by the area experts, in this session, which is also available on the Petrotech website.

• Mr. P.K. Bhowmick, ED-Head, KDMIPE-ONGC - Shale Gas Technology and its Exploration in India • Mr. A.V. Sathe, GM-Head, Gas Hydrate Project, IEOT-ONGC - Gas Hydrates: Status & Future Direction • Mr P.N. Hajra, DGM Block Manager, CBM, ONGC-Bokharo – CBM: The Road Ahead SESSION- II : Fuels and Lubricants for Low Emission Vehicles

The automotive sector accounts for over 25% of global GHG emission, and therefore, the quality of fuel and lubricants, have always been the challenge of R&D. Here is quality is governed by the end user, i.e the engines and drives, and therefore, the challenge of Fuel & lubricant research is either run parallel to the developments in automobile sector or remain ahead of them. This session was devoted to listening from, both, the auto sector and the additives developer and lubricant researcher.

Following four papers were rpesented in this session: • Mr. J.K. Deb, Fiat India Automobiles-“Challenges in Small Vehicle Development to meet Customer Expectations” • Mr. M.R. Kumbhani, Lubrizol India Pvt Limited –“R&D in Lubricant Technology” • Dr. S.K. Mazumdar, indianOil

Petrotech Activities

Mr M. A. Pathan lighting the lamp the Inaugural session

R&D, “Lubricants for Lower Emissions and Fuel Efficiency” • Dr. R.T. Mookken, IndianOil R&D. - “Synthetic Aviation Lubricants” The four papers presented in this session covered the entire spectrum of fuels and lubricants dynamics starting with the vehicle designs from the OEM and Advisory body, use of performance additives from additive manufacturer, challenges in automotive lubricants for meeting the emission and fuel efficiency indices and the effective use of a consortium for development and validation of synthetic aviation lubricants.

Mr. J.K. Deb, Fiat India Automobiles“Challenges in Small Vehicle Development to meet Customer Expectations”

This paper primarily focused at the small engines and was addressed more from SIAM point of view than from the OEM itself. It covered various aspects of engine designs to meet the requirements of BS IV. It brought out the fact that in India contributions from transport sector to CO2 emissions was only 12% and that technologies are available to curb the tailpipe emissions significantly. Automobile industry has the following expectations:

• The new vehicles with catalytic convertors come with oxy-sensors and any malady in the functioning of the cat-cons are alarmed through the OBDs . Hence any aberrations from the external operational index such as either non-conformity of the fuels requirement would set the alarm on, thereby leading to the customer dissatisfaction.

• In view of the above the automobile industry requires the road map for fuel trends in advance of 1 year for development and 2 years of lead time for reliability work out.

• The staggering of the fuel quality in different parts of the country becomes an impediment for bringing the latest technology in the country.

Hence it would be more pragmatic to switch on to a similar fuel quality in terms of complying to emission norms throughout the country.

• Relaxation of cetane and octane for North-East refineries should be reviewed.

• Euro IV vehicles do not sustain fuel adulteration. Euro V vehicles would not work with even minimum adulteration. Hence efforts should not only be made for effective marker development but also for taking up

with policy makers for realistic pricing policy for discouraging adulteration.

• The lubricants should be focussed for fuel efficiency.

Mr. M.R. Kumbhani, Lubrizol India Pvt Limited –“R&D in Lubricant Technology”

This lecture provided a broad canvas of the research in additives that go handin-hand with the expectations of the oil industry to meet the challenges of the equipment compatibility. The paper addressed that emissions, fuel economy and oil durability were the key components of an automotive lubricant in present day contest. The following 3 models for development of high performance lubricants meeting the automobile industry’s expectations were forwarded.

• OEM working with Additive Manufacturer. This works for a global scenario.

• OEM working with Oil Company.

This is more pertinent to the local market where the operational conditions and market dynamics are well known to the regional oil company.

• OEM working with Oil Company and Additive manufacturer. This JoP, January-March 2011

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Petrotech Activities is an ideal situation wherein the expertise of the formulation developer and additive manufacturer are pooled together to provide an optimum solution.

Dr. S.K. Mazumdar, indianOil R&D, “Lubricants for Lower Emissions and Fuel Efficiency”

This talk provided an insight into the impact of the engine hardware and the market dynamics on the automotive lubricants. The effect of vehicle emission compliance and downsizing coupled with the staggered fuel quality across the country on the lubricant stress was also brought out. The challenges posed on automotive lubricants for fuel efficiency and durability had also been indicated. The strength of the automotive lubricants in Indian subcontinent for backward compatibility to low emission vehicles and the global reach for new generation vehicles had been projected. The expectation of the Lubricant R&D is: • Inclusion of the Lubricant Design as a component of the vehicle design for customizing to the requirements of the vehicles and hence • An effective partnership from the initial stages of development and homologation.

Dr. R.T. Mookken, IndianOil R&D. “Synthetic Aviation Lubricants”

This talk traced the concept of Consortium R&D for development of niche lubricant for a sector that demands highest order of safety factor. This paper provided an insight into the types of the aircrafts for civil and defence aviation and the requirements thereof.

The complexities of the formulation from optimization to performance test to endurance test to safety compliance was elaborated. The role of the Research Institute in developing the base stocks, expertise of IndianOil R&D in designing and development of the formulation, effectiveness of OEMs for evaluating the efficacy of the formulation developed and the role of the approving authority in monitoring the safety compliance through an arduous endurance test has been demonstrated in this research endeavor. The recommendations are: • the approach of collaborative re-

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search is feasible and it requires an understanding of the concept and the role of the partner with due credit to the role played by them • IPR issues require to be deliberated and worked out before the start of the project for its logical conclusion.

Dr. K. P. Naithani, ED(R&D), IndianOil, who Chaired this sessions, summarized with his expert comments, as follows:

a. In view of the tighter emission norms and requirement of new generation lubricants its time that the Indian oil industry goes aggressively for manufacture of PAO. b. Automotive lubricants must be designed to meet the stringent emission norms, fuel efficiency and long drain capability. c. Industrial lubricants should be focused at energy efficiency. Metal working fluids should be high performance at affordable cost. d. Life Cycle Management and REACH should be focus area for future endeavor. e. Environment friendly and biodegradable lubricants and greases with superior performance and optimum cost would be a challenge that the formulator would have to take in.

Session III: Refining Technology Processes: Carbon Reduction

The challenge before the oil sector, is to reduce the carbon in the entire life cycle of its operation, from well to wheel or the exhaust of the engines.

