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| Corporate Initiatives for Water Conservation and Waste Water Management |
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BHARAT PETROLEUM, THANE DIST., MAHARASHTRA |
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HINDALCO INDUSTRIES, MURI, JHARKHAND |
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RELIANCE ENERGY, DAHANU, MAHARASHTRA |
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HINDALCO INDUSTRIES, RENUKOOT, SONBHADRA, UP |
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HEAVY WATER PLANT (DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY), KOTA, RAJASTHAN |
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ITC LIMITED |
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RIL (VADODARA MFG. DIVN.) |
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COCA COLA INDIA (VARANASI PLANT) |
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JK PAPER LTD (JAYKAYPUR, ORISSA) |
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NAGARJUNA FERTILISERS (KAKINADA, ANDHRA PRADESH) |
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PEPSICO INDIA (PALAKKAD, KERALA) |
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SHREE CEMENT LIMITED (BEAWAR, RAJASTHAN) |
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TATA CHEMICALS (BABRALA, UTTAR PRADESH) |
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VIZAG STEEL (VISHAKHAPATNAM, ANDHRA PRADESH) |
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ITC LIMITED (MUNGER, BIHAR) |
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MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD. (NASHIK, MAHARASHTRA) |
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NAINI TISSUES LTD. (KASHIPUR, UTTARAKHAND) |
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STERLITE INDUSTRIES INDIA LTD. (SILVASSA, DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI) |
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THIRUMALAI CHEMICALS (RANIPET, TAMIL NADU) |
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ASHOK LEYLAND (HOSUR, KARNATAKA) |
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BIRLA CORPORATION LTD., CEMENT DIVISION (SATNA, MADHYA PRADESH) |
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EID PARRY (INDIA) LTD. (PUDUKKOTTAI, TAMIL NADU) |
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INDO RAMA SYNTHETICS (I) LTD. (BUTIBORI, MAHARASHTRA) |
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ITC LIMITED, PSPD UNIT (KOVAI, TAMIL NADU) |
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MICO BOSCH (JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN) |
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BALLARPUR INDUSTRIES LTD. (YAMUNA NAGAR, HARYANA) |
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CARRIER AIRCON (GURGAON, HARYANA) |
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GMR ENERGY LTD. (MANGALORE, KARNATAKA) |
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HINDUSTAN ZINC LIMITED (CHANDERIA, RAJASTHAN) |
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ITC BHADRACHALAM (BHADRACHALAM, ANDHRA PRADESH) |
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JK TYRE & INDUSTRIES, LTD. (KANKROLI, RAJASTHAN) |
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STERLITE INDUSTRIES (INDIA) LTD. (TUTICORIN , TAMIL NADU) |
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| BHARAT PETROLEUM, THANE DIST., MAHARASHTRA: PROJECT BOOND |
| Bharat Petroleum's 'Project Boond', funded by the Oil Industry Development Board and with The Bridge Charitable Trust as NGO partner, covers five villages with a total population of 6,500 in the Kasara region of Thane District in Maharashtra. This area falls in the rain-shadow of the Western Ghats, and while it receives adequate precipitation during the monsoon season, it becomes completely parched by Feb-March, remaining that way till the next monsoon. The project objectives are to make this seasonally water-scarce tribal region water-sufficient, provide safe drinking water, enable perennial agriculture and reduce distress out-migration and school drop-outs that arise from survival needs.
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| HINDALCO INDUSTRIES, MURI, JHARKHAND: CONSERVATION, EFFLUENT TREATMENT AND RECYCLING |
| Alumina production is highly water intensive and has a major impact on the environment through toxic effluents and greenhouse gases. Thus any efforts to minimize water use and reduce other environmental discharges in this sector are to be encouraged strongly. Hindalco Industries have taken several steps to recycle water used in production processes as well as in their township at Muri and have undertaken a range of activities to augment water availability in the surrounding villages through piped drinking water supply and supply for agriculture through bunds, check dams, ponds, canals and open wells. Awareness and education campaigns for local communities and training exercises on water use are among the other facets of the company's initiatives.
