Greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants have been a critical challenge for India and it is a challenge that needs to be addressed heads-on given the country’s increasing demand for electricity. For example, electricity consumption grew from 375.39 billion kilowatt hours in 2,000 to 1.108 trillion kilowatt hours in 2018. Additionally, electric power generation grew from 529.12 billion kilowatt hours in 2,000 to 1.311 trillion kilowatt hours in 2018. The aspiration for rapid economic growth leading to industrialization accelerated urbanization, and mechanization of agriculture is responsible for this growth in demand.
As part of India’s growth in solar energy, Adani Mundra Solar PV manufactures solar cells for the Indian market. To obtain successful operational and financial performance, Adani Mundra Solar PV’s 1 GW solar PV cell manufacturing project requires the continuous and reliable production of ultra-pure water 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Ultra-pure water (UPW) systems are often referred to as the “lifeblood” of modern solar cell production facilities. The cell products will encounter UPW on many occasions during their production cycle, and any disruption of service and/or “out-of-spec” water can seriously compromise their yield, costing perhaps millions of dollars in lost production.
Suez Water Technologies & Solutions (SWTS) is the worldwide industry leader in the UPW systems business to both the semiconductor and solar industries. SWTS’ patented UPW generation using membranes and filters produces 1-GW-capacity PV cells and modules for solar power plants, enabling the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.
Adani Mundra Solar PV contracted SWTS to design, engineer, procure, supply, erect, commission, and performance test a new solar PV manufacturing facility. The facility was required to produce 1,560 cubic meters per day in UPW production, plus 2,280 cubic meters per day in the UPW loop. This was made more complicated for SWTS because of the need to take influent flow from an existing 20 mm-per-day seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant, which has a high total-organic-carbon (TOC) -5.9 ppm, very high chlorides (380 ppm), and very low hardness/alkalinity, which would cause severe corrosion in carbon-steel and stainless-steel materials. As a result, this project required innovative, one-of-a-kind thinking in both materials, manufacturing techniques, and in new, improved design modelling and project delivery methodologies.
The company used a variety of applications, including OpenPlant, AutoPIPE, Navigator, ProSteel, and STAAD, SWTS created and implemented a digital model for managing this project. From performing structural analysis of polypropylene (PP) tanks to performing stress analysis, performing detailed civil, concrete, and tank design, managing multidiscipline design reviews, and producing detailed bills of materials directly from the digital model, SWTS was able to revolutionize their digital workflows and leverage the digital DNA they have created.
SWTS realized significant ROI by implementing these technologies and techniques. Savings include approximately $70,000 through optimized pipe routings and reduced field rework and 30 per cent savings in resource hours during the design modelling phase ($35,000). Utilizing Bentley software also lessened the civil, structural, piping, and cable tray site execution time by 60 days, resulting in a flawless construction of civil foundations, concrete and steel structures, equipment, piping plus allied supports, cable tray, and instrumentation within the stipulated project schedule.
A SWTS spokesperson said, “Bentley as a single solution provider successfully paved the way for analysis, modelling, designing, detailing, and documenting in a more prudent way, which met SWTS’s patented ultra-pure water generation using membranes and filters for solar power plant execution, on time and with high quality. SWTS’ efforts to industrialize their project delivery have enabled the company to reinforce its position as one of the world’s leading providers of UPW systems.”
