ENERGY SAVING - FERTILIZER PLANT CASE STUDY
RASHTRIYA CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS LTD., TROMBAY UNIT
ENERGY CONSERVATION
1. THE COMPANY PROFILE
Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited, Chembur, a Government of India Undertaking is one of the
largest integrated Fertilizer and Industrial chemicals complex in the country. It was incorporated on 6th
March’1978 on reorganization of the erst-while Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. and National Fertilizer
Limited.
RCF has always selected the best available technology at the time of inception of every plant and followed it
up with up-gradation from time to time to improve energy efficiencies and make the plants ecofriendly and
competitive.
Installed Capacities of RCF Plants
Plants Present Year of
Capacity Commissioning
A. Trombay-I
Ammonia (Revamped) 350 1965
Nitrophosphate (15:15:15) 1100 1965
Sulphuric Acid (DC DA) 300 1966
Nitric Acid 320 1965
B. Trombay-II
Methanol (Revamped) 150 1966
C. Trombay - III (Diversification)
Ammonium Bicarbonate 12 1968
Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite 12 1972
Methylamines 12 1974
Conc. Nitric Acid 60 1972
Phosphoric Acid 100 1975
D. Trombay-IV
Ammonium Nitrate Phosphate 1200 1979
(20.8:20.8:0)
Nitric Acid 750 1979
E. Trombay-V
Ammonia 900 1981
Urea 1000 1981
Energy Consumption:
RCF is a highly energy intensive unit, using the energy in the form of
Ø associated gas,
Ø electricity and
Ø process steam.
Commissioning of Ammonia I syn Loop & other energy reduction programmes the power & Associated gas
bills have reduced. The average electricity demand of Trombay complex during 2001 - 2002 was
2,83,314.80 MWH. Associated gas which is used both as feed and fuel has annual consumption of the order
of 442 Million SM3. About 30175 MT of Sulphur and 235661 MT of Rock Phosphate is also consumed
annually.
Ø The average annual fuel and Electricity bills are of the order of Rs. 125 crores & Rs. 106.89 crores
respectively at the present rates of inputs.
The annual energy bill for the R.C.F Trombay complex is given below in the table that follows:
Total Electricity Bill Total Fuel Bill Total Energy Bill
(In Rs. Lakhs) (In Rs.Lakhs) (In Rs. Lakhs)
1999-00 12674 15450 28124
2000-2001 12362 16344 28706
2001-2002 10689 12509 23198
3. Energy Conservation commitment, policy and set up.
Considerable efforts have been made to reduce consumption of raw materials and energy in age-old energy
intensive plants since beginning. A system of reporting and reviewing was initiated in order to optimise the
energy consumption, raw material consumption as well as utility consumption.
An Energy Cell with qualified engineers and an Energy Manager has been set up to analyze the day to day
energy consumption and variation in the factory. Jobs of carrying out energy conservation programs are also
part of the energy cell. Regular reports are being generated to identify the areas of improvement with
respect to energy conservation and also equipment’s which are causing production constraints. On the
basis of these reports, a number of proposals for energy conservation already have been under taken and
implemented.
Energy conservation opportunities are usually identified based on energy audits, case histories of successful
conservation measures implemented by other plants and through suggestions received from the operating
and technical personnel etc.
4. Energy Conservation Achievements
A selected number of energy conservation measures, undertaken in the year 2001 – 2002, which have
given substantial energy savings, are given below:
4.1 Optimization of Steam Net work
In RCF Trombay unit, Steam is produced and consumed at five different pressure levels i.e.
105ata/40ata/26ata/20ata/12ata. It was observed that whereas in one plant steam is surplus and in another
plant there is a shortage of steam. By carefully analyzing overall steam production and consumption pattern,
the steam distribution network has now been organized in such a way that steam wastage’s have been
minimized. This has brought down our boiler load considerably and thereby reduction in energy consumption.
To have energy conservation on Thermal Front
v Regular Inspection of Steam Traps and steam leakages and repairs thereof is carried out.
v Periodic monitoring of insulation status and their repairs.
4.2 In spite of the risks involved, RCF have decided to shut-down one boiler from 2002 which led to an
electrical energy saving of 21 MWH/day thereby now meeting all factory steam demand through only
one boiler.
4.3 In Ammonia-V motor driven Benfield pump has been stopped and in its place steam turbine driven
pump has been taken in line thereby reducing electric power consumption. (35 MWH/day).