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| RELIANCE ENERGY, DAHANU, MAHARASHTRA: COMMUNITY BASED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT |
| Reliance Energy's coal-based Dahanu Thermal Power Station (DTPS) supplies electricity to Mumbai. Dahanu is a predominantly tribal area located along the Arabian Sea coast with 185 villages and a total population of over 300,000. The area is rain fed, has lacked storage facilities and, being coastal, suffers from periodic salinity ingress problems. With the help of the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the local student community and Reliance employees, the company has undertaken several measures including the building of check dams and storages, rainwater harvesting and the installation of drinking water systems. While building water storage check dams, the company has also used fly ash, an environmentally harmful by product of the thermal power generation process, as a building material for 30% of the material needs. These efforts have raised the ground water table, increased vegetation cover, made water available the year round and halted the intrusion of saline water from the sea.
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| HINDALCO INDUSTRIES, RENUKOOT, SONBHADRA, UP: COMMUNITY BASED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT |
| Hindalco's Renukoot operations include a watershed management project aimed at benefiting farmers of 30 villages in this hilly area where around 65% of the population lives below the poverty line. Under the project, more than 2500 acres of land have been covered by lift irrigation, benefiting 4165 people and around 8600 acres of land by rain water harvesting structures, benefiting 6500 farmers. Activities also include awareness building exercises for villagers, capacity building for village development committees, formation of CBOs such as water user committees and other self help groups with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and providing technical support. A total of 36 lift irrigation projects, 27 small check dams, 150 RWH tanks and 15,000 feet of water channels have been constructed in the project regions. Stated benefits include improved nutrition levels through perennial availability of food requirements, reduced out-migration, less dependence on monsoons, demonstration effect catalyzing government similar initiatives, reduced forest cutting and increased income levels.
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| HEAVY WATER PLANT (DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY), KOTA, RAJASTHAN: WATER CONSERVATION, WASTE WATER REDUCTION, SEWAGE TREATMENT AND TREE PLANTATION |
| The DAE's Kota plant for the production of heavy water for atomic energy generation has taken several steps to reduce its environmental footprint, all of which are particularly significant because it is the country's first indigenous heavy water plant. The CFC based refrigeration unit used earlier has been replaced by a process that uses waste heat from effluent water to generate cold. Sewage treatment plants have been installed at the plant and in the residential colony and sewage effluent is being recycled for gardening uses. Several technical processes for reducing chemical use and recycling used chemicals such as Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) and sour oil have been put in place. Cooled effluent is now also being supplied to the nuclear industry in general as boiler feed, cooling tower blow down is being used for firefighting purposes and sealant water re-circulated for process feed requirements. Besides this, tree plantation drives and public awareness drives for water conservation are some other activities being undertaken.
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| ITC LIMITED: INTEGRATED WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME |
| Given that it is a large agro-based company with a virtually pan-India presence, it is hardly surprising that ITC's soil and water conservation interventions are on a major scale, covering 66,723 acres in 450 villages from 23 districts in 7 states. More than 30,000 acres of catchment area have been treated, nearly 4000 acres of additional land brought under cultivation and over 35,000 acres of command area benefited, with 311,480 person-days of employment generated in the process. There has been a focus on reducing groundwater use and recharging aquifers, and 1530 water harvesting structures have been created as a part of this effort. It has been a multifaceted initiative, with agricultural inputs such as vermiculture and training, livestock development inputs like artificial insemination and milk marketing, infrastructural facilitation through group wells and sprinkler sets and institutional interventions through the creation of CBOs for villages, farming communities and, in particular, tribal communities. While introducing corporate management tools such as MIS to monitor progress, the activities have made use of local and traditional practices to improve productivity, vegetation cover and the like. A 25% contribution by the communities has been built into the programmes to foster a sense of ownership while, at the same time, non-monetary contributions such as shramdaan (labour volunteering) have also been given recognition.
