BHEL's Engineering capabilities are borne out of the fact that it meets the exacting benchmarks of international institutes, collaborators & customers.

Heat Exchange Institute (HEI) Standards
Tubular Exchange Manufacturers Association (TEMA) Standards HTRI & HTFS programs
Collaborators programs
Programs developed in-house.

The design is checked for reliable performance at various off design conditions. The customers therefore get the most optimum design.

Mechanical design and manufacturing is based on:
Heat Exchange Institute (HEI) Standards.
Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers
Association (TEMA) Standards. ASME Sec VIII Div 1 & 2
BS 5500
AD Merkblatter
Collaborators programs
Programs developed in-house
The design is checked for vibration-free & reliable performance at critical off design conditions.
The design takes care of load transients.
BHEL's Corporate R & D extends necessary technical support on case to case basis in areas such as:

i) Thermo-hydraulic analysis
ii) Structural analysis
iii) Selection of suitable materials
iv) Design/testing of specialized items such as spray valves, finned tubes, etc.
v) Vibration, transient analysis
vi) Failure analysis, etc.

Surface Condensers for Steam Turbines upto 154 MW in utilities, combined cycle power plants, industrial plants and process plants have been supplied. Surface condensers for cooling water chemistry varying from the softest water to the most corrosive brackish water can be given.
Condensers with Admiralty Brass, Aluminum Brass, Copper-Nickel 90-10&70-30, Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel tubes with Ferrous and Non-Ferrous tube sheets have been supplied.
BHEL has the expertise on different linings for water boxes including metallic overlay, rubber/FRP, corrocoat /polycoat lining and even cladded construction.
Some of the salient features are:

Optimised tube layout for minimum pressure drop
Hotwell deaeration
Designed for 100% HP/LP by pass operation
All welded construction
Axial condensers

Matching air evacuation systems namely Steam Jet Air Ejectors or Vacuum Pumps for the Surface Condensers are also supplied by BHEL as part of the condensing system package. While the SJAE are designed, manufactured and tested at BHEL Hyderabad, the vacuum pumps are bought out from reputed parties.
The Ejectors are of two-stage design complete with their inter and after condensers and a high capacity quick evacuation starting ejector with silencers. Ejectors for both horizontal and vertical mounting have been supplied.

The product range covers both low and high pressure Feed Water Heaters for utility sets upto 500 MW rating and also for industrial applications. Some of the salient feature are:

• Overlay of tube sheets for H P Heaters with material compatible with tube material
• Split flow De-Superheating zone
• Double shroud Drain Cooling zone
• Expansion ring in pass partition plate
• Self sealing man way
• All welded construction

The Heaters are designed for vibration free and reliable performance at critical off design conditions such as, VWO condition, operation of heater with lower heater out of service etc. The design takes care of load transients.
BHEL has supplied single bank Heaters for 500 MW rating thus qualifying to make heaters upto 1000 MW (double bank). BHEL has also supplied Duplex L P Heaters (combination of LPH- 1& 2 in one shell) and mounted in condenser dome for 2 x 130 MW Jindal Tractebel Power Co. Ltd.

As the name suggests, Deaerator is meant to remove mechanically the dissolved oxygen and other non-condensible gases from the feed water going to boiler.

BHEL is one of the few organisations in the world which has designed, manufactured and supplied all the four types of Deaerators, namely.

1. Tray type
2. Spray type
3. Spray-cum-Tray type and
4. Spray-cum-Tray-cum-Reboiling type

Field tests have given us dissolved oxygen content of less than 7 ppb (0.005 cc/lt).

The Gas Coolers handle a variety of gases normally encountered in the fertilizer & Petrochemical Plants. These include Air, Ammonia, Synthesis gas, Carbon-di-oxide [ wet & dry], Nitrogen, Freon, Hydrocarbons, and Raw gas (highly hazardous and corrosive). Exchangers with gas on shell side have been supplied to those customers who have shown such preference. Heat Exchangers with no tube in window design for very low gas pressure drops have been given.