4.4 A new 4” line was laid for diverting excess air in Ammonia-V Process Air Compressor (PAC) to
Ammonia-I for operating Inert Gas Plant (IGP) and factory grid. With this modification Ammonia-I are able to
stop their motor driven Instrument Air Compressors (daily saving of 8.5 MWH). However, to meet the
instrument air requirement in case of upset in Ammonia-V PAC, ‘auto start’ arrangement of IAC in Ammonia-I
has also been made.
4.5 In Methanol Plant Boiler Feed Water Pump and Boiler Water Circulation Pump are being run by
turbine drives by consuming in-house steam and thereby stopping the electrical drives (daily saving of 1.5
MWH).
4.6 In Methanol Plant one Instrument Air Compressor (42 KW) has been stopped by diverting instrument
air from CPT air compressor which has a higher capacity (daily saving of 4 MWH).
4.7 In Ammonia-V "Mass Spectrometer" analyzer for on-line analysis of 13 process streams has been
installed and commissioned successfully in February 2002. This would facilitate precise control of all critical
parameters.
4.8 Synthesis Gas interconnecting lines between Ammonia-I and Ammonia-V was suitably incorporated
with required instrumentation and on number of occasions this has resulted in speedy start-ups of Ammonia-
I/Ammonia-V plants and also reduction in unproductive energy consumption during their start-ups.
4.9 Modified cooling water supply arrangement has been made for Ammonia-I IGP and IAC from New
Nitric Acid Plant. This has facilitated total stoppage of cooling water system in Ammonia-I.
4.10 In CNA Plant only one Cooling Tower pump is now being operated to meet the requirement and
while the other pump is kept stopped. (daily saving of 0.8 MWH).
The Energy conservation Schemes implemented so far in the last few years have shown continual reduction
in the energy consumption of all plants per se (through various specific schemes implemented). However the
specific energy consumption have shown an increasing trend primarily because of the low load operation of
plants due to feed stock (Associated Gas) limitations. The annualised specific energy consumptions of major
energy consuming plants at R.C.F Trombay complex is given below in the table that follows:
Specific Energy Consumption ( MKcal/MT)
PLANT 1999-00 2000 –2001 2001-2002
AMMONIA-I 11.23 10.425 11.644
AMMONIA- V 12.56 12.248 12.480
UREA-V 9.26 8.959 9.641
METHANOL 9.28 9.074 9.233
b) Details of Schemes implemented.
Ammonia I
i) An Inert Gas Plant(IGP), Producing Nitrogen by Cryogenic separation of air, exists in Ammonia I plant.
A dedicated air compressor used to run to supply air to this IGP.
However it was observed that due to low load running of Ammonia V plant (Gas constraints), air from
Process air compressor used to be vented.
A 4” line from scrap was made available and hooked up for supplying the excess air at Ammonia V PAC to
IGP. This made the air compressor, previously supplying air to IGP to be shut down thus saving electric
energy.
ii) Ammonia I plant remains shutdown most of the time in the year owing to severe shortage of
Associated gas. But to keep the other utilities in the plant like IGP, control room A/C etc. in running condition,
cooling water system (one pump and one fan) used to be kept in line.
Modification was carried out, to connect cooling water line from New Nitric Acid plant cooling water header to
IGP and control room A/C thus stopping the cooling water system of Ammonia I during prolong Shutdowns.
iii) There exists an instrument air compressor in Ammonia storage, which supplies instrument air to the
storage area.
Due to excess instrument air available in the factory grid, it was decided to connect the grid air to Ammonia
storage. 1” line was connected to Ammonia storage from the grid for supplying instrument air & thus stopping
the instrument air compressor in storage area saving 283 KWH/Day.
iv) The gasification section of Ammonia I used to import 12 ata steam from the factory grid ( which was
subsequently let down to 4.5 ata) to be used in deaerator, Process condensate strippr & stack.
In new Synthesis section, the BFW back pressure steam turbine, exhaust at 4.5 ata steam was getting
vented.
A line was laid from the BFW turbine outlet to gasification section to consume the excess 1MT/hr of 4.5 ata
steam .
Ammonia V
i) There exists two drives to drive the Benfield pump in Ammonia V plant. A electric motor consuming 35
KWH and a back pressure steam turbine operating at 36 ata and exhaust 4.5 ata output (18 MT/hr of 36 ata
steam).
