1. May 2015 | ManufacturingToday www.manufacturingtodayindia.com
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32
The perfect mix
Why water-in-oil is good for your industry…
Creatnet Technology (CTPL) was started
in 2013 after its proprietors stumbled upon a fuel up-
gradation process known as fuel-water emulsification.
Enamoured by the concept they imported process
equipment from Russia and set up shop with a busi-
ness model of providing service to petroleum dealers
and large users in the NCR and North India regions.
Their objective is to make fuel-water emulsions from
heavy fuel oil, (popularly known as furnace oil), a
cheap thick black residual petroleum product used as
fuel in industrial boilers and furnaces and to make it as
clean burning as diesel if not better.
Explaining what emulsified fuels are all about Ravi
Deka, director R&D and CEO, CTPL said, "Emulsions
consist of a blend of two immiscible liquids like oil and
water, where one is reduced to microscopic droplets
and is dispersed inside the other in a stable manner
so that the two neither mix nor separate, appearing
like biological cells when viewed under a microscope."
Everyday examples of emulsions are mayonnaise, ice-
cream, shampoo and cold creams.
Agreeing Deka added, "When fuel is emulsified, the
process inserts microscopic water droplets into the oil
phase. During combustion, these water droplets ex-
plode into steam in a continuous series of micro-ex-
plosions, ripping the oil droplets into a nano-sized mist
that burns-out completely. Thus, leaving no unburnt
particles like soot and in addition produces more ther-
mal energy due to complete combustion. This pro-
cess is known as secondary atomisation."
Moreover, once emulsified even otherwise poor
burning fuels like heavy residual oils combust easily and
very cleanly with significant reduction of smoke and
pollutants like Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Sulfur Oxides
(Sox) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) in stack emissions.
This decrease of oxides also contributes to a 10-20%
lesser oxygen usage by the combustion process.
Taking us through the history of fuel emul-
sions, Deka explained, "Going by patents filed world-
wide, fuel emulsions date back to the 1930s and
thereafter like a Phoenix, the technology keeps alter-
nately fading away and then resurrecting itself every
time petroleum prices hit the roof. Today, the largest
adopters of fuel-emulsion technology are the ship-
ping lines, which install on-board units to process
"The foremost
challenge for us lies in
marketing emulsified
fuel."
– Ravi Deka, director,
R&D and CEO, Creatnet
Technology

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the start, the oil feedstock is filtered and homogenised
to remove impurities and for chemically neutralising
the sludge. At the same time this helps blend both the
lighter and heavier factions into a uniform consistency.
After this, the oil is infused with a stream of chemi-
cally treated softened water through a three stage
process comprising of a series of passive mixing de-
vices known as static mixers and a specially designed
in-line cavitator and a high shear mixer. The high pres-
sure cavitation effect inside the process stream im-
plodes the water in uniform five micron sized droplets
which are dispersed uniformly inside the oil medium,
thus creating a stable emulsion that can easily contain
up to 20% water."
With 'going green' becoming almost a norm in
industries it is interesting to see companies like CTPL
coming up with improved solutions that help manu-
facturers become sustainable. However, the journey
is not smooth. "The foremost challenge for us lies in
marketing emulsified fuel. Most clients have a mental
block towards using alternate fuels, especially when
it is declared that it contains water. Secondly, even
when the bosses accept the scientific evidence, get-
ting it to percolate down to the shopfloor personnel is
a very taxing task.
"Moreover, with the lax implementation of pollution
control laws, the entire ecological advantage of emul-
sified fuels is either downplayed or just ignored as al-
most all potential clients just prefer to hanker for price
discounts, assuming that they should only pay for the
oil part of the emulsion," stated Deka.
Today CTPL is negotiating with several food, phar-
ma and FMCG companies to regularly supply emulsi-
fied HFO for their thermic heaters, boilers and ovens.
Efforts are equally underway to tie-up with manufac-
turers of boilers and heavy engines. Forming alliance
with petroleum companies and securing a fresh round
of investments is next on the agenda. The company
is also in the process of patenting several in-house
developed technologies, processes and products that
are currently under testing.
fuel in ships for ease of combustion and reducing
pollution. Marine and heavy diesel engine manufac-
turers like Wartsila and MAN both have extensively
tested and allowed fuel emulsions to be used in
their engines."
Coming back to India, CTPL in its one year of ex-
istence has managed to become the sole supplier
of emulsified Heavy Fuel Oil or Furnace Oil (HFO) to
industrial leaders like Metnere and Gravitas India in
the aluminum and lead sectors. Add to that a host of
zinc plating industries and boiler users in North India.
"Our unique manufacturing process is what differ-
entiates us. Our HFO technology involves a five stage
batch process, in the heart of which is a special tem-
perature controlled mixing and blending tank and a
special homogeniser sourced from Russia, which has
been developed by St. Petersburg Technical Universi-
ty," averred Deka. Talking of the process, he said, "At
2
2
1. Emulsified heavy
fuel oil with 100 times
magnification under
a microscope which
shows a completely
homogenised medium
and the tiny dark dots
are actually 2-5 micron
water droplets uniformly
dispersed in the oil.
2. This emulsifying
process tank can
process five metric
tonnes of emulsified
heavy fuel in two hours.

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innovation
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