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| RIL (VADODARA MFG. DIVN.): DRIP IRRIGATION AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INTERVENTIONS |
| Drip irrigation through a bucket drip system to irrigate small pieces of Land such as kitchen gardens or small holdings is one of the central focuses of RIL Vadodara's agricultural water conservation efforts. Water is made available through micro tubing attached to a bucket for an optimally controlled supply for fruit and vegetable plantations. 96 such systems have been purchased by Villagers so far and they are working successfully. Besides this, the company has built check dams, provided public stand posts and water tanks, supplied free water to villages, recharged wells, conducted rainwater harvesting, distributed hygienic water pouches during floods and organized awareness drives on water conservation. The use of excess water to recharge wells has provided relief from waterlogging during monsoons and flood periods and made water available during other seasons. Work has also been completed on the construction of a canal for flood relief in association with the Gujarat Refinery and the Gujarat Government.
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| COCA COLA INDIA (VARANASI PLANT): 4R APPROACH |
| Water conservation at Coca Cola India's Mehandiganj Plant, 22 km from Varanasi is centered on the 4R approach (reduce, reuse, recycle and recharge). Among the various dimensions of this are awareness activities on water use, optimization of water consumption in bottle washing through nozzle size reduction, reuse of steam condensate, final rinse water and discharge water for gardening, recycling of bottle water washer and a range of recharge measures including rooftop rainwater collection, surface collection and percolation ponds. These measures have led to a 23% reduction in water usage and a 68% reduction in waste water discharge quantity in the last 4 years. Documentation includes a detailed design schematic for a rooftop rainwater harvesting apparatus. The company has created an RWH potential of 32,808 cu m, which is equal to 70% of the water drawn by the plant.
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| JK PAPER LTD (JAYKAYPUR, ORISSA): MILL WATER REUSE FOR MILL PROCESSES |
| JK Industries, a major paper manufacturer, has instituted several measures for reuse of the water used in manufacturing processes, thus reducing the plant's need for supplies of fresh water and also reducing discharge from the plant. The water is reused for the plant processes themselves, which has been made possible by treatment of outflows and design modifications that allow them to be piped back into operations. The guiding philosophy has been the adoption of Kaizen workplace strategies for continuous business process improvement and waste prevention with scientific monitoring, and benchmarking and standardization inputs as an integral activity. Treated effluent is also used to irrigate agricultural land in surrounding areas. Plantation drives have been undertaken and rainwater harvesting measures have also been put in place. Waste products such as wood dust, sludge, fly ash and charcoal fines are now used for such things as the manufacture of bricks and board and as fuel.
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| NAGARJUNA FERTILISERS (KAKINADA, ANDHRA PRADESH): REDUCED WATER USE FOR AMMONIA BASED FERTILISER PRODUCTION |
| This ammonia based fertilizer manufacturer in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh draws water for its cooling, process and township requirements from the Godavari River. As a heavy user of water, the company has tried to reduce its drawals by modifying several processes and uses to bring about water use efficiency, reusing waste water, continuous online monitoring and plugging of leaks, and conducting awareness and training programmes for workers and township dwellers alike. Water audits, rainwater harvesting and the use of treated effluent for green belts are among the other steps taken. As against a specific water consumption of 6.578 cubic meters per metric tonne of fertilizer output in 2002-‘03, the plant has come down to 5.529 cu m/MT in 2006-'07, which is closer to the best national figure of 4.816 cu m/MT for the ammonia based fertilizer industry. This has been done in tandem with measures to reduce liquid effluent generation and discharge as well as energy conservation initiatives. The company has adopted a community based approach and is also actively engaged in sharing best practices in these areas with other similar industrial units.
