GE Power wins Rs 142 crore contract to reduce NOx across 10 GW of power plants

GE Power India said on Wednesday it has been awarded a Rs 142 crore order by government-owned power utility NTPC for supply and installation of low nitrogen oxide (NOx) combustion system for 10 gigawatts of thermal power plant capacity across the country.

This is the first project awarded on such a large scale by NTPC to install low NOx combustion technology at its thermal power plant fleet.

The project involves in-combustion system modification of the boiler by staging the combustion air in the furnace to reduce the generation of fuel and thermal NOx during the combustion process.

The combustion modification technology can help reduce 30 to 40 per cent of NOx emissions from these coal-fired boilers up to a level of less than 400 mg/Nm3 at 6 per cent oxygen content in flue gas on dry gas basis at induced draft fan outlet.

The low NOx combustion system will be delivered in a phased manner over a period of over 30 months.

"With more than 150 GW of coal-fired plants operating at sub-critical level, India is the world's second largest NOx emitter, contributing close to 30 per cent of annual NOx emissions of the country's industrial sector," said Lalit Sankrani, Clean Combustion Leader at GE South Asia.

"While the industry is slowly waking up to adopt new technologies such as flue gas desulphurisation for curbing SOx emissions from thermal power plants, there is still a journey to be covered as far as addressing NOx emissions are concerned. It is high time de-Nox solutions are also taken seriously to address the emissions compliance needs for the country," he said in a statement.

Earlier in September 2018, GE was selected by NTPC and Tata Chemicals to upgrade two coal-fired boilers in India with low NOx firing system: NTPC's 2 x 490 thermal plant at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh and the 2 x 136 TPH Boiler Tata Chemicals Ltd at Mithapur in Gujarat.