Apart from the global commitments to reduce GHG emission on certain deadline, Indian too has committed to reduce carbon emission by 20 % of its 2005 level, by 2020. It’s a tough task, and a big challenge for the R&D in the country. This session gad four presentation ranging from innovations in reutilization of Carbon Dioxide , to development of low carbon oil refining technology to putting a brake on the menace of fuel adultration, and also on the cost – economics of various carbon reduction option. Following three papers were presented in this session: • Carbon Capture and Reuse: New approaches for producing Biofuels : Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, Lanzatech Limited, USA

• Carbon Reduction – R&D Options : Mr Brijesh Kumar, DGM (Ref Technology Research), IndianOil-R&D • Carbon Reduction Options: Cost Evaluation & Economics.: Mr. M.K. Joshi, Former Director (Tech), EIL Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, Lanzatech Limited, USA – Carbon Capture and Reuse: New approaches for producing Biofuels

• BY 2030, 30% of fuel should come from low carbon sources to contain CO2 conc. below 450 ppm. In view of this, Lanzatech has developed a proprietary technology using microbes at low temperature for producing ethanol and chemicals such as isoprene, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), acrylic acid, etc. from CO. The process has been demonstrated in a 15,000 gal / year pilot plant using flue gas stream from an operating steel mill.

• Cost of production Lanzatech process is US$ 1.33-1.63 per gal of ethanol produced • Plan for a commercial unit of 50 million/year by 2012 and 100 million/year by 2013.

Mr Brijesh Kumar, IOCL-R&D - Carbon Reduction – R&D Options

• Emphasized that technologies would need to be least carbon intensive as in future this may be the significant criteria in selection of technologies.

• Presented various factors guiding future research areas and options.

• In future, Refineries will be integrated with Gasification and biorefining.

• He presented brief outline of several possible routes for converting CO2 to chemical / syngas, however there are issues related to cost of CO2 capture and hydrogen availability.

In future with mandates and tax on carbon, CO2 may be available at zero or negative cost and if hydrogen could be made from renewable sources, CO2 recycle into chemicals and Syngas may become reality.

Mr. M.K. Joshi, Former Director (Tech), EIL - Carbon Reduction Options: Cost Evaluation & Economics.

• Projected Underground gasification of Coal (UGC) as potential source of energy in India involving low in-

Petrotech Activities vestment and low CO2 emission • The SNG production option with carbon capture has a lower carbon footprint. Both CTL and Coal to SNG processes would require the availability of infrastructure preferably close to the mine offering convenience of product disposal.

SNG can be routed to an existing gas pipeline and Hydrogen (if co produced) can be piped to refineries in the vicinity while power can be sent to captive consumers or to the grid.

• Presented several options for Refineries for reduction in CO2 emission.

• Crude distillation is the major source of CO2 emission in a refinery. Since all the products are processed subsequently in some other units for meeting the final product quality, fine fractionation with narrow gap-overlap can be avoided leading to substantial savings.

Pinch analysis of Heat and Hydrogen in refineries can lead to significant reduction in energy consumption.

Session IV: Fuel Quality and Alternative & Renewable Fuels & Energy

This session was devoted to discussing the options for alternative and renewable fuels, and its use along with conventional fuels, prospects of renewable fuels in short and long term, and the options for renewable sources of energy. Adulteration of fuels is one of greatest menace to the oil business and also causing inefficiency and higher emissions. This topic was also discussed as challenge to the researchers, besides the options and status of R&D in the other areas of renewable sources of fuel and energy.

Following three papers were presented during this session: • “Marker – An Effective Tool for Ensuring Fuel Quality” : Dr. A.A. Gupta, GM(FE), IOCL R&D Centre, “ • “Aspects in Coal to Liquid Conversion” Dr. RN Maiti, AGM, EILR&D, • “Present Status & Impediments for Alternative Energy” Mr. S.K. Sarangi, ED (RE&SD), IOCL, • “Bioprocesses: Future Possibilities & Way Forward” : Dr. Ajay Arora, Research Manager, IOC-R&D Centre,

Dr. A.A. Gupta, GM(FE), IOCL R&D Centre, “Marker – An Effective Tool for Ensuring Fuel Quality” Dr. Gupta gave an overview on automotive fuel quality and also discussed about adulteration & marker as key strategy for ensuring quality fuels. He spoke about fuel quality initiatives of the country including the recommendations of the Auto Fuel Committee and efforts to make available BS-III & BSIV fuels in the country. Use of marker as key strategy for ensuring quality fuels, was also discussed in detail. He summarized the presentation as follows: • Fuel quality is a driver to the Indian economy and fuel quality improvement/requirement depends on various factors • Oil Industry strictly adhering to the recommendations of Auto Fuel Policy – Marching towards “Fuel Neutral Scenario” • Required modifications in refineries have been made with huge investments to produce cleaner fuels • Complimentary vehicle technology is also available. However, up gradation of only fuel quality & vehicle technology cannot improve ambient air quality • Integrated approach involving better driving habits, I&M programs, adulteration monitoring besides, road & traffic improvement are essentially required. Further, stringent regulations and infrastructure for implementing the same are also required • Use of marker appears attractive as long term strategy • Considerable success by IOC-R&D in developing an indigenous Marker. Work is in progress.

Dr. RN Maiti, AGM, EIL-R&D, “Aspects in Coal to Liquid Conversion” Dr. Maiti of EIL gave an overview of CTL including technology component for producing FT liquids. He also touched upon CTL technology development efforts and about product flexibility of syngas that can be driven efficiently by using coal-toliquid technology. He informed that

CTL is attractive because coal is relatively more abundant than oil and gas and conversion from coal to liquid is a techno-economic feasible solution.

He also discussed about Direct Coal Liquefaction (DCL) and Indirect Coal Liquefaction (ICL) and comparison between DCL and ICL technologies.

He further informed that due to high ash content of Indian coals and based on the relative merits of both the technologies, ICL technology seems to be a more promising option for converting coal to clean liquid fuels. He also discussed about various types of gasifires and issues related with high ash India coal gasification. Summary of the presentation is as follows: • Coal to liquid conversion is an option for clean transport fuels is becoming attractive through technological advances and rising prices of oil and gas. For India, with abundance of coal, CTL is highly attractive option.

• There are various technical components in CTL Process for FT liquid production. Major steps are coal gasification, syngas cleaning, FT synthesis and product up gradation.

• Experience of CTL with high ash coal is emerging. There are various issues to be experienced or to be assessed experimentally.

• Direct coal liquefaction is attractive with low ash coal carried at a temperature of 400-5000C and 100-300 bar pressure. However, the product being highly aromatic, extensive hydrotreatment is necessary.

• EIL-BPCL-Thermax-CHT consortium has undertaken the project for conversion of Indian coal to diesel / wax through FT process.

