Sustainable approach in pharma project

Offering sustainable solutions is not limited to any project but with connected thinking of Mott MacDonald team and client. Vipul Patel, Chief Engineer-Piping, Energy, Mott Macdonald India, gives an insight on the same

Our core aim is to make a sustainable difference to the world we live in. That translates into a focus on understanding our clients and their customers, to deliver outcomes that add value. The value-added design inputs and their impacts on Mott
MacDonald’s projects always tend to address, directly or indirectly, some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG).

Methodology

Offering sustainable solutions is not limited to any project but with connected thinking of Mott MacDonald team and client, long-lasting, value-added ideas can be generated for almost all or any type of  projects that may come across.By the optimum engineering design of many of our industrial projects, we have imparted high contributions towards sustainability. From very basic engineering stage of any project, we seek ways for maximising sustainable outcomes for the environment, industry and the client.

Process

Always seeking opportunities for innovations, improvements and out-of-the-box thinking for creating value for our clients. We work with our clients to create value by saving time and cost by optimising process performance, reducing cycle time and thus increasing output within same set-up of industrial equipment and environment. Savings of every tonnage of steel, concrete means substantial saving in energy, water, CO2 emission, space etc. Use of emerging technology in energy efficiency, schedule improvement has great effect in sustainability solutions.

A pharma case study

While engaging with an upcoming pharma project’s team and learning about their priorities and focus on sustainability, Mott MacDonald provided some value-added solutions specially designed for them as under:

• Provision of solar panels on the roof of plant: Around 800 kwh power generation has been envisaged while designing the panel on the roof of main plant as per available area.
• Implementation of a Common Building concept: During the conceptual design stage, Mott MacDonald suggested one common building for plan which should encompass plant area, admin area, utility area, control room, MCC panel area, cooling tower on the top of terrace, DG set and transformer. Overall, space requirement and construction area was reduced.
• Installation of cooling tower on plant terrace: The cooling tower, along with ancillaries such as pumps, dosing chemicals, side steam filter, etc. were located on the terrace. This resulted in substantial reduction of piping and electrical cabling network. Additionally, there was an increase in the thermal efficiency of cooling tower due to open location and power saving due to lesser pressure drops.
• Rain water harvesting: During the design stage, it was suggested to collect rain water from the plant roof providing a close network. The water stored in the tank was utilised for raw water and fire water as and when required. This resulted into less requirement of underground water (natural reserves) thus reducing bore well pump usage saving power costs.
• Recovery of reclaimed water from ETP:  Reclaimed filtrate water from ETP shall be utilised for toilet flushing as well as gardening / afforestation in Green Belt Area.
• Installation of VAM (Vapour Absorption Machine) for generation of chilled water: Utilisation of excess steam (during fluctuating demands) for generating chilled water through VAM instead of VCM (Vapour Compression Machine) to save on power costs.
• Installation of non-metallic pipes:  Wherever possible, non-metallic pipes were utilised which contributed to lesser material and labour cost.
• Pre-fabricated roof of PEB (Pre-Engineered Building) in place of RCC slab: By providing PEB roof shed in place of conventional RCC slab, substantial construction time was reduced along with lesser quantity requirement of steel, cement and concrete.
• Locating utility equipment on ideal location within plant: Central location of all utility units (such as chiller units, air compressor, VAM, dryer – all along with connected pumps) to reduce piping and cabling network. This reduced system piping pressure drops resulted into lower pipe size requirement. This also resulted into life-time power saving of transfer pumps.
• Utilisation of space on water tank RCC Slab: The entire WTP plant and worker’s canteen were located on the top slab of underground water storage tank. This resulted into optimum utilisation of plant space requirement.

Benefits to industry

• Reduced carbon footprint.
• Lesser capital consumption due to less material usage.
• Judicious use of land area (as resource) management and durable infrastructure.
• Reduced life cycle cost by less consumption of energy resource.
• Capital saved can beinvested further resulting into additional economic development.