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| PEPSICO INDIA (PALAKKAD, KERALA): TOWARDS A POSITIVE WATER BALANCE |
| This multinational soft drinks, bottled water and food products manufacturer is currently engaged in an effort to reduce water consumption with the ambitious goal of achieving a positive water balance, or in other words going even beyond zero water balance. This goal is to be achieved through a three pronged strategy consisting of water recharge at the plant level, water initiatives at the community level and the promotion of water conservation measures in agriculture. Some headway has been made and company statistics indicate a 67% water use reduction and an 82% effluent reduction in 2007 versus 2001. On the positive initiative front, roof water harvesting and surface water structures are said to have resulted in a total conservation of 151 million liters per year and a recharge of 95 million liters per year leading to, among other things, a 68% recharge of the Palakkad aquifer. Among the management and ecological techniques used are the 4R approach, zero based estimation and benchmarking with the best in the class.
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| SHREE CEMENT LIMITED (BEAWAR, RAJASTHAN): UNFCCC ENVIRONMENTAL CERTIFICATION |
| Shree is the first cement company in the world to be registered for a Clean Development Mechanism project with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has been certified by the UNFCCC for emission reduction in its clinker operations. The company's efforts include developing conservation standards and reporting procedures, determining the water footprints of specific products and services, raising water management issues in business forums and promoting awareness among employees, suppliers, customers and the community at large. The reuse of RO waste water is among the other areas where the company's experience could prove particularly useful.
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| TATA CHEMICALS (BABRALA, UTTAR PRADESH): WATER EFFICIENCY IN UREA PRODUCTION |
| Tata Chemicals' Babrala plant, billed as India's most energy and water efficient fertilizer complex, uses a three pronged strategy for efficient water management: a water efficient design, efficient operations to conserve water and the continuous identification of new conservation opportunities. Among the design elements are the use of fresh water from borewells instead of water from the nearby river Ganga to avoid the need for pre-treatment, combination of strong and weak acid cation inputs in the demineralization (DM) plant instead of just strong acid cation inputs as is done in most such plants, the reuse of boiler blow down for cooling tower needs, of treated innocuous effluent for green belt development, and a zero effluent discharge capability built into the original design itself. Operational efficiency has been brought about through continuous monitoring and vigilance, recycling of condensates and through several optimization procedures that ensure that only such water as is actually necessary at a given time is sent to the cooling tower, the DM Plant and the boilers. The company also conducts awareness drives for workers and township dwellers and has systematic environmental incident reporting procedures.
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| VIZAG STEEL (VISHAKHAPATNAM, ANDHRA PRADESH): WATER EFFICIENCY IN STEEL PRODUCTION |
| Vizag Steel has deployed a range of clean development mechanism (CDM) technologies for environmental impact reduction such as 100% LD gas recovery, the dry quenching of coke, 100% cast house slag granulation and the use of a torpedo ladle for transporting liquid hot metal. Specific water consumption at Vizag Steel has come down from 10.7 cu m per tonne of liquid steel produced in 1998-'99 to 2.29 cu m/TLS in 2006-'07, which is a better figure than that of several international plants. The company has charted out a road map to achieve zero discharge on a fast track basis. Measures to improve water availability in the environment include rainwater harvesting, check dams, percolation pits and recharge wells.
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| ITC LIMITED (MUNGER, BIHAR) |
| Some of the measures put into practice at ITC's Munger plant include recycling of back wash water through a tube settler plant; reduction in domestic water consumption through dual flushes, e-flushes and e-taps; the incorporation of an RO plant for treating effluent; and an approach to zero waste water discharge by using treated water for such purposes as toilets and gardening. Munger's location along the banks of the Ganga, coupled with severe deficiencies in infrastructure also suggested to the company that there was good reason to consider the scope for joining hands with the municipal authorities to bring Ganga water efficiently to the town, thereby improving its water supply as well as improving the quality of water input to its own plant, which has been facing difficulties in using ground water because of its hardness. This win-win idea is being pursued through intensive studies of the town's water arrangements and requirements that contribute significantly to the company's CSR profile.
