Most businesses are working to drive down costs while simultaneously reducing their environmental impact. For them, there cannot be a better option than innovative clean technology solutions that offer a plethora of benefits: both economical and environmental. ATE. not only offers differentiated clean technologies spanning energy, water and air, including remote monitoring, but also domain expertise in application areas, thus distinctly standing apart from a host of other players in the field.

ATE is a reputed, diversified Indian engineering group, which is on the threshold of celebrating its platinum jubilee (75 years) in 2014. ATE has long operated in the fields of textile engineering, flow technology and print and packaging solutions. The group ventured into the clean technology space in 2006 with its entry into Machine-to-Machine solution business, followed by energy efficient cooling solutions and water and waste water management.

ATE's foray into clean technology is propelled by its passion. "I have always been passionate about the environment and wanted to get involved in the environment movement and socially useful businesses, particularly as I was deeply concerned that India is one country that would be badly hit with climate change", says Anuj Bhagwati, the head of the ATE Group, who is spearheading ATE's clean tech drive. Here is an overview of ATE's clean technology businesses:

Water and Waste Water Management

In the context of the increasing water scarcity, the need for water and wastewater management and recycling cannot be overemphasised. ATE provides a comprehensive range of state-of-the art technology solutions for the management of water, and treatment and recycling of wastewater from within the group as well as from various global leaders that it has tied-up with.

ATE Envirotech, an ATE group company, offers complete wastewater treatment and recycling solutions, including zero liquid discharge. The company has already executed over 200 projects in India and other countries that include USA, Puerto Rico, Zambia, Philippines, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Indonesia. The company undertakes turnkey projects as well as upgradation of existing projects through value added products. The company also undertakes complete project execution and commissioning, re-commissioning, trouble-shooting, etc. In addition, it can also take-up comprehensive monitoring and maintenance contracts using innovative remote monitoring technologies.

ATE works in municipal infrastructure water and wastewater projects and industry verticals like textiles, dairy, sugar, pharmaceuticals, petrochemical, chemical, healthcare, food-processing and building segment and has a base of satisfied customers across these verticals.

Leveraging its in-house expertise, the company has developed the highly successful "AAA" process that enhances biological treatment efficiency and minimizes sludge generation. It also provides VSEP-EVR (Vibratory Shear Enhanced Processing- Evaporation Volume Reduction), a patented membrane based system from New Logic Research (for reducing the volume of wastewater going to evaporators in ZLD plants). While the VRM (Vacuum Rotating Membrane) based MBR systems from Huber, Germany, can handle difficult to treat effluents, the AVR (Anaerobic Venturi Reactor) based biomethanation plants offer sustainable and trouble free operations.

For energy efficient water flow management, ATE offers a wide range of pumping solutions from some of the world's well-known brands and ATE. 's own 'BoostStar' hydro-pneumatic (HyP) pressure boosting systems. The 'BoostStar' system is built with the most advanced features to manage the water flow of high-rise apartments, townships, bungalows/villas, commercial buildings such as malls, hotels and office buildings and also for industrial applications.

ATE's customers include some well-known names such as Chitale Dairy, Godavari Bio-refineries, Renuka Sugars, Torrent Pharma, Cipla, Jeyavishnu Textile Processors, Indo Rama, Larsen & Toubro, Vatech Wabag, Tata Steel, Voltas, Municipal Corporations of Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Delhi, etc.

Energy Efficient Cooling Solutions

Cooling is a major contributor to energy consumption and thus a major source of CO2 emission in the atmosphere. About 40 per cent of a building's energy consumption is from its cooling requirements. With increasing power scarcity, rising electricity bills and mounting carbon emissions, there is a great need to have energy efficient & eco-friendly cooling systems.HMX Systems, an ATE. group company, offers comfort cooling solutions, providing comfort with better economy as well as with lower carbon intensity.

The first of the innovative products developed by HMX Systems was the 'HMX-Ambiator'. It is a new generation two stage evaporative cooling solution, providing '100 per cent fresh-clean-cool air' and an energy efficient alternative to conventional air-conditioners with up to 60 per cent energy saving. HMX has subsequently launched HMX-Treated Fresh Air (TFA) & HMX-Economiser.

Comfort cooling by the principle of 'two stage evaporative cooling' is a concept that is fast catching on. It is a significant upgrade over air-washer (single stage evaporative cooling) technology in the sense that it either 'saves power for the same cooling effect as an air-washer' or 'provides more cooling and comfort than an air-washer' for the same power. Further, in case of HMX-Ambiator, moisture addition in the conditioned space is just 50% as that of air-washers. Two stage evaporative cooling is a fresh air solution. So it is optimum for many applications such as factory shed cooling and fringe areas in buildings. Ambiators further protect our environment by not using any ozone depleting CFCs.

