TANCEM places sustainable development at core of business

Placing sustainable development at the core of business strategy, Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation Limited (TANCEM) is working on multiple fronts to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

Apart from modernisation of Alangulam plant which is expected to reduce GHG emissions by 20 per cent from the current levels, TANCEM has taken up tree plantation in 600 acres, has started exploring setting up of wind mills in 200 acres in Pollachi and the potential for carbon credits.

At Alangulam, the first public sector cement plant in the country started way back in 1969,has got government accord for the revised proposal for modernisation from wet process to dry process, TANCEM officials said.

As cement industry contributes over 8 per cent of carbon emission with energy accounting for about 40 per cent of the cost of production, TANCEM has engaged ENERGi Services on a carbon foot-printing project in its Alangulam and Ariyalur plants to put itself on the road towards sustainability.

Critical challenge

“The critical challenge is lack of availability of basic data. Once the data is available for development of benchmarks, cement manufacturers will work to develop performance indicators and benchmarks for evaluating emission reduction potentials,” said R. Kannan, chief consultant, ENERGi Services.

Already, TANCEM has reduced power consumption by 4.4 per cent and fuel consumption by 12.7 per cent in its two plants in 2009-10.

Lowest power consumption

The Ariyalur plant achieved the lowest power consumption of 21 units per tonne in raw metal ground since its inception, officials said.

According to the latest policy note of the industries department, TANCEM will install cooler electro static precipitators to arrest the fugitive emission from clinker cooler at Rs.7.5 crore, six online stack emission monitors at Rs.33 lakh and a waste heat recovery system costing Rs.25 lakh in its Ariyalur plant this fiscal.

Studies on implementation of clean development mechanism (CDM) to cut down carbon emissions and capture commercial potential of clean coal technology at Ariyalur unit, to capture CO2 from flue gas and improve calorific value of coal and usage of alternative fuels like scraped tyres, waste oil and sludge are on the anvil, officials said.