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| MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD. (NASHIK, MAHARASHTRA): CONSERVATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR |
| Water conservation measures at Mahindra & Mahindra have taken the form of monitoring and reporting systems that are linked with performance management, so that water efficiency is not seen as a separate exercise from productivity enhancement. Processes include reuse for forklift washing, gardening, ETP/STP dosing & cleaning and for WCs & urinals; water waste reduction through robotized paint processes and sensors for leaks, water levels and WC/tap use, and water recycling in the paint shop, paint stripping unit and toilets. Treated effluent is also used for fire hydrant requirements. These measures have led to a reduction in specific water consumption from 6.38 cu m per vehicle in 2003-'04 to 4.62 cu m/vehicle in 2006-'07, and waste water discharge has also come down significantly. Solar panels for hot water for utensil cleaning are an interesting innovation here that has also contributed to reduced water use.
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| NAINI TISSUES LTD. (KASHIPUR, UTTARAKHAND): 94% ECO-FRIENDLY INPUT MATERIAL |
| This company, which manufactures writing and printing grade paper, has achieved the best process and utility parameters among plants of its kind. The spectrum of water conservation and related environmental measures includes using eco-friendly material like bagasse and wheat straw instead of wood pulp as 94% of its basic input, bringing about efficiencies in wet washing systems, installing a high caliber waste water treatment plant, a Saveall for back water clarification and reuse, partially replacing water with black liquor for caustic dilution and utilizing foul condensate for unbleached pulp washing. Specific water consumption has come down from 92 cu m/MT (May 2005) to 69 cum/MT (2006-'07) and waste water discharge from 70.23 cu m/MT (2005-'06) to 42.17 (2006-'07). Among other interesting measures is the installation of water meters on not just the water lines but the borewells as well, for monitoring and reporting purposes.
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| STERLITE INDUSTRIES INDIA LTD. (SILVASSA, DADRA & NAGAR HAVELI): WELL DOCUMENTED SAVINGS |
| Sterlite, a subsidiary of the London-listed metals and mining major Vedanta Resources Group is a leading producer of electrolytic grade copper in India. Their water conservation documentation is particularly interesting because it provides a lot of specific details of savings brought about by individual process modifications and presents results in terms of both physical and financial savings. Initiatives include modification in the thermosyphon cooling water arrangement, condensate recovery of RVD for filter press backwashing, process modification in the leaching section to reduce steam consumption, modification of nozzles in ASWM for better drying & reduction in water consumption, reuse of collected condensate water generated by anode casting cooled water, rainwater harvesting, conversion of gland packing pumps into mechanical seal, provision of electrolytic cell covers in the refinery and the use of a lube cooled heat exchanger for compressors with recirculation. An interesting statistic that highlights the good business sense of these measures is that for a total of Rs.1.55 million spent on them, no less than Rs. 1.15 million, or in other words nearly 75% of the investment was recovered in the form of savings.
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| ASHOK LEYLAND (HOSUR, KARNATAKA): CONTINUOUS WATER MONITORING |
| Ashok Leyland, India's second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer, has worked on both technical process water use reductions and water related project area CSR initiatives. The former include recycling of cabin leak test spray water, reuse of RO reject water as scrubber wash water, recirculation of water from rinse operations in the degreasing and phosphating process, reduction of water through flow control techniques, conversion of pump glands to mechanical seals to eliminate water leaks and reduction of evaporation loss in the cooling tower by optimization of its operations. Among the latter are the construction of check dams, the use of water from storm water drains, the conversion of culverts into storage ponds, using sprinklers for garden watering, providing push cock taps in place of angle cock, changing long body taps in wash basins to foam type taps and the introduction of sensor taps for hand washing. As a result of rain water harvesting projects, the ground water table has improved significantly, and a hitherto depleted open well started yielding 100kl/day. An interesting point is that water consumption is monitored on an hourly basis by the workers themselves.