The plan involves study of gasification in 100 Kg/hr Fluidized bed gasification pilot plant at EIL R&D and development of FT catalyst and process employing bench scale fixed bed and slurry bed reactors at BPCL R&D. • Based on this, the consortium has the plan to go for 100 BPD commercial / demonstration plant in future, for which EIL will develop the complete BDEP Mr. S.K. Sarangi, ED (RE&SD), IOCL, “Present Status & Impediments for Alternative Energy” JoP, January-March 2011

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Petrotech Activities Sh. S.K. Sarangi of IndianOil discussed about bio-processes and alternative fuel and their present status and impediments. Sh. Sarangi detailed about renewable energy landscape of the country which included wind & solar energies, biofuels, nuclear energy, biogas, small/micro hydro, geothermal, ocean, tidal, fuel cell and hydrogen from renewable energy. He went into details of potential of renewable energy in the country with significant interest and possibilities of investment. He also discussed about alternative energy initiatives taken by IndianOil. Conclusions as presented by Sh. Sarangi are as follows: • Accelerating adoption of Solar Photovoltaic will reach cost competitiveness by 2015 to 2020 in sunny region • Moving past subsidy driven growth cost will decline from 11 to 13 cents (7-8 INR) by 2015 due to: – conversion efficiency issue – increase in production scale and expenditure curve effects – continued migration of operations to low cost countries • Accelerating adoption cost will reach 11 to 16 cents by 2015 and less than 10 cents by 2020. Factors responsible are: – Scale effects – Learning curve effect – Plant convoy effects (5 to 10% CAPEX reduction for development at single location) – Improvements in technology • Onshore wind is an option for steady adoption • Offshore wind is for Slow adoption • Clean Coal thru’ Carbon Capture & Sequestration is considered to be for very slow adoption • Advanced bio-fuels, E.g. ligno-cellulosic ethanol are promising energy options • Bio-fuel from Algae has potential advantage w.r.t yield and area requirement Challenges/Impediments • Requirement for Innovative Technology Development for – Improvement of efficiency – Reduction of capital cost – More automation – Attractive IRR • Land availability is crucial in view of large area requirement for RE facili-

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ties. New technology with reduced land requirement to be developed.

• More pilot scale demonstrations with various technologies to be tried and tested.

• Govt support is required for CAPEX, tariff, easy loan for encouraging of RE activities.

Dr. Ajay Arora, Research Manager, IOC-R&D Centre, “Bioprocesses: Future Possibilities & Way Forward” Dr. Ajay Arora, while discussing about future possibility and way forward in biofuel gave an overview on increasing CO2 and temperature levels in atmosphere and need for containing the same by way of deploying efficient engine, fuel technology and use of renewable fuels/biofuels. Dr. Arora discussed about the driving force behind use of biofuels in transportation sector. Biomass potential in the country and non-fodder biomass potential in Haryana was also presented. He also gave biomass conversion pathways for production of bioethanol and bio-oil from biomass through thermal and biotechnological route. He also discussed about possibilities of producing value added products from bio-oil phenolic lignin. Co-processing route of vegetable oil with diesel to yield green diesel was also presented.

He concluded the presentation with following remarks: • Ethanol from sugarcane is most cost effective biofuel in India at present • In future, ethanol production from Lignocellulosic biomass holds great promise • Bio-Oil produced by fast pyrolysis of biomass is another potential alternate biofuel which can be used as an energy source and also as feed stock for production of green chemicals.

• Co-processing of SVO in refineries to produce green diesel is also a promising technology • Environmental reasons will drive research efforts towards carbon neutral transportation fuels.

SESSION V : Petrochemical and Polymers

Petrochemicals has emerged as area of greater challenge in India, andlittle work has been done so far. NCL has done some pioneering work, followed by UDCT and Reliance industry, and IndianOil-R&D

has just set up its sate of art research facilities, and set the ball rolling last year.

India is yet to emerge as technology developer in this area. Consumption of Polymers in India is one fifth of developed countries and it needs tremendous R&D for reducing cost and customizing to suit Indian conditions. It is, also, a great opportunity for the Petrochemicals scientists. Following three papers were presented: • “Challenges faced for Innovative Research”: Mr. Svein H. Jamtvedt, Norner AS, Norway • “R&D in Petrochemicals: Challenges and Opportunities”: Dr. Gurmeet Singh, IOCL R&D on • “Challenges in Petrochemical Research”: Dr. Rajeshwer Dongara, RIL Jamnagar Mr. Svein H. Jamtvedt, Norner AS, Norway on “Challenges faced for Innovative Research” Mr. Svein talk was focused on “State of the Art” of Polyolefin degradation and stabilization, Challenges in the field and Way forward emerging out of the current technological trends. He discussed about the Norner enterprises, its set-up, competence and highlighted its current projects. Oxidation mechanism, anti-oxidant mechanism and testing was discussed. Summary of the presentation are : • Polyolefins stabilised with main antioxidants give much shorter lifetime in contact with extractive media than tested under dry conditions • Today’s main antioxidants could lead to unwanted chemicals (NIAS non-intentionally added substances) challenges are expected from future legislations • Re-formulation of additive recipes giving less migration in contact with extractive media is required • Careful selection of additives to meet lifetime expectations of polyolefins in contact with chlorinated water was highlighted • Careful selection of additives to secure minimum content of by-products (NIAS) • Complying the stricter legislative requirements, like REACH in EU, various similar regulations will dictate the new products and chemicals

Petrotech Activities being introduced in the market.

• In-situ stabilisation would be a way to retard degradation at the earliest point of polymerisation, also reducing the amount of stabilisers • Under the present competitive situation, number of vendors are available to provide the additives at equivalent quality and much competitive rates Dr. Gurmeet Singh, IOCL R&D on “R&D in Petrochemicals: Challenges and Opportunities” Dr. Singh shared the current status of the Global Chemical, Polymer, Petrochemical and Polyolefin Industries and growth patterns. The talk covered the topics from catalyst carrier, catalyst, additives in polyolefins. Sustainable development was focused with Reduce, Reuse and Recyle as the theme.

Commercialization of the technologies and industry segmentation transition from Basic to Knowledge base was emphasized.

