TATA Steel
Jamshedpur, Jharkhand
Tata Steel Limited, is an Indian multinational steel-making company based at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. In steel plants, furnace is mainly used for heating raw materials such as scraps, pig iron, molten iron etc. These are fed into the furnace for melting, as a result of which temperature inside a furnace always remains very high.
At TATA Steel plant, during the annual shutdown, the maintenance work was planned inside the furnace. The temperature of the furnace was more than 1160°C when it was operational. After the shutdown, the temperature of the furnace has to be bough down to ambient temperature to enable workers to start maintenance jobs inside it.
Initially, the temperature of the furnace was 1160°C, from that temperature to 200-250°C, the cooling rate was very fast due to high temperature difference. But from 200°C to ambient temperature, it takes a long time due to low temperature difference as the heat from the brick lines slowly comes to the surface. The workers have to wait for the temperature level to come down. Till then maintenance activities cannot be carried out. Thus, precious man-hour gets wasted and the shutdown process gets delayed, leading to an increase in cost.
Also, it would have been difficult for works to do maintenance works inside the furnace (confined area). The reason being, the air inside the furnace is always very toxic and harmful.
The main solution was to cool down the furnace in a faster way to save time, decrease shutdown time. Also, remove toxic gases from the furnace and provide fresh air inside it to enable workers to do maintenance jobs without causing any harm to them.
TDS installed best-in-class dehumidifiers, condensing units and blowers to provide dehumidified cool conditioned air. The supply was being done from inspection doors in the soaking zone.
The conditioned air created a positive pressure in the furnace and removed the contaminated air; and supplied fresh, dry, and cool air inside the furnace. During the entire job, the relative humidity was maintained between 50% to 60% and the temperature was kept under control, maintaining the comfortable environment inside the furnace.
This supply of cool air helped the furnace to cool down faster, from 200°C to ambient temperature. Which was not possible with the natural cooling of the furnace.
The TDS Dehumidification system also helped in eliminating toxic gases from the furnace and provided fresh air for workers. Thus, helped the workers to breathe fresh air and work continuously without any break. This helped the workers to increase their productivity.
Feedback was taken from workers of different agencies who worked inside the furnace during maintenance. All were very happy and satisfied with the installed TDS system. They informed that during previous shutdowns the condition inside the furnace was never so friendly.
The effect of the dehumidification system on the productivity of the workers can easily be judged from the fact that all the maintenance jobs were completed before time and the furnace was lighted 12 hours before schedule.
TDS Support
Online
Mr. Deepak Pahwa is the Chairman, Pahwa Group and Director of Technical Drying Services Asia. Pvt. Ltd. The group has 1500+ employees in 6 continents & 11 manufacturing plants.
In 1979, he set up the first company in the group, Arctic India Sales, introducing dehumidification in India. Subsequently, he set-up Technical Drying Services Asia, Desiccant Rotors International, Delair India and Technical Drying services.
An alumnus of IT-BHU, Mr. Pahwa has been honored with several awards, including the “Leadership Award 2013” by IACC for his dynamic leadership. He was also awarded a “National Award 2011 in Research & Development” in (Medium Enterprise) by MSME, the “IT-BHU Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award 2009-10”, and also the “Entrepreneur Of The Year Award” in 1987 in the SME entrepreneur category, to name just a few.
Mr. Pahwa is a Fellow, ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air conditioning Engineers) and serves on several technical committees of ASHRAE. A life member of ASHRAE as well as ISHRAE, he has been recognized and honored by various industry associations for his contribution in enhancing India’s role in providing the best in the next class technologies from India to the world. He has also introduced many new technologies in field of dehumidification, IAQ and many others in India since 1979. He has played an active role in connecting the European Air-conditioning federation, REHVA, to the Indian industry.
Currently, he is the Chairman, Committee on Innovation, PHD Chamber and also serves on the Chamber’s Managing Committee. He has also served as the National President, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. He has also served as the Convener, FICCI MSME Committee.
He is an advocate of collaborative work for advancing knowledge and works with the specialists, in the field of Adsorption and airgineering technologies, in the academia as well as the industry experts, not only from India but all over the world including Japan, Singapore, Korea, Turkey, Europe and USA.
With almost 50 years of experience in engineering & marketing of HVAC&R, Airgineering & Environmental Control Technologies, his success mantra is “Innovation is Life”. He believes that with the right amount of inspiration, encouragement and knowledge, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary work.
He has institutionalized innovation within the organization so that every employee learns to be an innovator and rewarded for their contribution
For the Society at large, Mr. Pahwa, taking inspiration from his grandfather, Padma Shri, Rai Bahadur Dr. Mathra Das Pahwa, a renowned Eye surgeon and a dedicated philanthropist, Mr. Pahwa has mandated through the group’s CSR initiatives work on providing education, skill development health & hygiene and opportunities in sports for enriching the lives of the underprivileged and differently abled. Another focus area is working towards environmental sustainability, both through the technologies being introduced as well the contributions and support provided to environmentalists.