L&T wins Rs. 1,700-mn Chinese order

Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) has announced that its Heavy Engineering Division has bagged a contract valued at €28 million (Rs 170 crore) for supply of the Coal Gasifier and Syngas Cooler assembly to Hebi Coal and Electricity Co Ltd, subsidiary of Zhongyuan Coal Chemical Industry Group, People’s Republic of China.

The complete gasifier assembly and the structure, which is expected to weigh 1,740 tonnes, is the world’s largest and heaviest gasifier assembly, with a capacity to handle 3,400 tonnes per day of coal, a company release said. The assembly will be the heart of a methanol plant with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes per annum. The order was won through an international competitive bidding process.

The equipment will be manufactured from advanced technology steels at L&T’s manufacturing facilities at Powai and Hazira. The Hazira facility is situated on the waterfront with easy access to the sea for shipment. Mr M.V. Kotwal, Member of the Board & Senior Executive Vice-President, said that the manufacture of this gasifier would require transportation of the large fabricated sections, with on-site assembly, testing and erection. He said that although such jobs pose enormous challenges, the teams at L&T are confident of meeting the requirements, given their track record of having successfully completed similar work on gasifiers supplied to remote locations in China, where ambient temperatures were as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. With rising costs of oil and natural gas, coal gasification provides a promising future to provide a cost effective alternative feedstock for downstream power, fertiliser, petrochemical complexes and coal to liquid fuel plants.