BHEL unit to spend Rs 400 cr on R&D

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL’s), Tiruchirappali (Tiruchy), unit is planning to increase the research and development (R&D) spend by 73 per cent to Rs 400 crore. The public sector boiler manufacturing unit has said it will spend 3.5 per cent of the turnover in R&D, according to company’s senior official.

A V Krishnan, executive director, BHEL- Tiruchy said, R&D spend during 2009-10 was Rs 231 crore, which is 2.31 per cent of turnover. In the coming fiscal it will increase to Rs 400 crore, which will be 3.5 per cent of the turnover.

“Compared to other BHEL units across the country our spend on R&D will be the highest,” said Krishnan.

The Tiruchy unit along with Ranipet unit, has finalised a long-term lease agreement with IIT-Madras Research Park for energy sector R&D. This will pave way for a 6,000 sq ft R&D module at the research park in Chennai.

The unit has granted patents for a method of brazing of flattened formed tubes with a sheet substrate in heat exchanger panels and a Device for Maintaining Furnace Heat Absorption Optimally for Coal Fired Boilers.

Some of the patents applied for by the unit include poligonal cyclone for Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC) boilers and method and apparatus for Magnetically Impelled Arc Butt (MIAB) welding of different diameter tubes using an universal fixture.

Some of the major milestones in the R&D, Krishnan recalled, including the simulation of Ultra Supercritical Steam Generator (300 bar, 605 degree C) at the in-house supercritical test facility to meet the emerging plant efficiency using ultra supercritical boilers.

IGCC is another technology, first of its kind in the country, that aims to extract the maximum energy out of a fuel that is burnt. In the case of coal, the carbon conversion efficiency in an IGCC plant is significantly higher than that in a conventional pulverised coal (PC) fired power plant.

Basic and a detaled design of the 700 mega watt (MWe) nuclear steam generator was developed in-house and production of steam generators started. Critical analyses like fatigue anaylsis, seismic analysis, accident condition analysis are being developed in-house.

The unit has also ready with supercritical technology, for which it had tied up earlier. “We have learnt the super critical boiler technology and can supply such boilers on our own without any outside assistance”. A super critical boiler is one that performs in very high pressure.