Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) has commissioned 250MW unit 1 at a thermal power project located at Padva village in Bhavnagar District, Gujarat, state in India.
Built for Bhavnagar Energy Company (BECL), the power plant features eco-friendly circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) technology which is designed to use low quality coal (lignite) as the primary fuel.
The unit 2 of the 500MW project is currently in an advanced stage of completion.
As part of a contract awarded earlier, Bhel is responsible for design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of boilers, steam turbines and generators as well as associated auxiliaries and electricals, controls & instrumentation (C&I) and electrostatic precipitators (ESPs).
In addition, BHEL has earlier executed the 4x125MW Surat lignite power project at NaniNaroli in the Surat district of Gujarat, also involving CFBC technology.
Said to be highly fuel flexible and environment friendly with very low pollutant emissions, the CFBC boilers are designed to burn a wide variety of fuels, including lignite, efficiently.
Bhel estimates that the India has lignite reserves of around 40.9 billion tons. However, only a small amount of the total reserves has been exploited till date.
CFBC boilers are designed to offer an opportunity to use thehuge lignite reserves to generate power.