Summary of the Presentation:

• Importance of polyolefins in lieu of low processing cost and product differentiation • Development of next generation of Zigler-Natta catalyst owing to REACH regulations and creation of FTO from Indian perspective are much required • Product and process innovations requirement for polyolefin catalysts for cost effectiveness with-in the present commercial plants were put forth • Multifunctional additives and effective dispersion at the reactor stage itself may provide with pathway to reduce the loading of the additives • Functional polyolefins are niche class of polymers with extended product capabilities and properties • New class of catalyst system for controlling molecular architecture are required for cost effective polymerization • To make the polyolefins more environmentally sustainable number of layers from packaging need to be reduced through new product development • Carbon dioxide based polymers like poly(propylene carbonate) provide with environmentally friendly polymers

Dr. Rajeshwer Dongara, RIL Jamnagar “Challenges in Petrochemical Research” Dr Dongara talked about the challenges faced by industry for catalyst designing. He emphasized the importance of hybrid catalysts and incorporation of nano science to catalysis. Process intensification may hold the key to enhance the through-put of current commercial plants. Examples of epoxidation catalyst & process development, dehydrogenation catalyst & process development and hydrogenation catalysts – Green oil reduction were discussed. He laid stress on collaborative approach for research and utilization of Universities and Institutes for their vast talent pool.

Summary of the presentation is as follows:

• Reduction in discovery & process development cycle time for new catalysts and processes is required • Catalysts with higher efficacy, activity, selectivity and life are to explored • Need to utilize various tools like analytical tools, computational tools and catalytic reaction engineering should be used in tandem for catalyst designing • Nano catalysts or nano structured catalysts will hold the key for next generation of catalysts • Eco friendly processes & products complying to statutory stringent emission levels • Application of sophisticated techniques like HR-TEM for the structural analysis as well as understanding reaction mechanisms • Need for setting up of sophisticated instrumentation centres as PublicPrivate partnership with access to industry & academia was highlighted Session VI: R&D Collaboration & Commercialization: Issues, Challenges & Opportunities

One of the challenge of R&D in the refining technology has been collaboration, and the bigger challenge has bee commercialization of the technologies developed, and continuous improvements in these technologies.

The industry has to come forward in commercialization and patronizing the

indigenously developed technologies.

The confidence of industry in investing in new technology is very important, and for this, the industry has to get associated with the process of development of technology, either by way sponsorship or by way of collaboration. China, has shown way if patronizing indigenous technologies, from which, India can learn.

Three presentations were made in this session.

Dr. M.O. Garg, Director, IIP Dehradun : Challenges of Commercialisation

• Highlighted various factors responsible for poor commercial exploitation of technologies developed indigenously • Presented the overview of technologies developed and commercialized

by IIP • Emphasized the need for continuous development and marketing efforts and in-house Groups for Process Engineering, IPR and Marketing in order to leverage the benefits of development of technologies / products / materials • Catalyst has immense potential to reduce the production cost and therefore concerted efforts are to be directed towards this.

• Availability of infrastructure for scale up and commercial production of developed catalyst formulations is necessary to realize the benefits of successful catalyst development.

In India, there is only one company (SCIL) for catalyst manufacturing and all PSU companies are depending on them. This in turn may work out to be risky and counter-productive.

Mrs. N.J. Thomas, GGM, ONGC : Collaborating for Development

• Highlighted the importance in collaborative research in development of complex technology involving specific expertise in varieties of areas as all the expertise may not be available under same roof.

• Presented the overview of various facets of collaboration which need to be suitably addressed in the Agreement based on experiences in collaboration programs undertaken

by ONGC Energy Centre.

• Monitoring the collaborative proJoP, January-March 2011

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Petrotech Activities gram by an Apex group is important in realizing the benefits out of the collaboration.

• IPR aspects to be properly defined during the agreement stage itself to avoid conflict while exploiting the outcome of collaborative programs.

Mr. G Sriganesh, GM, BPCL – R&D Collaboration & Commercialization: Issues and Challenges at HPCL

• Presented an overview of activities in R&D pursued by HPCL. • HPCL is revamping Diesel desulfurization unit using Isotherming technology of Dupont leading to capacity enhancement by 30%.

• HPCL is implementing process for fuel gas desulphurization (Hi-Gee process) based on process intensification concept developed by IIT Kanpur Major Recommendations

Session I: Energy Solutions This session was devoted to discussing the opportunities and challenges associated with the Alternative Sources of Energy i.e. Shale Gas, Gas Hydrate and CBM. Though, India is bestowed with tremendous potential reserve of these three, yet, we have to go along way before its commercial exploitation. The challenges are in form of understanding of right technology and elated R&D, development fo right infrastructure and right skill sets. Indian has, so far taken only small step in this direction, but the challenges of R&D is tremendous, which provides opportunity to Indian scientists and engineers to invest more and catch up with the developments already made in US , USSR, China and Japan.

Major recommendations of this session were: • To take lead in developing right technology, establish the country’s potential, and invest in its exploitation.

• Make liberal investment in R&D, Skill development, and evaluation and acquisition of right technology and collaborators • The Govt should come out with the Shale Gas policy soon • Action for establishing Shale Gas Potential must be started soonest • Action for developing the unique

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skill and managerial capabilities required for developing alternative energy, must start right away Session II: Fuels and Lubricants for Low Emission Vehicles

• The automobile industry requires the road map for fuel trends in advance of 1 year for development and 2 years of lead time for reliability work out.

• The staggering of the fuel quality in different parts of the country becomes an impediment for bringing the latest technology in the country.

Hence it would be more pragmatic to switch on to a similar fuel quality in terms of complying to emission norms throughout the country.

• Relaxation of cetane and octane for North-East refineries should be reviewed.

• Euro IV vehicles do not sustain fuel adulteration. Euro V vehicles would not work with even minimum adulteration. Hence efforts should not only be made for effective marker development but also for taking up with policy makers for realistic pricing policy for discouraging adulteration.

• The lubricants should be focused on fuel efficiency.

• Inclusion of the Lubricant Design as a component of the vehicle design for customizing to the requirements of the vehicles and hence an effective partnership from the initial stages of development and homologation.

• Consortium research works out to be an effective approach for development of niche segment of lubricants like aviation grades. This case study can be taken as a model for future work programs.

• Creation of facilities for manufacture of polyyol and ester and diasasters for blending and aviation grade engine oils • Approach to be made to create joint work programs with OEMS such as air based-Boeing, Rolls & Royce, GE, Pratt Whittney using indigenously developed esters and available engine testing facilities with the OEMs. Session III: Refining Technology Processes: Carbon Reduction

• Process Intensification is emerging area and needs concerted efforts to develop

• Isotherming technology from M/s Dupont may be considered by Refineries for grassroot as well as revamp of hydroprocessing units.

• Work on following projects, including development of catalysts aiming towards direct conversion of CO2 and methane to chemical / syngas may be taken up. a. Oxidative coupling of CH4 (CH4+ ½O2= ½ C2H4+ H2O (exothermic)) b. Decomposition of CH4 (CH4 → C + 2H2) c. Dry reforming of CO2 (CO2+ CH4 = 2CO+ 2 H2 (247 kJ/ mol)) d. Conversion of CO2 to Oxygenates (CO2+ 3H2 = CH3OH +H2O (- 90.7 kJ/mol) • Infrastructure for establishing scalability of developed catalyst recipe may be considered to realize the benefits of successful catalyst development.