Initially when this turbine was being taken inline the 4.5-ata steam used to get vented thus loosing energy &
making the system uneconomical. Due to this motor driven pump used to taken line. However after
modifications carried out in-house, the 4.5 ata steam was consumed in the plant thus utilizing the energy
from steam at the outlet of turbine.
Concentrated Nitric Acid (C.N.A).
i) Two cooling Tower pumps of 60 hp used to run to provide water to C.N.A cooling water system. After
detailed study on cooling water requirement of the plant & pump capacity, the 60 hp motor was replaced with
a 75 hp motor. This excess hp made only pump to be run to suffice the cooling water requirement of the
plant.
Methanol
i) Use of entire available purge gas from synthesis section as fuel in reformer was started from July
2001. This could be achieved by realignment of 25 Nos. combustion air bellows of burners with main header.
Associated gas fuel had reduced and a net recurring reduction of 0.1 MKcal / MT is being realised.
ii) The BFW (steam driven) pump was never run on continuous basis earlier. This pump (steam driven)
was used for few hours only during the start up or shut down of the plant.
With in house generated steam (on optimising), the turbine was taken in line and is kept running
continuously.
iii) BFW circulation pump in the plant used to run occasionally on turbine drive. After optimising on in-
hose generated steam, the excess steam was used to drive the BFW circulation pump thus stooping the 35
KW motor.
iv) Stopping of Instrument air compressor of 42 KW motor rating.
This was achieved by in-house over hauling of its counter part compressors (CPT) as well as cleaning CPT
inter & after coolers.
Suphala
Stoppage of GB 721 / 723 Blowers.
The Blowers GB 721 / 723 used to run to provide air flow to the process system which in turn used to cool
the complex fertilizer product. With modification carried out in-house other blowers were made to provide air
for cooling purpose, thus stooping GB 721 / 723 Blowers.
New Steam Generation Plant.
RCF has 3 nos. of Centralised Steam Boilers generating 170 MTPH of steam at 105 ata each. Due to
Associated gas (Chief Raw material) constraints most of the plants are forced to run on reduced load thus
curtailing the boiler load between 120 to 160 TPH.
Inspite of Risk involved, RCF has decided to run only one boiler keeping the stand-by (Supportive) boiler
shut down. This has led to an electrical saving of 21 MWH/Day.
Source:Bureau of Energy Efficiency,India
RASHTRIYA CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS LTD., TROMBAY UNIT
ENERGY CONSERVATION
1. THE COMPANY PROFILE
Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited, Chembur, a Government of India Undertaking is one of the
largest integrated Fertilizer and Industrial chemicals complex in the country. It was incorporated on 6th
March’1978 on reorganization of the erst-while Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd. and National Fertilizer
Limited.
RCF has always selected the best available technology at the time of inception of every plant and followed it
up with up-gradation from time to time to improve energy efficiencies and make the plants ecofriendly and
competitive.
Installed Capacities of RCF Plants
Plants Present Year of
Capacity Commissioning
A. Trombay-I
Ammonia (Revamped) 350 1965
Nitrophosphate (15:15:15) 1100 1965
Sulphuric Acid (DC DA) 300 1966
Nitric Acid 320 1965
B. Trombay-II
Methanol (Revamped) 150 1966
C. Trombay - III (Diversification)
Ammonium Bicarbonate 12 1968
Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite 12 1972
Methylamines 12 1974
Conc. Nitric Acid 60 1972
Phosphoric Acid 100 1975
D. Trombay-IV
Ammonium Nitrate Phosphate 1200 1979
(20.8:20.8:0)
Nitric Acid 750 1979
E. Trombay-V
Ammonia 900 1981
Urea 1000 1981
Energy Consumption:
RCF is a highly energy intensive unit, using the energy in the form of
Ø associated gas,
Ø electricity and
Ø process steam.
Commissioning of Ammonia I syn Loop & other energy reduction programmes the power & Associated gas
bills have reduced. The average electricity demand of Trombay complex during 2001 - 2002 was
2,83,314.80 MWH. Associated gas which is used both as feed and fuel has annual consumption of the order
of 442 Million SM3. About 30175 MT of Sulphur and 235661 MT of Rock Phosphate is also consumed
annually.
Ø The average annual fuel and Electricity bills are of the order of Rs. 125 crores & Rs. 106.89 crores
respectively at the present rates of inputs.