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| BIRLA CORPORATION LTD., CEMENT DIVISION (SATNA, MADHYA PRADESH) |
| At this cement major's plant in Satna, the employees and their families would seem to be among the key change makers, with domestic per capita drinking water consumption going down from 104.2 liters per person in 2003-'04 to just 56.6 in 2006-'07. Reduction in specific water consumption for clinker operations surpasses benchmarks set by the Centre for Science and Environment and water use for power generation has also come down significantly. The company's quality circle teams includes one whose sole focus is water, with parameters being optimization in water consumption for industrial & domestic use, the zero discharge concept, recycling & reuse of waste water, water conservation, rainwater harvesting, improvement in water quality for specific uses, and addressing problems in water supply and treatment. An interesting fact is that the company used Google Earth land elevation data to determine slopes and troughs for optimal water harvesting. The documentation also includes sample formats for monitoring & reporting that might be useful to others.
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| EID PARRY (INDIA) LTD. (PUDUKKOTTAI, TAMIL NADU) |
| For a company that goes back more than two centuries, this sugar manufacturer is remarkably modern, with a fully automated plant and an equally modern conservation ethic. Its virtuous cycle concept for sugar production ensures that all the byproducts of the operations are put to good use: molasses for rectified spirit, absolute alcohol and the like, press mud from the mill, ash from the power plant and waste water and spent wash from the distillery for organic manure and bagasse to generate power. Air cooled condensers to replace the cooling tower and a pneumatic ash handling system are among the water conservation measures of special interest. Total ground water consumption came down from 51,450 cu m in 2003-'04 to 10,600 in 2006-'07 as a result of these and other steps and specific waste water discharge has also been lowered. In selecting and purchasing equipment, the company has gone to considerable lengths to study the international marketplace and look for more water and energy efficient technologies to supplement its own internal efforts at being environment friendly. Rainwater harvesting pits, plantation drives and awareness drives are among the other dimensions of this effort.
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| INDO RAMA SYNTHETICS (I) LTD. (BUTIBORI, MAHARASHTRA) |
| Indo Rama, India's second largest polyester manufacturer located at the sprawling Butibori hi-tech industrial complex near Nagpur, has been a consistent winner of awards for water conservation, environmental awareness and health and safety. One of the few Indian companies to have received a green company certification from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Indo Rama's 4R approach includes a large number of modifications to virtually all processes: minimizing wastage in desert coolers, fire hydrants, tanks, canteen, urinals and in the colony; reducing steam and water consumption in the plant processes and the cooling tower; reuse of condensate for flash steam requirements and of blow down water for gardening; recycling of treated effluent, TEG boilout water, ACF backwash water, water from dewatering system and AHU's moisture; and recovery of condensate from air moisture, steam traps, air vents, soak pit sewage effluent, process effluent and spin finish. Water is also recovered from the underground sewage network for reuse. An investment of Rs 9.36 million on these and related measures has yielded an annual savings of Rs 8.725 million, or in other words, a payback over just under 13 months.
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| ITC LIMITED, PSPD UNIT (KOVAI, TAMIL NADU) |
| ITC's Kovai unit manufactures paperboard and specialty papers (PSPD). Investments of Rs 30 million in water conservation, Rs.500 million on energy conservation and Rs.150 million on waste utilization have helped this plant achieve many breakthroughs, among them zero effluent discharge and zero solid waste output. 100% of the fly ash from the boiler, sludge from the ETP & plastics from waste is recycled. The use of waste biomass as the main fuel for the boiler has reduced CO2 emissions by 96,000 tonnes per annum. Under the green belt development activities, vegetation has gone up from 20,000 trees in 2004-'05 to 80,500 in 2006-'07. Sunflowers and sugarcane are being cultivated over 206 acres of land using treated effluent with decomposed sugarcane trash as manure, and there is a tie-up with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to monitor and study the impact of the treated effluent on soil and ground water quality. Aquaculture too uses treated effluent. A water balance approach has been adopted within the mill and specific water consumption as well as per capita domestic consumption have also been lowered. Petax filters from Kadant (France) have been found to be particularly useful in recycling process water, the first instance of the use of this particular technology in India. Documentation includes samples of real time MIS reports, area-wise water consumption reports and the like. Knowledge sharing includes sharing within the plant, in the community and online sharing across industries through Bhadra Net.