• Development of catalyst through application of nano-science and structured/monolithic catalyst system for reduction of reactor volume (process intensification) as well as energy consumption.

• Processes for integrating Biorefining with Refining operations needs to be developed through concerted efforts. Technologies for fast pyrolysis of biomass, upgradation of Bio-Oil including Co-processing & gasification and catalysts.

• Suitable mechanism for quick commercialization of in-house developed technologies / products / catalysts needs to be adopted by industry.

• Engineering capability to prepare BDEP and cost estimate to be developed in house and formation of in-house Groups for Process Engineering, IPR and Marketing in order to leverage the benefits of development of technologies / products / materials.

• In future shale oil and shale gas will be a prominent energy source. We have to be ready with enabling technology/ strategies for processing shale Oil as when made available.

Session IV: Fuel Quality and Alternative Fuels

• Use of marker appears to be long term strategy for monitoring fuel adulteration and work must be pursued in this direction.

Petrotech Activities • Coal to liquid conversion is an option for clean transport fuels and must be pursued • In alternative energy area, solar photovoltaic, onshore wind, algae and biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass needs special attention • Bio-Oil produced by fast pyrolysis of biomass is another potential alternate biofuel which needs to be pursued as an energy source and also as feed stock for production of green chemicals.

Session V: Petrochemicals & Polymers

• Challenges are expected from future legislations like REACH to address the additives designing and loading of the additives as such.

• Alternate vendor development based on strong scientific basis may provide equally effective additives at much competitive cost.

• New developments in Ziegler-Natta catalysis and creating FTO remain essential for technology commercialization.

• Catalyst development for Functional Polyolefins can provide with controlled molecular architecture and new class of products.

• Biodegradable polymers need to be pursued for their wide spread application in commodity applications.

• State of the Art instrumentation laboratories for structural investigations need to be set up in consortium and extensively used for fast developmental work.

• Multi-disciplinary team and collaborations across organizations are required for fast bench to plant transitions.

Session VI: R&D Collaboration & Commercialization: Issues, Challenges & Opportunities

• There is a need for continuous development and marketing efforts and in-house Groups for Process Engineering, IPR and Marketing in order to leverage the benefits of development of technologies / products / materials.

• Catalyst has immense potential to reduce the production cost and therefore concerted efforts are to be directed towards this.

• Availability of infrastructure for scale up and commercial production of developed catalyst formulations

is necessary to realize the benefits of successful catalyst development.

In India, there is only one company (SCIL) for catalyst manufacturing and all PSU companies are depending on them. This in turn may work out to be risky and counter-productive.

• Monitoring the collaborative program by an Apex group is important in realizing the benefits out of the collaboration.

• IPR aspects to be properly defined during the agreement stage itself to avoid conflict while exploiting the outcome of collaborative programs.

Panel Discussion & Conclusion: The panel was Chaired of Dr M O Garg, Mr Anand Kumar, Mr M K Joshi and Dr R K Naithani, was Chaired by Mr A K Arora. Major recommendations from the panel were: • Faster augmentation of investment into R&D, bringing India at par with China, which is way ahead.

• Greater collaboration between, Industry, Researcher institutions and Academia • Accelerate R&D and investment in 3rd Generation Biofuel research to be given top priority for improving upon scalability and bringing down cost, making it cost competitive with conventional fuels.

• Invest in developing infrastructure for exploitation and use of alternative and renewable energy and biofuels, including investment in developing right skill sets and the new generation of scientists and technocrats • Develop energy efficient lubricants and transmission oils, for meeting fuel quality of Euro-V, REACH and beyond • R&D and Industry to work together for meeting the deadline becoming MARPOL -2012 compliant.

• Catalysis and additives development must be given top priority in all R&D • Handling soot in combustion products must also be a top priority research area • Bio-Polymer Research besides developing loe PHA packaging

material and catalysts and additives for the same • Govt must bring out shale Gas Policy sooner, and Indian should make faster progress in this area, which ahs great promise for improving energy security of India.

• R&D outfits must identify the right collaborators for R&D in making Shale Gas production more eco friendly and cost effective.

• Collaborative R&D program must be monitored by an Apex group, which is is important in realizing the benefits of collaboration on a timeline.

Forthcoming Petrotech Programmes & Events Course on Climate Change Science, Sustainability & Low Carbon Initiatives

Venue: Hotel Claridges, Delhi Date: 18th-19th May, 2011 Participants: Oil & Gas Industry

6th Petrotech Summer School in Oil Refining & Petrochemicals,

Venue: IndianOil Institute of Petroleum Management (IiPM), Gurgaon Date: 6th-10th June, 2011 Course Director: Mr S Rajagopal & Dr Shashikant, IndianOil-R&D Sponsors: IndianOil-R&D and IiPM Participants: faculty of Chemical Engineering & Petrochemical and Oil & Gas Industry

4th Industry Educational tour to University of Alberta, Edmonton, CANADA

Date: 11th-17th July, 2011 Nominations: Latest by 5th June (to enable Visa ) Participants Profile: Executives from Upstream & Downstream Oil & Gas Industry and R&D

Subir Raha Memorial Lecture

On 29th August, 2011

7th Course on Modern Practices in Petroleum Exploration

Date: 5th-9th September, 2011 Venue: KDMIPE, ONGC, Dehradun Participants: Academia and Industry professionals

Oil Spill India 2011

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Petrotech Activities

PETROTECH R&D CONCLAVE The oil industry and CSIR have many R&D institutions, but interactions and collaboration between these intuitions were missing. Realising it, the then Executive Director of IndianOil Institute of Petroleum Management, Mr Anand Kumar, had series of discussions with the Petrotech and the then Head of IndianOil-R&D Dr R P Verma, for developing a forum which will bridge this gap.

It was a visionary step by the three , resulted in holding first R&D Conclave at Goa in the Jan 2006. This first small step laid a foundation for a very effective Forum for the scientists from oil, gas, and petrochemicals and also academia, for sharing information’s, developing ground for collaborations in R&D, and deliberating the issues and challenges before the R&D work carried out by the Indian O&G scientists and academia.

IndianOil-R&D has taken this work very seriously and has been sponsoring the event since its inception.

This year, the 6th Goa R&D Conclave centred its deliberations around Barriers of R&D and Way Forward. Mr M A Pathan, Former Chairman IndianOil, inaugurated this conclave, while Mr B M Bansal, Chairman(offg), IndianOil, delivered a special address to the scientists participating in this conclave. The details of deliberation of the 6th R&D Conclave has been brought out in this issue of the journal of Petrotech, the IndianOil-R&D, keeps attack of implementation of the recommendations, which emerged from the deliberations.

should stand for Innovation and not Imitation. And innovation is commercialization of research.

