From uncertainty to stability

The life of a professional  is a bit like that of a silk worm. The silk worm lives its life diligently eating mulberry leaves for its survival. The very valuable silk comes out of the worm’s efforts to survive. Many path-breaking accomplishments in human world have been the results of such diligence and commitment. At times, these contribute to the well being and improvement of life leading to breakthrough results. I was glad to note that the engineering talent of my Company, Praj, achieved one such milestone recently.  I am talking about the textile hub in South India: A city called Tirupur in Tamil Nadu.  Tirupur also happens to be nicknamed the ‘hosiery capital of India’.  In 2005, the Madras High Court had ordered the closure of more than 600 bleaching and dyeing units due to the groundwater pollution caused by the units.  For almost 2 years, more than 600 bleaching and dyeing units remained closed for want of a dependable solution. Also on line was the livelihood of a lot of people, many of whom had migrated just to work in a then flourishing textile industry. The ruling by Madras High Court instructed the bleaching and dyeing units to necessarily install Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants as a secondary treatment measure for treating effluents.
 The RO system though leaves effluent streams as rejects. This reject too had to be prevented from going into the river. The court also instructed the textile industries to adopt a policy of zero effluents discharge.
Many technologies were implemented but none could solve the problem comprehensively. At this juncture, Praj was invited to provide a solution as part of the renewed efforts of the CETPs(Common Effluent Treatment Plant). Praj decided to take up this challenging application. This, we thought, would also help us add a new dimension to our water and wastewater business.
We took up the job of designing and installing an integrated 100 KLD (Kilo Litres per Day) zero liquid discharge system for the CETP. A multitude of efforts were put whole heartedly into the issue. This involved periodic collection and testing of effluent samples, study of existing effluent treatment plants, developing customized process and engineering solutions and demonstrating the efficacy of the solution on the 100 KLD plant.

The entire plant was designed, engineered, fabricated and erected by Praj on a turnkey basis. Finally, a successful commissioning was carried out for this 100 KLD plant. We are now working on two more projects for Tirupur based CETPs.  The first one is for a 700 KLPD CETP and another for a 5000 KLPD in Sirupooluvapatti ,making it the largest installation of its kind.
The repeat orders of progressively increasing capacities certainly show a great deal of trust in our technology which was, undoubtedly, borne out of the successful working of the first plant.
The first project led us to venture into a challenge zone. With the experience of designing many plants and a streak of  intrapreneurship, the seemingly tough proposition soon turned into a cause for celebration; not only for us but also for a number of textile units that had found the going tough in the face of the court orders. The effort played an important role in getting jobs back at some of the units.
Certainly, for an engineer and an engineering company, nothing could‘ve been more satisfying!