Anuj Bhagwati’s strong commitment towards environmental protection
For 75 years A.T.E. has been working on achieving social goals through business and has grown into a successful, multi-dimensional engineering group.
A.T.E. was founded as a part of India’s freedom movement, with the idea of selling high quality German textile machinery in India to challenge the prevailing British monopoly in the field. This endeavour helped in the modernisation and growth of the Indian textile industry.
A.T.E. is now recognised a leader in textile engineering in India, offering end-to-end solutions across the textile value chain. It diversified into flow technology and print and packaging equipment in the 1970s, thus building up expertise in diverse fields.
In the 2000s, a new generation of management took over the reins at A.T.E. The strategies going forward were not only to build on the businesses the group had been in, but also go further in achieving social objectives. Well before “green” became a buzzword, A.T.E. decided to build up environmental businesses. Moreover, it thought it right to “invent in India” and set about creating original and sustainable products and solutions. And so, in 2006, it started developing products based on Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology. Since then, it has also developed technologies and deployed products in wastewater treatment, eco-friendly cooling solutions, and energy efficiency solutions. So, A.T.E. encompasses three essential elements of life – air, water, and energy.
“I have always been passionate about the environment and wanted to create a positive environmental impact, particularly as I am deeply concerned that India will be badly hit by climate change. I also wanted to promote a culture of thinking for oneself and crafting original solutions. It’s the A.T.E. way to work on social goals through business. I believe we will create sustainable stakeholder value and will help society”, said Mr. Anuj Bhagwati, Head, A.T.E. Group. This succinctly underscores A.T.E.’s commitment to “invent in India”.
Here is an overview of A.T.E.’s businesses in the environmental space:
Fresh air can work wonders. A growing number of studies in areas like education, healthcare and manufacturing, have shown increased productivity and with healthy fresher air. If fresh air can work wonders, fresh cool air in hot climate is even better. That is precisely what HMX, a part of the A.T.E. Group, does with its unique, patented technology. It provides fresh cooled air for industrial and commercial operations that not only ensure people comfort and thereby enhance productivity, but is also used to improve process efficiency. And HMX’s solutions can do this without the heavy power used by air-conditioners. So they’re environment-friendly with an affordable lifecycle cost!
At the heart of all HMX products is the DAMA (Dry Air Moist Air) – a patented heat exchanger (US and Australian patents received). It’s a cross flow plate type sensible heat exchanger built out of an engineering polymer, which provides a non-corrosive, non-biodegradable, and anti-bacterial substrate and has an efficiency of more than 80 per cent.
HMX products minimise the use of refrigerants and energy-intensive compressors to supply cool air, using the following configurations to supply fresh, clean and cool air for different applications:
Only indirect evaporative cooling (IEC)
Combination of indirect and direct evaporative cooling (IDEC)
Combination of indirect evaporative cooling and cooling coils (DX or chilled water)
HMX products comprise two broad product families – HMX-Ambiator and HMX-PCU-F pre-cooling fresh air units. All HMX’s products improve the air quality within factory sheds, office buildings, and education and healthcare facilities.
HMX has many installations covering the industrial and commercial segments and has a rapidly growing installed base. With more than 20 million CFM spread over 4 million+ square feet in India, HMX has the world’s largest installed base of indirect evaporative cooling. More and more corporates and multinationals from across segments such as automobiles, engineering, food and beverage, etc., are turning to HMX for innovative cooling solutions. The growing list of satisfied customers of HMX includes progressive companies such as ABB, Bilcare, Bosch, Coca Cola, Dabur, Forbes Marshall, GE, HAL, Himalaya, Honeywell, ICRISAT, ITC, Lupin, NRB, SKF, Suzlon, Syntel, Taj Hotels, Tata Motors, TVS, Victor Reinz, VW and Wipro.
HMX is thus redefining cooling, uniquely providing both energy efficiency and fresh air.
World-class wastewater treatment solutions
The water situation in India is causing increasing concern, as the growing population, industrialization and climate change are all exerting increasing pressure on the existing water resources. Water quality is also a major concern for India. Proper treatment of wastewater to facilitate compromise-free recycling or discharge is essential to human health, agricultural productivity, and long-term economic growth.
A.T.E.’s entry into wastewater treatment is based on its experience that wastewater is the best source of water. Recycling wastewater can go a long way in mitigating the water crisis if modern treatment technology is optimally leveraged. A scientific approach is the cornerstone of A.T.E.’s wastewater treatment venture.
A.T.E. Envirotech Private Ltd. offers comprehensive, innovative and cost-effective wastewater treatment and recycling solutions, including zero liquid discharge. The company undertakes turnkey projects as well as upgrades existing plants through value-added products. With a team of highly experienced professionals and with its own R&D lab, the company has built up strong capabilities in wastewater management.
As a result of continuous process development, A.T.E. Envirotech has introduced several innovations in the field. The AAA (air floatation, anaerobic, aerobic) technology is a highly successful innovation from A.T.E. that enhances biological treatment efficiency and minimizes sludge generation. The company has also introduced AVR (Anaerobic Venturi Reactor) based biomethanation plants that can handle difficult to treat effluents. To overcome the challenge faced by the API (Active Pharma Ingredients) industry in treating their wastewater, A.T.E. has also developed a highly successful solution for API wastewater treatment through anaerobic + aerobic biological treatment.