The history of the world is characterized by innovative products, new technologies and their successful applications.

It is thus the relentless pursuit of R&D efforts that innovation and newer technologies have created successful companies. The collective dynamism, so unleashed, results in the development of nations. R&D is inherently founded on educational activity that extends the boundaries of knowledge generating acceptable & affordable products.

It is worth noting that the total global spending on R&D is anticipated at USD 1.2 trillion during 2011. Asia’s stake in the geographic distribution of this investment is steadily increasing but the United States still dominates absolute spending at a level well above its share of global GDP. Today, China, second only to the United States in R&D funding, is realizing the benefits of an unprecedented investment in education. As a result, highly skilled workers will substantially boost China’s annual GDP to a level of more than $120 trillion by 2040.

At the outset, I would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year 2011 and thank the organizers for inviting me to this two day conference on “Challenges in Research – the Way Forward”.

The Indian economy is expected to grow at about 9% or more annually over at least the next 5 years, if not the next decade. We have been active in collaborating and doing business with established R&D leaders in the recent past. We also have set goals for us in the past several years to increase R&D to GDP ratio to more than 1% but have not been able to exceed 0.9%. And surprisingly 0.61% of this spending is attributable to government R&D investments, which have been increasing over the past several years. It is not that Industrial investments in Indian R&D have not risen. In fact the current total target for R&D investing in India as a share of GDP is 1.2% by 2012. The 11th Five-year Plan has stipulated a 220% increase for science & technology investments over the 10th Five-Year Plan.

I shall begin by dwelling upon the world R&D

Now I would switch over to Energy Scenario

At a recent seminar, Dr. R.A. Mashelkar had observed that the “I” in India

Energy as you are all aware, is the lifeline of modern living. World Energy de-

Inaugural Address of Mr. M. A. Pathan, Chief Guest R&D Conclave 2011 Dear participants, Ladies & Gentleman,

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mand could more than double by 2050 as population rises and developing countries expand economy. The current fossil-fuel-dominated portfolio is also undergoing a transition to one that includes a wide range of fuels. However, in the foreseeable future, mankind will not be able to do without fossil fuels.

Oil industry is already making efforts not only for best use of Crude to maximize distillates but also to add value by gainfully utilizing these distillates as feedstocks for petrochemical production. However, there is ample scope for further optimizing the secondary processing units like FCC, Hydrocracker and Reformers by resorting to extensive research of catalysts to be used in these processes. In my considered opinion today’s refining technology derives its maximum strength by adopting the use of catalysts for maximum value added products. I would like to congratulate IOC, R&D for INDMAX Process Technology for higher production of LPG. However in my opinion there is urgent need of extensive research to find out economical but more effective catalysts for secondary processing of Refineries to bring down Refining cost.

Crude oil is becoming costlier and heavier which also throws another challenge of finding other unconventional sources of HC, in this direction, I foresee Refineries getting integrated with bio refining and gasification, which can feed on variety of feed stock including biomass derived liquid. Conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to alcohol and algal based diesel are some of the areas which will require major thrust from R&D fraternity.

Petrotech Activities Now I touch upon the most important aspect i.e. Global Warming Carbon dioxide emissions have increased significantly worldwide during the past few decades, caused by an increased industrialization reaching nearly 25 billion tons of CO2. Current level of CO2 in the atmosphere has already reached an alarming level of 390 ppm and is rising at an unprecedented level. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;450 scenarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, i.e. to limit peak concentration of CHG to 450 ppm of CO2 equivalent in the long term, consistent with sustainable global average temperature increase to 2 oC, sets out an agenda to define energy consumption and developmental path. Therefore, it goes beyond saying that the reduction of carbon emission is the most important issue facing the mankind today to avoid major catastrophe.

Unlike other emissions, which are local in cause and effects, global warming is a global issue, even though it affects different countries in different measures, India is one said to be affected the most.

India may not follow the same energy intensive path followed by the developed economies. India has opportunity to leap frog to energy path and technologies which are sustainable in long term like hydrogen, nuclear, solar, wind and biomass.

High cost of fuel and new environmental regulations to reduce emissions are putting pressure on the hydrocarbon industry to operate more efficiently and economically to be profitable. Pending legislation for carbon tax is another factor that is facing the industry.

Efficiency improvement of industrial operations is the need of the hour to reduce energy consumption and overall carbon foot print. In this connection, minimizing the energy losses through reducing friction and wear- the tribological aspects of industrial operations hold the key. It is here, that lubricant formulators can play a major role in developing and deploying energy efficient, long drain lubricants.

Another sector which poses greater challenge and opportunity to downstream petroleum sector is the boom-

ing Indian automobile sector which has registered impressive growth rates beating the global recessionary impacts. Compliance of emission norms as envisioned in Bharat stage IV and V regulations by transport sector will need complimenting contributions from oil and gas industry esp. in making available commensurate quality of fuels and lubricants.

World over a lot of research is being carried out on development of fuel cells which are commercially viable. Practical designs of fuel cells have to be formulated so that they can be used in automobiles, residences, offices and almost every area of life. However, fuel like hydrogen is expensive, difficult to handle and may have produced a lot of carbon footprint in order to be produced. So further research is required to reduce costs of Membrane & Electrodes to make it economical.

Apart from the conventional research, the world is moving towards non conventional gases. These include shale gas, coal bed methane, tight gas sands.

Apart from these there is research going on for in-situ coal gasification. Contrary to belief, the production cost of high quality non conventional gas is less than conventional gas due to which the production in US is continuously increasing and has reached 10% of the total US gas production in 2010. This is further likely to increase to 65-70% by 2020.

This is a very clear R&D success story in United States and India has to do more research in finding these gas reserves and commercially utilizing them. Apart from this India has been conducting research on Gas Hydrates on Sea floor.

Studies show that gas hydrate reserves far exceed conventional gas but viable techniques for commercial usage of these hydrates have to be found.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize Industrial R&D and other departments of Govt. of India have done some pioneering research in usage of other forms of renewable energy. This includes usages of bio-mass for bio-methanation. It may require further improvement of design of efficient bio-methanation plants for year round bio- gas production at ambient temperatures and at commercially

viable costs. Most sugar mills in India have already developed or developing co-generation facilities for production of bio gas to be converted into electricity.

