Cement, Energy and Environment

has started receiving its deserved recognition now and the policies are getting aligned towards the same. The current permitting process consists of waste-by-waste clearance through an elaborate trial burn process. In India, as of now more than 75 trial burns of different kinds of wastes have been implemented successfully and all have been approved as acceptable by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). These wastes ranged from non– hazardous wastes to most dangerous Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). Now, therefore, there is a need to move the legislation from waste-by– waste permitting process to infrastructure and emission monitoring-based permitting system. · According to Rajnish Kapur, Business Head (Grey Cement Division), JK Cement, the time taken to get the approval from the respective authorities for use of AFRs is too long. With the implementation of online monitoring systems the online data is transferred to the concerned board. Hence the board should now issue open clearance system for all the AFRs which have been used in various cement manufacturing units. He adds,'Automatic open clearance system for all cement plants for waste co-incineration is to be given, if the trial has been conducted successfully for that class of material in any cement plant. · Says KN Rao, Director-Energy & Environment, ACC Ltd, 'Co-processing of alternative fuels in place of fossil fuels and use of non-carbonaceous raw material are aligned to the company climate change mitigation strategy. ACC has deployed huge amount of technical resources and also made huge investments for pre– processing facilities and feeding system in various plants of ACC for use of alternative fuels and raw materials in cement manufacturing process .· The 2020 target Action plan has already been drawn up by the Institute of Industrial Productivity (liP) for Indian cement industry by which the target is to reach five per cent of TSR by the year 2020. According to Kamalkumar, Chief General Manager, Holtec today TSR is less than 1 per cent for the whole of industry. UltraTech is around 0.45 per cent, ACC is 0.6 per cent, My Home is 0.3 per cent. Achieving the target of five per cent of TSR itself seems to be a Herculean task . He says, 'In fact, we have the technical capability to reach the target of five per cent TSR and manufacturers are ready and taking initiatives to achieve the stipulated target. But there has to be a collective mechanism in place. Suppose today one invests in creating a facil ity to use RDF and in future RDF is not made available to him that is going to create enough trouble. Vikram Cement at Khor has invested in the facility and it is working fine. On the flip side JP cement in HP has invested, however they are not getting RDF .' He adds , 'In short everybody including CMA, SPCB, CPCB are working hard to put the system in place, make it happen. Facilities are being created and we can reach the target in the near future .· For Parlikar to achieve the target there is an urgent need to implement necessary policy level reforms that are emiSSion monitoring and infrastructure based. Further, there is a need for the cement industry to implement necessary facilities for waste handling, storing, pre– processing and feeding in the kiln . There is also investment required for creating facilities for monitoring and control of .emissions. Further, the legislative process needs to bring the material in the market. For example, although, large quantities of tyres are replaced every year in the country, the same is not visible in the waste market. This is because there is no defined regulatory system in place to collect and divert them in the waste market. Once they become visible in the waste market, they will be avai lable to cement industry for disposal through co-processing. He further points out, 'Similarly, about 60 million tonne of municipal solid waste is generated every year. About 30 per cent of this is non– compostable and non-recyclable combustible fraction which can be converted into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). If proper policy framework is put in place , about 10 million tonne of this combustible waste can be disposed as RDF in an environmentally friendl y manner through co– processing in the cement kilns . It is also important that the 'polluter pays· principle has to be embedded in the policy framework. This will facilitate generation of enough funds for the proper management of wastes· Challenges Inter-state movement: According to KamaiKumar the industry is comfortable in using agri waste but when it comes to industrial waste there are issues. When waste moves from one state to another state there are many issues involved. Transportation hurdles is the main 50