Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Apr 04, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Apr 04, 2006 |
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Petroleum Corporate - Water CPCL aims to become self-sufficient in water R. Balaji
Main sources The CPCL refinery needs about 6.5-7 mgd water a day. The sources are water supply by Metrowater about 4.5 mgd and recycling Chennai's sewage and the refinery's discharge.
THE WATER treatment facility of CPCL. - Bijoy Ghosh
Chennai , April 3 Water and oil may not mix but without water there is no oil — at least for an oil refinery. Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd's (CPCL) primary goal is to become self-sufficient in water. Its refinery at Manali in North Chennai is expending over Rs 290 crore in doubling its sewage water treatment facility to 5 million gallons a day (mgd) to obtain freshwater from Chennai's sewage and a 5.8 mgd desalination plant to turn seawater to freshwater. According to CPCL officials, Tamil Nadu is one of the costliest places for water. Even sewage water is costly and there is a need to bring down this cost.
Cost concern
Mr K.K. Acharya, Chairman and Managing Director, says that water cost is among its major concerns. The plant cannot run without water even for a single day as it would result in a loss of over Rs 60 crore a day in turnover and about Rs 2-3 crore in profit. In Tamil Nadu, water is a costly commodity. And sometimes, one cannot get it whatever the cost as happened a few years ago when the plant had to be shutdown for want of water resulting in losses of crores of rupees.
Zero-discharge plant
Even sewage water, which CPCL buys from the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater), costs Rs 8.30 a kilolitre. So, it has embarked on a major exercise to become self-sufficient in water. Not only does it make freshwater out of others' waste but also re-uses its own waste to become a `zero-discharge' plant. The project to double wastewater treatment capacity and desalination is scheduled for completion in the middle of next year but is likely to be completed ahead of time, Mr Acharya said. According to Mr S. Chandrasekaran, General Manager, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, the refinery needs about 6.5-7 mgd water a day. The sources are water supply by Metrowater about 4.5 mgd and recycling Chennai's sewage and the refinery's discharge. CPCL also has a sewage-recycling unit that gives it about 1.9 mgd water after treating 2.5 mgd and this capacity will soon be doubled. Treated sewage water cost works out to about Rs 30-35 a kilolitre, about half that of the freshwater bought from Metrowater.
Related Stories: More Stories on : Petroleum | Water | Environment
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