Cement, Energy and Environment

\ bottleneck. Even moving from one district to another is a problem. He quips, ·cement plants are the best and the most economic solution for waste management. There are challenges which collectively we have to overcome.' Says Kapur ' In case of interstate movement of wastes, permission of both state pollution control board is required. This needs time and efforts. One policy related with movement can be made across the country to promote AFR use, and there is also a need to introduce GPS tracking system for controlling the end use.· Says Jain, 'Permitting inter-state movement of waste will definitely help enhance the use of AFR. However, having clearly defined responsibility of each stakeholder in collection, packaging, transportation, handling and storage, etc will support the decision makers . Similarly, development of operational guidelines with built-in safety features for the earlier mentioned sub-activities will ensure safe and environmentally sound co-processing. · Speaking about the on-ground reality Parlikar says, 'This is because of the NIMBY syndrome. The receiving state has the concern of owning the liability of the waste that is received for disposal in their incineration or landfill facility. Their additional concern is about quicker depletion of the available disposal capacity of the state through the disposal of waste from other states. Hence, the receiving state has a tendency to oppose the transfer. However, if it is transferred for implementing co-processing, the waste conserves the natural resources used in that state and also reduces the GHG emissions. Further, being a zero-waste technology, co-processing does not leave any waste footprint in the state and also does not utilise the ava ilable capacity of the landfills. In fact, it enhances the available capacity of the existing landfills due to diversion of the landfill material for co-processing. Hence, transfer of wastes across the state is beneficial to the receiving state and should be encouraged.· Pieters adds , 'This system is practised in different parts of the world successfully. In the entire Europe, waste moves from one country to another. There are well-defined processes in place in Basel Convention that are practiced successfu lly in these country to country transfers. These processes can be easily adapted for transfer of wastes across the states in India and the Basel convention is already signed by India years ago.· Cost impact: According to Jain suitable technologies are available for converting MSW to cement grade RDF, which are financially viable also. He says, ·u se of alternate fuels for TSR is a financial viable intervention with very good IRR. It also depends on the type of waste proposed for usage and technical intervention . Many Indian cement plants have successfully implemented these options and substituted fossil fuel significantly. The payback period generally varies between 2-4 years. · Consistent quality supply: Says Kapur, 'The consistent supply and uniform quality are main constraints in utilising AFRs - for example , tyre carbon black. The cost of the carbon black depends upon the cost of waste tyres in the market/import conditions. Due to high demand for waste tyre, the cost of carbon black is increasing and hence its adulteration too. · He suggests, 'There should be long term agreement with the manufacturers directly with clear quality parameters, thereby the traders can be avoided and can sustain the supply as well as quality. However, the essence of the agreement sha ll be the price factor with regards to the coal price. Regulatory authorities need to standardise all waste for stream line the market operations.· Speaking about the current emission norms Kapur had this to say. 'There is no existing standard for NOx from kiln. Only SPM standard is 50 mg/Nm3 for new plants and 100 mg/Nm3 for old plants. N02 standard from 1-1-2016 and SPM standard from 1-6-2016 for cement kiln will be 800 mg/Nm3 and 30 mg/Nm3 respectively. Online monitoring system has been installed and commissioned in plants stacks for monitoring SPM, S02 and NOx. The online monitoring system has already started. It will help us in controlling emissions while firing different type of AFRs. · According to Rao the government is gearing up to release regulatory norms for these emissions. ACC has already installed the required measuring systems for these emissions. We are aware of the base line emissions which are very well below the expected norms in majority of their plants. In respect of a few exceptions, the required corrective actions are initiated to address these emissions. Long way to go Enhanced AFR usage in kilns will help even exceed energy consumption reduction targets under the Perform- Achieve- Trade (PAT) scheme. We still have a long way to go. There is huge potential for use of AFR.