Transforming ITC Bhadrachalam into a future‑ready mill

Since its establishment in 1910, ITC has grown from humble beginnings into a diversified conglomerate with many business areas, including paperboards. The ITC Bhadrachalam mill is the jewel in the crown of their pulp and paper business.  

“ITC is India’s largest and greenest specialty paper and paperboard manufacturing company,” says A. Harinarayanan, Vice President for projects at ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers division. “We produce a wide range of graphic, fine, and packaging papers. Our manufacturing journey started way back in 1978, and we’ve since continued to augment our capacity. We’ve always been pioneers in adopting new technology.”  

Boosting performance with major upgrades 

Over the past few years, Valmet has delivered several upgrade and modernization projects for the mill. These include new chipping lines, an additional batch cooking stage, upgrades to existing fiberlines, a new bleaching plant, a new high-power recovery boiler, a new ash leaching plant, extensive NCG collection and handling upgrades, and upgrades to three of the existing paper machines.

“ITC follows a triple bottom line performance approach - spanning, economic, environmental and social aspects to create sustainable value,” explains A. Harinarayanan. “We’ve augmented our paper machine capacity significantly over the past three or four years. The pulp mill capacity has increased from 1,100 tonnes to 1,400 tonnes per day, which can supply the pulp requirement for the new paper machines.” 

Turning modernization into results 

General Manager and Strategic Business Unit Head, T. S. Bhaskara Rao, is responsible for all the pulp production at the ITC Bhadrachalam mill. He has overseen the recent Valmet deliveries. “We’ve selected state-of-the-art technology for our mill,” he says.

“The new recovery boiler has brought a lot of added value to the business in energy efficiency, specific consumption, and steam generation. The newly commissioned fifth chipping line is running at full capacity with high chip quality, and the additional digester helps us improve our overall production capacity and productivity. The experiences so far are promising, and stable quality has been achieved. We’ve had a longer journey with the fiberline, but we’re now at the point of meeting our targets,” T. S. Bhaskara Rao says.  

Good day-to-day cooperation 

The cooperation between ITC and Valmet includes performance agreements and expert services that provide vital day-to-day support to secure reliable production and high performance.  

“I’ve been cooperating with Valmet for the past 25 years – from paper machines to pulp mill and recovery,” T. S. Bhaskara Rao says. “We thoroughly enjoy working with Valmet because of their commitment to technological advances and efficiencies and safety. If we have any issues or technical challenges, we can reach out to Valmet and get timely support to minimize any production or efficiency losses.”  

Enhancing chip quality and capacity 

Over the years, ITC has upgraded its wood handling to improve chip quality, which is critical for efficient cooking. The mill now operates five chipping lines, and a sixth is scheduled to start up in 2027. 

“All the chipping lines are performing well,” says K. Sriapathi, Chief Manager, Pulp Mill at ITC Bhadrachalam. “We process multiple raw materials, different wood species of varying sizes, which is a major challenge. Valmet Disc Chippers and Chip Screens have successfully handled this variability, consistently delivering uniform high-quality chips. We’re now achieving an 88–90 percent share of acceptable chips, which has improved our cooking efficiency. With the sixth Valmet chipping line, we’ll secure sufficient inventory to run the mill at full capacity,” he adds. 

First high-power recovery boiler in India  

ITC has significantly improved the reliability and efficiency of its chemical recovery and power generation with India’s first state-of-the-art high-power recovery boiler, along with a new ash leaching plant.  

“One modern Valmet Recovery Boiler replaced three older ones, delivering higher efficiency and stable operation. As a result, we increased our renewable energy share from 43 to 53 percent, and we’re saving about 160,000 tonnes of coal annually,” says A. Harinarayanan. 

“After the commissioning of the high-power recovery boiler and the installation of the ash leaching plant, we’ve run comfortably for more than 18 months with smooth and uninterrupted boiler operation,” says N. V. Mohan Rao, Head of Soda Recovery Boiler, at ITC Bhadrachalam. 

A mill-wide NCG system

In addition to production capacity upgrades, the mill has implemented a mill-wide system to collect and handle toxic and flammable non‑condensable gases (NCG).  

“Our main objective was to make the workplace safe and environmentally friendly by collecting all the NCGs across the pulping and recovery plants. We conducted a comprehensive study with Valmet, identifying nearly 180 sources that needed to be connected to our mill without disturbing operations. And we did it! We successfully planned, executed, and commissioned everything together,” says M. Satyanarayana, Deputy General Manager for Projects at ITC Bhadrachalam. 

TEXT Lotta Forssell, Heli Nummela
PHOTOS Kartikaya Nagar, Gotama Visual Services