BHEL taps into IIT's R&D expertise for desalination

Public sector major the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited’s (BHEL) two units — Tiruchi and Ranipet — have collaborated Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) for joint research and the focus would be sea water desalination and pollutant control systems which would be a great boon for the public and society at large, according to BHEL’s senior official.

O P Bhutani, director (engineering, research and director), said aimed to strengthen research and other collaborative projects with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM). He added that research with academic institutions has been identified as a critical success factor by BHEL.

“This collaborative research with academic institutions would go a long way in meeting the growing technology needs which were becoming increasingly unavailable through technical collaborations with other companies,” he added.

BHEL is continuously benchmarking its wide range of products to identify technology gaps and focus its R&D towards finding solutions to fill the gaps to ensure that its products are of the best global standards, he added.

“This new initiative would be an ideal platform and could catalyst technology development and would go a long way towards attaining the country’s goal of self-reliance in all fields. It would also help us to realise the dream of being the first to put up ultra-super-critical power plants in line with the Government’s vision for India,” said Bhutani.

The areas of research and developmental will include once-through super critical steam generators of large capacity; Modeling and Analysis; scale up, material characterization; frontier technologies including utilisation of nano materials, fuel cells and bio-mass; zero emission technologies; and distributed power. The joint research will also focus on sea water desalination and pollutant control systems which will be a great boon for the public and society at large.

Especially, in view of stiff global competition in the area of once-through super critical power plants of capacity of 660 Mw and higher, where technology is a major factor, collaborative research with academic institutions has been identified as a critical success factor by BHEL. Further, joint research with academia is pursued as an effective mode of know-why generation.

Bhutani noted in 2009-10, BHEL has invested Rs 829 crore on research and development, an increase of 20 per cent compared to previous year and 2.4 per cent of the turnover.