Process Heat Exchangers handling a variety of fluids both an shell side and tube side for various applications in refineries, petrochemical plants have been supplied to both BHEL's own design and to customers'/consultants' design.

Barge mounted LPG Bullets for transporting LPG from ships on the high seas to in-land storage facilities have been supplied. All activities were done as per Lloyd's Rules under Lloyd's Inspection.

Storage and Mounded type Bullets for storage of LPG have been supplied on a turnkey basis. BHEL's shop, welders and the welding procedures are approved by the Chief Controller of Explosives [CCOE], Nagpur, the statutory authority.

Air Cooled Heat Exchangers for applications such as Cooling Water Modules, Air Blast Oil Coolers and Refinery Gas coolers are supplied by BHEL.

Air is used to cool the process fluid where water, the conventional coolant, is scarce.

These are finned tube heat exchanger bundles. The process fluid flows through the tubes and air over the tubes. Air flow by induced/forced draft' is created by means of axial flow fans.

Most commonly used in tubes are G or L type. Tube material is Carbon Steel, Admiralty Brass, Aluminum Brass, Stainless Steel with Aluminum fins. Fans are of hollow blade Aluminum construction for less weight and low power consumption.

The header design can be either plug type or flanged type based on customers'/ customers' preference.

The total unit comprising of finned tube bundles, pumps, motors, piping arrangement with necessary structural are supplied.

In the various Heat Exchangers and Pressure Vessels, materials such as Corbon Steel, Alloy Steel, Stainless Steel TP 304/304L/316/316L, non-ferrous such as Admiralty Brass, Aluminum Brass, Cu-Ni alloys, Naval Brass, Aluminum Bronze, Muntz metal are being regularly used. As and when required over-layed/ cladded plates, rubber or FRP lined components have been successfully used. Special materials such as alloy steels with compositions 1Cr-1/2 Mo, 2Cr-1Mo and 5Cr-2Mo (P4 and P5 Group) materials have also been employed.

Quality of the product is of prime importance of BHEL. To ensure this, the Quality s assurance and Control Departments report directly to the Chief Executive. They oversee all aspects of quality functions, covering design, technology, production, materials, in-process inspection and testing.
In addition to our own quality control and quality assurance departments, many of the equipment are made under various third party inspection agencies such as PDIL, EIL, Lloyd's. TCE, DAE, NTPC, DOB (AP), TUV, BVQI, etc.
Customer / contract specific Quality Plans are developed to ensure compliance with specification / standards at various stages viz., engineering, materials procurement manufacturing and testing.
The prime NDT facilities available in-house are:

Radiography (X-ray) equipment - 300 KV 5 mA
Gamma ray equipment - Iridium 192, 50 Curie, Cobalt 60,60 Curie
Ultrasonic flow detectors - 10m depth - 1 to 16 M Hz
Magnetic crack detector - 6000 A HWDC
Digital ultrasonic flaw detector (upto 10m depth)

In recognition of the QA programs and the implementation of systems and practices in all areas of operation, ASME has been awarding the prestigious 'U' Stamp certificate to BHEL Hyderabad since 1984. In June 1998, BHEL has been awarded the ASME 'U2' Stamp certificate also.

BHEL accords the utmost importance to "Service after Sales". BHEL has an all-India service network with regional headquarters in the four regions of the country. This is backed by core Field Support Services and Field Engineering "Service groups located in Hyderabad.

Starting its first supplies in 1965-66 as on a March 1999, BHEL Hyderabad has supplied about:
940 Feed Water Heaters ( including 67 HP Heaters and 62 LP Heaters for 17 n nos. 500 MW Power Plants in India),
240 Deaerators (including 16 nos. for 500 MW Power Plants in India),
340 Surface Condensers with matching Air Evacuation Systems,
535 Heat Exchangers, and
385 Pressure Vessels.
Heat Exchangers have been exported to Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, etc.