I must say that the presence of R&D experts from overseas in this gathering is indeed heartening and let me add my word of welcome to them. Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, I have been told, is the CEO of an organization engaged in converting waste gases emitted routinely to atmosphere as products of combustion by capturing carbon & transforming it to ethanol plus a host of other value added chemicals, through newer technology solutions relying on bio science and offering benefits of profitability coupled with the reduction of carbon foot print.

The timing of such an innovative technology solution to my mind is extremely apt globally, including our own Oil & Gas sector where it may hold promise.

In my considered opinion, extensive research is needed to economically produce Bio-fuel/ Bio-gas from Agri wastes. India has already declared The National Policy on Biofuels where it has been enunciated (Ref. clause 4.0 Strategy and Approach) that the focus for development of biofuels in India will be to utilize waste and degraded forest and non forest lands only for cultivation of shrubs and trees bearing non-edible oil seeds for production of bio-diesel. In India, bio-ethanol is produced mainly from molasses, a by-product of the sugar industry. In future too, it would be ensured that the next generation of technologies is based on non-food feedstocks. Therefore, the issue of fuel vs. food security is not relevant in the Indian context.

World today has no option but to look aggressively to Renewable Energy for sustainable development and for reducing the Carbon foot print to preserve mother Earth for future generation.

I am confident that the deliberations here would be enriching and rewarding. With these few words, ladies and gentlemen I take pleasure in wishing the Conclave V a grand success. I shall be immensely happy if the action plan for priority research area is formulated during the deliberation of the Conclave.

Jai Hind.

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Petrotech Activities

National Workshop on Excellence in HSE – The Way Forward

3rd-4th February 2011

Mr A. K. Hazarika, CMD ONGC inaugurating the workshop National Workshop on Excellence in HSE – The Way Forward : Petrotech Society in collaboration with ONGC has organized a two days National Workshop on “Excellence in HSE: The Way Forward” held on 3rd-4th February 2011 at Hotel Le Royal Meridien, Chennai. Mr Ashok Anand, Secretary General, PETROTECH welcomed the august gathering. Mr Anoop Kumar ED-Head HSE, ONGC apprised about the seminar and requested the participants that we should make maximum possible use of this platform by interaction how to improve Health, Safety & Environment awareness. The work-

shop was inaugurated by Mr A K Hazarika, CMD, ONGC during his speech he emphasized that Safety culture should be adapted by each organization by heart. Safety management especially in hydrocarbon industry is very important due to high volatility of products and the growth of the organization. He also mentioned that we should be able to set examples for young people on safety measures. He concluded his address with Mahatma Gandhi quote: “We may not be able to change the beginning but we can work together to change the endings. “Jaan hai to Jahaan Hai”

Mr B. N. Bankapur, Director (Ref) IOCL chairing the Valedictory session

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Mr J B Verma, ED-OISD delivered Keynote Address. He apprised that 60 % of accidents are due to human error, 30 % due to lack of maintenance and we must go back to the basic approach in day-to-day operations to promote safety. Mr B N Bankapur Director (Ref), IOCL delivered the valedictory address. During his address he brought out some of the facts : (i) Reduce Carbon emissions by energy conservation (ii) water is a resource which will be very costly in future: Conserve water and recycle it (iii) Sludge treatment, take out as much oil as we can before selling the sludge (iv) industry had done well in introducing the procedure and systems, but now this is the time to implement them (v) All reporting of accidents should be on OISD website immediately. Last but not the least Mr Bankapur emphasized on development of safety culture within the organization.

Workshop was attended by 163 participants from major oil & gas companies: ONGC, IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, RIL, GAIL, Essar, CPCL, OIL, NRL etc. Presentations were made by eminent speakers from national and international oil & gas companies. The workshop was appreciated by all the participants and dignitaries present.

Petrotech Activities

The 3rd Annual Convention of Petrotech Chapters

Held on 16th March 2011 at MIT Pune

Mr Anand Kumar giving away prizes to best presenter

Mr Prabhat Kr. Singh Director GAIL India Limited inaugrating the convention The 3rd Annual Convention of Petrotech Chapters : The 3rd Annual Convention of Petrotech Chapters on the theme “Future of Energy in India: Challenges & Solutions” held on 16th March 2011 at Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune. 53 students & 10 faculty from different chapters (ISM Dhanbad, MIT Pune, Osmania University, PDPU Gandhi Nagar, RGIPT Rai Bareilly, Universities of Delhi and UPES Dehradun) participated during the event. Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, Chapter Coordinator, MIT welcomed the august gathering and apprised about the activities being undertaken by the institute under the leadership of Prof (Dr) Vishwanath D Karad, Founder, Executive President & Director MAEER’s, MIT Pune. Chapter Coordinators gave introduction of their respective chapters and the activities being performed under the umbrella of Petrotech Chapter. Mr Anand Kumar, Director Petrotech and Prof L K

Kshirsagar, Principal MIT Pune gave a Special address.

Mr Anand Kumar during his address emphasized upon bridging the gap between two pillars of the Society i.e. Academia and the Industry. He also stated the best Chapter Award is based upon the activities performed by the individual chapters during the year. After evaluating the activities carried out by the various chapters, he announced that ISM Dhanbad was found to be the best Chapter of the year 2011.

Prof L K Kshirsagar, during his address was very appreciative of Petrotech Society because under the banner of Petrotech Chapter, students are associated with so many useful activities like organizing seminars/conferences/ guest lectures etc so as to gain & share the knowledge of Industry experts.

Mr Prabhat K Singh, Director (Mktg) GAlL (India) Ltd inaugurated the Convention and addressed the august gathering. During his address he was very appreciative of Petrotech Society for the initiative taken of opening of chapters in different institutes and trying to bridge the gap between academia and the industry by way of organizing workshops/conventions which familiarizes the students with latest industrial trends and best practices in the oil and gas industry. He wished all the very best to Petrotech Society/ Chapters in all future activities.

Chapters’ Inter Competition on “Future of Energy in India-Challenges and Solutions” was followed by Inaugural Session. Two students of each chapter gave 15 minutes presentation followed by 5 minutes Q&A session.

Mr S K Sarangi, Executive Director (RE&SD), Mr S Rajagopal ED (RT), IOCL and Mr G Sriganesh, General Manager (R&D), HPCL consented to judge the presentation and related issues and after evaluation, it was declared by them that the winner of Best Presentation is PDPU Gandhi Nagar and ISM Dhanbad stood Runner up.

Mr Prabhat Singh Dir (Marketing) GAIL and Mr Anand Kumar Director (Petrotech) releasing the souvenir

Mr Anand Kumar, Director, Petrotech, during his concluding remarks, announced the next Annual Convention will be held at ISM Dhanbad.