The annual energy bill for the R.C.F Trombay complex is given below in the table that follows:
Total Electricity Bill Total Fuel Bill Total Energy Bill
(In Rs. Lakhs) (In Rs.Lakhs) (In Rs. Lakhs)
1999-00 12674 15450 28124
2000-2001 12362 16344 28706
2001-2002 10689 12509 23198
3. Energy Conservation commitment, policy and set up.
Considerable efforts have been made to reduce consumption of raw materials and energy in age-old energy
intensive plants since beginning. A system of reporting and reviewing was initiated in order to optimise the
energy consumption, raw material consumption as well as utility consumption.
An Energy Cell with qualified engineers and an Energy Manager has been set up to analyze the day to day
energy consumption and variation in the factory. Jobs of carrying out energy conservation programs are also
part of the energy cell. Regular reports are being generated to identify the areas of improvement with
respect to energy conservation and also equipment’s which are causing production constraints. On the
basis of these reports, a number of proposals for energy conservation already have been under taken and
implemented.
Energy conservation opportunities are usually identified based on energy audits, case histories of successful
conservation measures implemented by other plants and through suggestions received from the operating
and technical personnel etc.
4. Energy Conservation Achievements
A selected number of energy conservation measures, undertaken in the year 2001 – 2002, which have
given substantial energy savings, are given below:
4.1 Optimization of Steam Net work
In RCF Trombay unit, Steam is produced and consumed at five different pressure levels i.e.
105ata/40ata/26ata/20ata/12ata. It was observed that whereas in one plant steam is surplus and in another
plant there is a shortage of steam. By carefully analyzing overall steam production and consumption pattern,
the steam distribution network has now been organized in such a way that steam wastage’s have been
minimized. This has brought down our boiler load considerably and thereby reduction in energy consumption.
To have energy conservation on Thermal Front
v Regular Inspection of Steam Traps and steam leakages and repairs thereof is carried out.
v Periodic monitoring of insulation status and their repairs.
4.2 In spite of the risks involved, RCF have decided to shut-down one boiler from 2002 which led to an
electrical energy saving of 21 MWH/day thereby now meeting all factory steam demand through only
one boiler.
4.3 In Ammonia-V motor driven Benfield pump has been stopped and in its place steam turbine driven
pump has been taken in line thereby reducing electric power consumption. (35 MWH/day).
4.4 A new 4” line was laid for diverting excess air in Ammonia-V Process Air Compressor (PAC) to
Ammonia-I for operating Inert Gas Plant (IGP) and factory grid. With this modification Ammonia-I are able to
stop their motor driven Instrument Air Compressors (daily saving of 8.5 MWH). However, to meet the
instrument air requirement in case of upset in Ammonia-V PAC, ‘auto start’ arrangement of IAC in Ammonia-I
has also been made.
4.5 In Methanol Plant Boiler Feed Water Pump and Boiler Water Circulation Pump are being run by
turbine drives by consuming in-house steam and thereby stopping the electrical drives (daily saving of 1.5
MWH).
4.6 In Methanol Plant one Instrument Air Compressor (42 KW) has been stopped by diverting instrument
air from CPT air compressor which has a higher capacity (daily saving of 4 MWH).
4.7 In Ammonia-V "Mass Spectrometer" analyzer for on-line analysis of 13 process streams has been
installed and commissioned successfully in February 2002. This would facilitate precise control of all critical
parameters.
4.8 Synthesis Gas interconnecting lines between Ammonia-I and Ammonia-V was suitably incorporated
with required instrumentation and on number of occasions this has resulted in speedy start-ups of Ammonia-
I/Ammonia-V plants and also reduction in unproductive energy consumption during their start-ups.
4.9 Modified cooling water supply arrangement has been made for Ammonia-I IGP and IAC from New
Nitric Acid Plant. This has facilitated total stoppage of cooling water system in Ammonia-I.
4.10 In CNA Plant only one Cooling Tower pump is now being operated to meet the requirement and
while the other pump is kept stopped. (daily saving of 0.8 MWH).
The Energy conservation Schemes implemented so far in the last few years have shown continual reduction
in the energy consumption of all plants per se (through various specific schemes implemented). However the
specific energy consumption have shown an increasing trend primarily because of the low load operation of
plants due to feed stock (Associated Gas) limitations. The annualised specific energy consumptions of major
energy consuming plants at R.C.F Trombay complex is given below in the table that follows:
Specific Energy Consumption ( MKcal/MT)
PLANT 1999-00 2000 –2001 2001-2002
AMMONIA-I 11.23 10.425 11.644
AMMONIA- V 12.56 12.248 12.480
UREA-V 9.26 8.959 9.641
METHANOL 9.28 9.074 9.233
b) Details of Schemes implemented.
