Gujarat Ambuja - Redefining Operational Efficiency

CUTTING COSTS

- POWER

Power accounted for a large part of GACL's cost of production. GACL realized that a captive power plant would increase savings substantially as power sourced from the power grids was both unreliable and costly. So it set up fuel based captive power plants in Gujarat (40 MW) and Himachal Pradesh (12 MW) in 1998.

B S Dulani, Vice President, Operations, at the Gujambuja plant said, “Small measures like modifications in higher capacity motors for fans, coolers etc. according to specific requirements (shifting from AC to DC drive, which allows regulation of current) wherever possible, and many other simple steps helped reduce GACL's power consumption from 120 units/tonne of cement in 1987 to 88-90 units per tonne in 1995 against an industry average of 121 units per tonne.”

- FUEL

Coal is an important source of energy for the cement industry. However, while most of the coal production in India is located in the central and eastern parts, the cement industry is concentrated in western and southern parts. Thus, the cost of transporting coal to the cement plants was very high. Moreover, the quality of coal was also very poor. Cement companies had to decide whether to use imported coal or substitutes like lignite, natural gas and oil.

GACL decided to import cheaper, higher quality coal from South Africa. The company also began importing better quality furnace oil for its diesel generator (DG) sets for its power requirements. This led to a considerable reduction in the operating costs of their power plants. GACL consumed only 96 kwh of power per tonne of cement against the industry average of 110-115 kwh per tonne.

The company's coal consumption was also the lowest in the industry. GACL consumed 170 kg per tonne of cement while the industry average was 250 kg per tonne. Since the company's Ambuja Nagar plants were located in the agricultural belt of Saurashtra, where groundnut husk was available in plenty, GACL engineers tried to use groundnut husk instead of coal to fire the kilns in one of the plants.

The idea worked wonderfully and the company was able to bring down the overall coal consumption by 3%. In another plant, GACL replaced coal with crushed sugarcane. The use of sugarcane however, created problems because the water content differed with every batch, leading to fluctuations in kiln temperature. So the company's engineers designed a special mechanical system that could adjust the rate of feeding to ensure a stable temperature in the kiln. In the process, GACL brought the energy bill down by Rs 20 for every tonne of crushed sugarcane.

GACL also began using fluorspar^[4], a waste dumped by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation to reduce fuel consumption. They modified many higher capacity motors for fans, coolers, and other equipments to reduce power requirements by 1 to 1.5 units per tonne. The company also replaced V belt drives (which consumed more energy due to friction) with flat belt drives. Even though mechanical conveyors gave rise to problems like spillages and breakdowns, GACL did not shift to pneumatic conveyors, which consumed more power. Instead, the company devised an improved version of the mechanical conveyor to eliminate its drawbacks.

^[4] A calcium fluoride compound which, combined with other minerals, lowers the melting point.

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