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Petrotech Activities

“Hydrocarbon Industry Growth - Prospects & Challenges in North East”

held on 8th-9th Deceber 2010

The group of participants along with the Chief guest Mr Anand Kumar Petrotech Society and IOCL(AOD) have jointly organized a seminar on “Hydrocarbon Industry Growth : Prospects and Challenges in North East” at Digboi on December 8th – 9th 2010. The seminar was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Mr. Anand Kumar, Director Petrotech and former Director R&D, IndianOil. In his inaugural address Mr. Anand Kumar stressed about the importance of such seminars in order to create lasting and effective industry-academia interface. Mr. S.P. Bordoloi, GM(i/c) delivered the keynote address and Mr. L.W. Kongwir welcomed all the participants About 75 participants from Technical Institutions in the North East and practicing managers from across the Petroleum Sector, viz., OIL, GAIL, ONGC, NRL, EIL, Guwahati Refinery, Bongaigaon Refinery, Digboi Refinery, North East Integrated State Office participated in the seminar. In addition papers were presented by experts from IndianOil’s R&D Centre, Panipat Refinery and by Mr. E. Unnikrishnan, ED(Pricing,Planning), HO, among others.

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Inaugural session: Mr Anand Kumar (Dir Petrotech ), Mr Subrato Ghosh (ED, AED) and Mr S. P. Bordoloi (GM AOD)

LKMT Workshop 2010

“Impact of Natural Gas on Process Industry – Refineries, Petrochemicals & Fertilizers”

Held on November 24-25, 2010 at New Delhi

Petrotech Society in collaboration with Lovraj Kumar Memorial Trust and Engineers India Ltd organized a two day workshop i.e. LKMT Workshop 2010 on “Impact of Natural Gas on Process Industry –Refineries, Petrochemicals & Fertilizers” on November 24-25, 2010 at New Delhi. The workshop was inaugurated by Mr. A.K. Purwaha, CMD,

EIL and attended by 84 participants from industry and Academia. The presentations during the workshop was made by eminent speakers from Lurgi, Technip, IIP Dehradun, EIL, ONGC, InVEST USA, Shriram Fertilizers, UOP and Axens. A set of compendium and technical papers were distributed among the participants.

Management Notes The best places to work outperform their competitors in every country and in every industry, where everyone is engaged and owns the company, his job, responsibility, and any ever readyto turn this timely knowledge into action. Here are some tips HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMPANY BEST PLACE TO WORK....for more read and share the book ªThe Great Workplaceº .... Anand Kumar

Low-Cost Ways to Make Your Office a Better Place to Work In today’s fragile economy in which corporate budgets have been slashed, can you still make your company a great place to work?

Authors Michael Burchell and Jennifer Robin argue you can and attempt to teach readers how in The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It, and Why It Matters.

A vice president and consultant, respectively, at the Great Place to Work Institute, which produces Fortune’s (and others’) annual rankings of the best companies to work for, Burchell and Robin say a great workplace isn’t about fancy perks, such as on-site health clubs and masseuses. Rather, it is based on strong relationships across, up, and down the organization.

According to their research, based on 25 years’ worth of surveys of over 2 million people from nearly 6,000 companies worldwide, strong relationships require employees’ trust in their leaders, employees’ pride in their work, and camaraderie.

How you develop these elements is, of course, the challenge. The author suggest that trust involves: Credibility

Leaders share information and match their words with actions.

Respect

Leaders collaborate with their staff, and they also are supportive and show that they care about workers.

Fairness

Associates, managers are coached in how to have authentic and crucial conversations with all employees.

The authors acknowledge that transforming the culture doesn’t happen overnight. “It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than it is to think your way into a new way of acting,” they write.

Set some controls on executive salaries

Leaders treat workers equitably and impartially.

Still, here are their suggestions on how to get the process started:

At Whole Foods, the company makes available the gross cash compensation earned by every employee during the previous year–any particular salary is transparent. Further, Whole Foods sets wage cap that limits executives from making more than 19 times a full-time Team Member’s salary.

Hold a TGIF meeting

Celebrate individual achievements

Google is well-known for their TGIF meetings where senior management preview the week ahead, discuss major developments, recap the previous week’s events, and take questions.

Give them a way out

At Zappos.com, the online retailer, all new hires are offered a $2,000 resignation package and option to quit after the first two weeks of training.

That tests the person’s commitment to the company and strengthens trust, the authors argue.

Develop a strong mentoring effort.

At Price Water house Coopers, every partner agrees to take up to 15 staff under his or her wing to get to know them personally as well as professionally. This helps build camaraderie.

Train managers in the art of giving feedback

At companies such as Boston Consulting Group, and WL Gore &

At Analytical Graphics, the president compiles a log of individual, team, and organizational accomplishments he hears about, witnesses, or comes across during the week, and shares those at the weekly company lunch where all 275 employees eat together.

Encourage small acts of kindness

At Perkins Coie and Deloitte, a high-powered law firm, secret, selfappointed, all-volunteer Happiness Committees perform random acts of kindness for employees; CXtec, a New York tech firm, holds a “donut cart” program where on the first Friday of each month, new employees who joined the previous month walk around the office to deliver donuts and coffee.

What have you done in your firm that had made it a better place for people to work and succeed? What would you like to see your company do in the future?

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Management Notes

The Book: Recommended Reading “What is the business value of creating a great workplace?”

In this highly-anticipated book, Institute insiders Jennifer Robin and Michael Burchell explore the concept of a great workplace and answer that fundamental question. The Great Workplace shows that, more than offering great pay and quirky perks, a great workplace is one where employees trust the people they work for, take pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with.

If your company is struggling with the challenges of leveraging human capital, discover why some organizations have what it takes to be great (Google, Microsoft, Marriot International, FedEx, NetApp, etc) and what your company can learn from them.

Michael Burchell Michael Burchell, Ed.D. is a corporate Vice President with Great Place to Work® Institute and a partner in the Institute's UAE affiliate. A sought after speaker at conferences around the world, he has worked with senior leaders in positioning the workplace as a competitive business advantage.

Jennifer Robin Jennifer Robin, Ph.D. is a Research Fellow at Great Place to Work® Institute. A former consultant with the Institute, she currently teaches in undergraduate, master's, and professional programs at Bradley University.

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Petrotech Petrotech is a non-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860. It was founded by distinguished members representing the entire spectrum of the hydrocarbon industry. The Governing Council of the society is well represented by the multinational, private sector and major public sector Oil Association and its Bye-laws. Petrotech has 32 corporate members, 11 institutional members and 8 student chapters.

Petrotech

601-603, Tolstoy House, Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi - 110 001 Phones +91 11 2335 4002 - 05 Fax +91 11 2335 4001 Email info@petrotechsociety.org, petrotechsociety@vsnl.net Web www.petrotechsociety.org