HMX- TFA is an innovative technology product to supply filtered-conditioned-fresh air in designated areas. Highly energy efficient solution for once-through and fresh air cooling applications in industries, such as pharma, foods, beverages, automobiles, etc. It can be used in conjunction with AHUs /large chiller installations for energy saving while treating the fresh air intake in commercial buildings.

HMX-Economiser is an energy recovery device and in turn lowers the TR load on AC. It helps in recovering the energy from outgoing air and pre-cools the fresh air. Since there is no rotating wheel, there will be no wear/tear, no deterioration of efficiency over a time & no cross contamination. Many studies point to the greater health & productivity of people working in offices as well as in spaces that have significantly higher fresh air component. The higher air volumes of evaporative cooling systems (compared to air conditioning systems) provide greater comfort at higher temperatures. In such situations, in many climates, two stage evaporative cooling is finding a niche today.

The concept of comfort cooling, driven by a commitment for sustainability, is fast catching up in India as is borne out by the impressive list of large corporates who have installed the HMX-Ambiators for their offices and factories. Marquee names include: Volkswagen, Tata Motors, Bosch, ITC, to name just a few.

Machine-to-machine Solutions

"If you can monitor equipment of whatever sort or buildings remotely, then you can ensure that they operate at optimal levels, in turn conserving energy and resources" says Abhay Nalawade, Founder and Managing Director of EcoAxis, the ATE group company in the M2M business.

Industrial equipment presents numerous complexities owing to changing technologies, difficult processes, different users, etc., which make the overall equipment optimisation a humanly impossible task. This leads to sub-optimization of equipment capabilities and wastage of resources. The machine-to-machine technology platform developed by EcoAxis, precisely addresses this long-standing problem.

EcoAxis' product suite, which is called SuperAxis, captures various operational data based on the pre-determined parameters from industrial plants, equipment and utilities and transmits them to a central server, where the data is analyzed and archived. Based on the analysis, the system triggers periodic or emergency notifications to the stakeholders on the machine performance and energy consumption. Just as 'a stitch in time saves nine', the timely notifications help stakeholders to take necessary corrective/preventive action to not only improve the machine performance, but also optimise resource consumption.

EcoAxis' solutions have vast applications, e.g., boilers, distilleries, water and waste water treatment plants, foundries, bottling plants, food processing units, power, water monitoring, carbon monitoring, etc. With resource conservation moving to the top of the business agenda, the demand for this application in utilities is growing rapidly.

EcoAxis is a pioneer in introducing this innovative technology in India and has gained widespread expertise over the years with the execution of a large number of prestigious projects, which includes remote monitoring of Thermax absorption chillers, CEO dash board for Godavari Bio-refineries, thermal power plant monitoring for KSK Energy Ventures, etc., while many more such projects are in the pipeline.

Group Profile

ATE. made its debut as a small trading company in 1939. Today, it has grown into a multifaceted, diversified engineering group. ATE's businesses range across these segments:

Industrial Sales, Distribution, and Service

ATE's original trading business is now India's textile machinery expert, representing more than 50 global leaders with annual sales handled in the range of Rs 1000 crore. ATE also offers varied solutions to the print and packaging sector, for flow technology, and in cleantech.

Textile Machinery Manufacturing

ATE has launched its own brand, TeraSpin, for drafting systems, spindles, and other spinning accessories.

ATE operates manufacturing joint ventures with long standing partners Tr?tzschler, Germany, and Zinser (Saurer Group), Switzerland/Germany for different kinds of textile spinning machinery.

Clean Technology

ATE (as detailed here), has a host of clean tech offerings in the fields of waste water treatment and comfort cooling. It has differentiated technology, in-depth application knowledge, and project management and EPC skills.

Machine to Machine

ATE has developed a comprehensive M2M hardware and software platform, and with it customized solutions for a number of sectors such as boilers, chillers, power plants, bio-refineries, distilleries, press shops, water and waste water treatment plants, etc. 

Print and Packaging

ATE companies have built up know-how and now manufacture a range of products that enhance printing efficiency and economy, such as register control systems, static control products, ink circulation and control systems, etc. With passion, commitment, and a growing toolkit of differentiated technologies, ATE is fast spreading its wings in the field of clean technology.