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| MICO BOSCH (JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN) |
| Water conservation measures taken by this manufacturer of fuel injection pumps for the automotive industry come under the broad heads of reduction in specific water consumption, community partnership & campaigns, and conservation, recycling & auditing. This, in a larger framework that includes the use of non-conventional energy sources; technology upgradation and increases in usage efficiency; monitoring, auditing and awareness initiatives; resource use minimization and recycling; tree plantation; the minimization of green house gas emissions, vendor/supplier audits and awareness drives for employees and society at large. A zero waste water discharge unit since inception, the plant recycles waste water for both process and gardening needs. Water cooled fan chambers have been replaced by air cooled ones, conventional taps by sensor based taps and leak audit tests are a regular aspect of plant operations. Environmental management, like operations management itself, uses methods such as Kaizen and POKA - YOKE and concepts such as suggestion schemes and team oriented production. Bosch's employee handbook for the environmental management system could be an important resource for sharing with others in the automotive parts industry or perhaps even with other industries. A programmable logic controlled sprinkler and drip irrigation system is another useful input.
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| BALLARPUR INDUSTRIES LTD. (YAMUNA NAGAR, HARYANA) |
| This paper and board manufacturer has brought about a reduction in specific water consumption from 173 cu m/MT of paper (2003-04) to 130 cu m/MT of paper (2006-07), while waste water discharge over the same period has come down from 169 cu m/MT to 103 cu m/MT. Besides several technical modifications to equipment and operations, the use of an activated sludge process and the introduction of a tertiary clarifier in the treatment facility have contributed to improved waste water management. Treated effluent is used for raw material wetting, coal ash quenching, ejector cooler operations, evaporator jet condensers, gland cooling, gardening and irrigation of crops.Rainwater harvesting in the mill and the colony are both set to expand.
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| CARRIER AIRCON (GURGAON, HARYANA) |
| This paper and board manufacturer has brought about a reduction in specific water consumption from 173 cu m/MT of paper (2003-04) to 130 cu m/MT of paper (2006-07), while waste water discharge over the same period has come down from 169 cu m/MT to 103 cu m/MT. Besides several technical modifications to equipment and operations, the use of an activated sludge process and the introduction of a tertiary clarifier in the treatment facility have also contributed to improved waste water management. Treated effluent is used for raw material wetting, coal ash quenching, ejector cooler operations, evaporator jet condensers, gland cooling, gardening and irrigation of crops. Rainwater harvesting in the mill and the colony are both set to expand. A major business decision that has led to water conservation is the shifting of all operations that were earlier being carried out at Daman to the Gurgaon plant and thereby integrating operations in a single facility at Gurgaon. This alone has led to a savings of about 6,400 cu m per year.
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| GMR ENERGY LTD. (MANGALORE, KARNATAKA) |
| Operating the world's largest barge mounted power plant off the coast of Mangalore, GMR Energy has a specific water consumption of .126 cu m/MWH, which is less than half the national benchmark of .276 cu m/MWH for such plants and it is also a zero waste water discharge plant. The modification of the SAC Combustor in the gas turbine to a ruggedized one and zero boiler blow down are among the reasons for its success in these areas. NOx water injection reduction, an additional coalescer layer in the air intake system, the use of sea water from the plate heat exchanger outlet instead of raw water for flushing the debris filters and of clear sea water for flushing the chiller debris in the monsoons are some other specific water conservation initiatives. The financial gains make these modifications particularly attractive in addition to their environmental benefits: The NOx water injection reduction, for example, has led to direct savings of nearly a million rupees each year and indirect savings in terms of heat rate of nearly 32 million rupees.
