The Background –
This company, which makes a specialty chemical product used in toothbrushes and other consumer products, was keen on shifting from the use of natural gas to biomass. The main driver was to conform with the corporate sustainability drive aimed to reducing the overall carbon footprint.
The company was originally using a furnace in which natural gas was fired and the hot air thus generated was carried to the drier to dry the end product.
Shifting to biomass from natural gas for this company was a fairly intricate process and the client approached EAI’s BioMetric team to aid them in a smooth transition.
What we did –
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In their shift from the use of natural gas to biomass for their drying application, we assisted the client in
· Identifying the right biomass and biomass vendors within 200 Kms, and
· In choosing the right technology & equipment
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EAI BioMetric Team’s Work –
The entire assignment took 5 months to complete, and involved
- Extensive secondary research
- Review of the biomass supply chain in Gujarat and adjoining states – Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
- Identifying potential biomass briquette suppliers in Gujarat, within 300 Kms from the client’s location
- Arriving at a key set of criteria (economic and technical) for evaluating the biomass suppliers
- Interactions with over 25 different biomass briquetting vendors
- Visiting 10 briquetting plants and doing a comprehensive diligence of each of these
- Interactions with boiler makers, hot air generator vendors, heat exchanger vendors and biomass gasifier vendors
- Visiting the engineering facilities of 6 equipment and doing a comprehensive diligence on their facilities and expertise
- Interactions with their current vendors for the furnaces and burners to understand design requirements and constraints
- 6 presentations to their top management located in 5 different countries, in person and over phone
- Final recommendations for the biomass vendors to be chosen, as well as other biomass supply chain strategies to be followed.
How our work made a difference –
Before EAI commenced the assignment, the client did not have a clear idea how the two routes – Gasifier route and solid biomass route stacked against each other. EAI’s analyses was able to clarify this.
It was a challenge to identify vendors who were good at both high quality hot air generators consistent with client requirements, and good also at high temperature heat exchangers, two equipments that were essential for the client. EAI thus thought out of the box and put together a combination of two vendors, one of whom was able to develop high temperature heat exchanger maker and another who was a high quality biomass gasifier maker, and thirdly one who was a high quality hot air generator manufacturer.
Read more about EAI’s BioMetric from here.