The wastewater treatment project from A.T.E. is also packaged with ‘EnviroCola’, a customized online assistance system that will provide all the information needed about the ETP, which can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
A.T.E. Envirotech works across industry verticals like textiles, dairy, sugar, pharmaceuticals, petrochemical, chemical, healthcare, food-processing and building segment. The company has already executed over 200 projects in India and other countries such as the US, Zambia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Indonesia, while many more projects are underway. It has built a strong base of highly satisfied customers, many of whom have placed repeat orders. Some of the well-known names in the industry such as Chitale Dairy, Godavari Biorefineries, Renuka Sugar, Torrent Pharma, Cipla, Jeyavishnu Textile Processors, Indo Rama, Larsen & Toubro, VatechWabag, Tata Steel, Voltas, Municipal Corporations of Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Delhi, etc., are customers of A.T.E. Envirotech.
The company also partners with Huber of Germany for special wastewater treatment projects. With over 33,000 installations worldwide and presence across about 60 countries, Huber is a world leading company in the field of water, wastewater and sludge treatment. Huber’s main thrust in India is on the municipal segment as well as industrial effluent treatment.
Pumping solutions for water management
Efficient water management is integral to water conservation. A.T.E. has over three decades of expertise in flow technology. It now offers a wide range of highly efficient pumps that includes well known global brands like ABS, Yamada, Iwaki, along with its own brand of TeraFlow pumps and BoostStar HyP systems.
TeraFlow vertical multi-stage stainless steel centrifugal pumps are designed and engineered to deliver the best possible hydraulic efficiency in diverse applications such as water supply in industrial and commercial establishments, industrial washing plants, water treatment plants, etc. The in-line design of the TeraFlow pump makes it compact and easy for installation. The pumps are equipped with mechanical shaft seals of detachable cartridge type for easy maintenance. The TFVI and TFVL series are standardized pumps made of all stainless steel 304/316 construction.
A.T.E. BoostStar Hydropneumatic (HyP) systems are engineered using the most stringent quality and testing standards. At the heart of BoostStar HyP systems are A.T.E.’s TeraFlow centrifugal pumps and instrumentation & control systems made of the best components. The scalable design of the BoostStar HyP systems enable a variety of configurations, ranging from fixed speed systems to advanced and fully automated variable speed systems. The BoostStar HyP systems are available in a wide-range of configurations of pumps (vertical, horizontal, submersible), and with varying levels of automation and intelligence and are designed for the lowest total cost of ownership.
Here again, A.T.E. serves across industry verticals such as textile, pharmaceutical, chemical, etc., and for a variety of applications. Once again, the group has built a strong base of satisfied customers with excellent application know-how, high quality products, and excellent after-sales-service support.
Energy efficiency
Energy is the third leg of the A.T.E.’s clean technology platform. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are the key approaches to reduce demand for such carbon intensive fossil fuels. A.T.E. started its exploration of the renewable energy segment in 2008. Building on solid technical fundamentals and through continuous R&D, it has developed a solar concentrator – a proven Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) system that provides low-cost solar energy for various applications.
A.T.E. has so far supplied solar concentrators to commercial laundries and community cooking applications in Maharashtra and Goa. Both the sectors need hot water and steam. After a careful study of customer needs and the usage pattern, the solar concentrator was integrated with an optimized hot water system. This solution was designed and implemented with a user-friendly interface that can be operated even by an unskilled person. Customers are highly happy with the solutions provided with numerous benefits, such as profitability, ease of operation and worker comfort, besides huge environmental benefits.
M2M or remote monitoring based on the IoT (Internet of Things) is now recognised as a potent tool for operations and management effectiveness. This is a natural progression in the connected world, where devices connect to each other, generate and transmit reports. Tracking, measurement, and communication are critical aspects of efficient asset management – efficiency both in terms of product performance and resource consumption. This is an important dimension of any sustainability programme.
The IoT technology adoption is growing at a mindboggling pace and it is estimated by Gartner that the IoT installed base will grow to 26 billion by 2020. A.T.E. anticipated this need and the potential many years back and has been relentlessly building-up its capabilities in this domain. Today EcoAxis, a business unit of A.T.E., provides a unique value proposition to its customers with its well proven products and solutions.
EcoAxis’s IoT-based M2M technology enables continuous remote monitoring of industrial plant and equipment as well as energy and environmental resources. This system called SUPERAxis consists of electronic hardware and software connectors for logging data from machines, instruments and sensors. Using cloud-based computing, it delivers analytics and alerts in the form of reports, dashboards, emails and SMS, anywhere, anytime and on any device.
EcoAxis has executed a large number of prestigious projects, including remote monitoring of Thermax absorption chillers, a CEO dashboard for Somaiya Biorefineries, thermal power plant monitoring for KSK Energy Ventures, etc. SUPERAxis has been implemented for complete plant monitoring like textile process houses, power plants, printing & packaging units, sugar complexes, etc., as well as for utility equipment like boilers, heaters, chillers, compressors, gasifiers, cooling towers, DG sets, and water, waste water treatment plants, etc. The solution has benefited end users in improving production, productivity, and availability, reducing losses, as well as effectively managing energy & resource utilization and improving plant maintenance.
OEMs and O&M service providers have packaged EcoAxis’ remote monitoring solution to monitor their installed base of equipment for improving service revenue and service processes, reducing warranty costs, and field validation of their product / technology designs.
No wonder, EcoAxis has so far analysed over five trillion data points, which is growing at a 1.25 trillion data points every year. Thus, EcoAxis has established itself as a pioneer in the IoT space.
Committed to sustainable growth
A.T.E. has taken several steps within the group to promote sustainability and demonstrate its theme of “Partnering people and the planet”. A.T.E.’s new facilities in Ahmedabad and Pune have many environment-friendly features and are built to be LEED compliant. A series of sustainability initiatives have been integrated as a part of the everyday work practices in the group companies.
A.T.E.’s foray into clean technology businesses stems out of its understanding of, and commitment to sustainability. With the deep domain knowledge it has gained over the years, the group believes that its products and solutions will contribute to sustainable growth in India.