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| HINDUSTAN ZINC LIMITED (CHANDERIA, RAJASTHAN) |
| HZL, India's only integrated mine-to-product zinc manufacturer, operates a zero waste water generation and discharge plant at Chanderia. Recovery and reuse of blow down and back wash water, modifications to the CT Fan technology to minimize evaporation, the use of an ultra low frequency wave & ionization process to treat the water without using chemicals, optimization of the cycle of concentration (COC) of circulating water, a dry fly ash handling system, the building of a storm water pond and the use of treated water for washing roads are among the highlights of the company's eco-friendly initiatives. The company has actually been able to breed fish in the cooling tower water because of effective treatment for the removal of harmful chemicals. The company exports fly ash as a raw material to the cement industry, thereby supplementing the water conservation gains from the dry handling process with environmental gains in terms of reduced air pollution.
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| ITC BHADRACHALAM (BHADRACHALAM, ANDHRA PRADESH) |
| ITC Ltd PSPD Unit Bhadrachalam has recorded 88% growth in production since 1998-99 but the increase in fresh water intake is just 2%, which is a creditable achievement by any standard. The company has chosen energy management, environmental & waste management and social & farm forestry as major focus areas for CSR. Specific processes include recycling/reuse of paper mill back water for dilution of bleached pulp and unbleached tower as well as for pulp slushing; of recausticising plant cooling and sealing water to clarifloculator; reduction in DM water consumption due to increase in process condensate recovery; arresting water piping leakages including fire hydrant piping by clamping; and recycling of paper machine primary clarifier outlet water for miscellaneous uses. Specific water consumption trends show a decrease from 183 cu m/tonne in 1997-'98 to 60.7 cu m/tonne in 2006-'07. There has also been a 21% reduction in specific water discharge since 2003-'04. What's interesting is that as the company's commitment to water and energy conservation increases, it has become more and more willing to invest time and money in longer gestation modifications. Also of interest is the fact that ITC planted 3,00, 587 saplings in 20 minutes with 16,317 people in 16 villages covering 264 acres in Khammam District, Andhra Pradesh, surpassing the Guinness Book World Record held by Canada of 1,34,000 saplings planted in 1 hour with 23,000 people. The documentation has a lot of information on plantation and social forestry initiatives in addition to the operations related technical material.
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| JK TYRE & INDUSTRIES, LTD. (KANKROLI, RAJASTHAN) |
| Environmental management at JK Tyre's Kankroli plant is seen in a holistic perspective that covers a spectrum of activities: discharge elimination, leakage elimination, air emission reduction, effluent discharge, adoption of clean processes, energy conservation, optimization of fuels and oils, recycling, recovery and reuse, process waste reduction, enhancing green belts and resource conservation. As against a specific water consumption industry average of 8.4 cu m/tonne and a closest competitor figure of 4.8 cu m/tonne, the plant has achieved 3.04 cu m/tonne, which is significantly lower. One of the reasons is a series of process modifications that have allowed the company to dispense with several cooling towers and certain water intensive filtration and softening processes. The company is also engaged in regular plantation activities at the rate of 6000 trees per year with an 85-90% survival rate. This is particularly good for an area that suffers from acute water shortage. JK have also developed in-house software for monitoring environmental impact parameters that might be of wider interest.
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| STERLITE INDUSTRIES (INDIA) LTD. (TUTICORIN , TAMIL NADU) |
| Apart from certain measures for reuse of process water, conversion to air cooling systems from water cooling ones and so on, what is interesting here is more the management structure for water conservation. The company has a dedicated water manager with full fledged water management team, thus bringing a centrality to its efforts. Flow meters have been fixed at all consumption points and are monitored on daily basis and a daily MIS on water consumption is circulated to all HODs, as are product-wise/by-product-wise monthly water consumption reports. Water reports cover all details regarding water levels in dams, water reservoirs and area wise consumption. Area wise budgets are allocated for water consumption & variance / deviations discussed in daily production meetings. Area wise water consumption is reviewed by top management team in the monthly operation review meetings. An interesting point here is that CII conducted an extensive two-phase water audit at Sterlite in April 2007, and the company has taken action on 70% of the recommendations. This could be an interesting documentation in itself, especially in view of its recent occurrence.
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