Ammonia I
i) An Inert Gas Plant(IGP), Producing Nitrogen by Cryogenic separation of air, exists in Ammonia I plant.
A dedicated air compressor used to run to supply air to this IGP.
However it was observed that due to low load running of Ammonia V plant (Gas constraints), air from
Process air compressor used to be vented.
A 4” line from scrap was made available and hooked up for supplying the excess air at Ammonia V PAC to
IGP. This made the air compressor, previously supplying air to IGP to be shut down thus saving electric
energy.
ii) Ammonia I plant remains shutdown most of the time in the year owing to severe shortage of
Associated gas. But to keep the other utilities in the plant like IGP, control room A/C etc. in running condition,
cooling water system (one pump and one fan) used to be kept in line.
Modification was carried out, to connect cooling water line from New Nitric Acid plant cooling water header to
IGP and control room A/C thus stopping the cooling water system of Ammonia I during prolong Shutdowns.
iii) There exists an instrument air compressor in Ammonia storage, which supplies instrument air to the
storage area.
Due to excess instrument air available in the factory grid, it was decided to connect the grid air to Ammonia
storage. 1” line was connected to Ammonia storage from the grid for supplying instrument air & thus stopping
the instrument air compressor in storage area saving 283 KWH/Day.
iv) The gasification section of Ammonia I used to import 12 ata steam from the factory grid ( which was
subsequently let down to 4.5 ata) to be used in deaerator, Process condensate strippr & stack.
In new Synthesis section, the BFW back pressure steam turbine, exhaust at 4.5 ata steam was getting
vented.
A line was laid from the BFW turbine outlet to gasification section to consume the excess 1MT/hr of 4.5 ata
steam .
Ammonia V
i) There exists two drives to drive the Benfield pump in Ammonia V plant. A electric motor consuming 35
KWH and a back pressure steam turbine operating at 36 ata and exhaust 4.5 ata output (18 MT/hr of 36 ata
steam).
Initially when this turbine was being taken inline the 4.5-ata steam used to get vented thus loosing energy &
making the system uneconomical. Due to this motor driven pump used to taken line. However after
modifications carried out in-house, the 4.5 ata steam was consumed in the plant thus utilizing the energy
from steam at the outlet of turbine.
Concentrated Nitric Acid (C.N.A).
i) Two cooling Tower pumps of 60 hp used to run to provide water to C.N.A cooling water system. After
detailed study on cooling water requirement of the plant & pump capacity, the 60 hp motor was replaced with
a 75 hp motor. This excess hp made only pump to be run to suffice the cooling water requirement of the
plant.
Methanol
i) Use of entire available purge gas from synthesis section as fuel in reformer was started from July
2001. This could be achieved by realignment of 25 Nos. combustion air bellows of burners with main header.
Associated gas fuel had reduced and a net recurring reduction of 0.1 MKcal / MT is being realised.
ii) The BFW (steam driven) pump was never run on continuous basis earlier. This pump (steam driven)
was used for few hours only during the start up or shut down of the plant.
With in house generated steam (on optimising), the turbine was taken in line and is kept running
continuously.
iii) BFW circulation pump in the plant used to run occasionally on turbine drive. After optimising on in-
hose generated steam, the excess steam was used to drive the BFW circulation pump thus stooping the 35
KW motor.
iv) Stopping of Instrument air compressor of 42 KW motor rating.
This was achieved by in-house over hauling of its counter part compressors (CPT) as well as cleaning CPT
inter & after coolers.
Suphala
Stoppage of GB 721 / 723 Blowers.
The Blowers GB 721 / 723 used to run to provide air flow to the process system which in turn used to cool
the complex fertilizer product. With modification carried out in-house other blowers were made to provide air
for cooling purpose, thus stooping GB 721 / 723 Blowers.
New Steam Generation Plant.
RCF has 3 nos. of Centralised Steam Boilers generating 170 MTPH of steam at 105 ata each. Due to
Associated gas (Chief Raw material) constraints most of the plants are forced to run on reduced load thus
curtailing the boiler load between 120 to 160 TPH.
Inspite of Risk involved, RCF has decided to run only one boiler keeping the stand-by (Supportive) boiler
shut down. This has led to an electrical saving of 21 MWH/Day.
Source:Bureau of Energy Efficiency,India
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