Business Process : Corporate Interversions

Atul : Change Of Technology - Replacement of Mercury by Membrane Cells
The Mercury Cells technology for manufacture of Caustic Soda leads to Mercury pollution of water brine sludge as well as the ambient air in the Cell House. To reduce this pollution and to save the energy, half the number of old Mercury Cells were replaced by Membrane Cells, which do not require the use of mercury and complete switching over to Membrane from Mercury Cell is under active consideration.

Atul : Lime Stone Injection in Fluidised Bed Boiler

During burning of coal and lignite, some amount of SO2 is generated. To control this emission, we have started charging lime stone granules along with crushed coal. This ensures that the FBC Boiler Stack has SO2 content always within limits. Injected limestone is able to effectively scavenge the low concentration of SO2 because of excellent mixing available in Fluidized bed.

Atul : Catalystic Incineration and Heat Recovery (Formaldehyde Plant)

Formaldehyde is manufactured by partial catalytic oxidation of Methanol. After absorption of formaldehyde in water, a catalytic incineration system has been provided for the complete oxidation of vent gases including residual formaldehyde before release in the atmosphere. Platinum based catalyst is used for this purpose. When the vent gas enters the catalytic converter, it gets heated to 300oC. At this temperature in the presence of a catalyst, toxic gases are oxidized and the heat released is recovered in the form of steam.

Atul : Minimization of Emissions: DCDA system for H2SO4 plant

We have adopted Double Contact Double Absorption (DCDA) system for manufacture of Sulfuric acid on both of our plants apart from alkali scrubber system. This has ensured that the SO2 emissions are well below the recent prescribed limit.

Atul : Vapour Absorption Systems and Ammonia Compressors

For refrigeration system, earlier Chlorofluoro carbons (CFCs) were used. It is well known that CFCs causes depletion of the Ozone layer. Therefore in a phased manner, we have switched over to over to Vapor Absorption refrigeration system.

Atul : Sustainable Development

Atul Limited has been proactively adopting and promoting business practices that are eco-friendly apart from integrating “Sustainability” into work ethos since inception. It is evident from the fact that we are operating our facilities successfully in harmony with the community since 1947 without any adverse impact on the environment. The nature of our activities makes an efficient utilization of resources, environmental protection, operational safety and employee health.

Atul : Adoption Of Clean Development Mechanism

We have not limited ourselves to the statutory requirements but have gone beyond compliance. In the process, we have successfully installed a plant for brick manufacturing, having capacity of 100000 bricks per day. As a result we are now in a position to consume entire fly ash being generated from our captive power plant and gypsum sludge at Atul site.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Balmer Lawrie : Development and diffusion of environmental friendly technologies
The Company has introduced a number of technological improvements in its manufacturing processes to ensure that adverse impact of our operations in the environment are minimised. Our R&D team continuously works to identify raw materials, processes and technologies, which will have minimum impact on the environment. We provide a safe and healthy working environment to our employees and communities around us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hero Honda's

Engineering
Innovative engineering for Hero Honda means using the right and specifically designed technology that meets the Indian consumer's requirements as well as testing road conditions. This is exemplified by Honda's reliable 4 stroke engines and their amazing fuel efficiency. No wonder then, that Hero Honda has manufactured 4-stroke engines ever since its inception in 1985. Hero Honda has recieved ISO 14001 certification for Environmental Conservation.

Environment
Hero Group Companies have strived to provide environmental friendly products as well as manufacturing units. Hero Honda's "We Care" programme was initiated with a focus on environmental conservation and awareness, and now extends its influence to multi-dimensional activities, for the socio-economic betterment of society.
The 4-stroke Hero Honda motorcycles undergo a high technology process to meet the most demanding of pollution norms at every level. Hero mopeds and motorcycles having the lowest pollution emission levels in their categories on Indian roads.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnson & Johnson Ltd.

• Promotes awareness about conservation & management of natural water & air resources
• Monitoring and broadcast of air pollution levels on Pollution Watch in association with NDTV television network to create public awareness
• World Environment Day activities including tie-ups with the National Geographic and Discovery channels
• Aquachek water labs conduct free water tests in 14 cities across India
• Actively promoting Rainwater Harvesting to supplement and recharge our groundwater
• EFIE award recognises groundbreaking research in molecular biology & eradication of water borne diseases
• World Water Day spreads awareness of water borne diseases
• Water-testing kits provided to UNICEF to check water quality samples in India
• Pollution control camps and initiatives with medical associations for the prevention & cure of respiratory diseases
• Seminars on water related subjects sponsored; grants and scholarships for environmental research initiated
• Euro-Enviro Quiz - the first national environment-focused quiz for school children
• Painting competitions, training sessions and forums in schools & colleges

Elimination of CFCs
In December 1995, J&J Ltd. became the first company in India to successfully eliminate CFCs from its manufacturing operations. This required the company to modify the sterilization processes at its Ethicon suture finishing plant at Aurangabad.

Thereafter, J&J Ltd. eliminated CFCs from all air conditioning and refrigeration equipment whose capacity was greater than 5 tons. This necessitated retrofitting three air conditioning/chilling plants of 180 ton capacity for conversion from CFC to HCFC 22 (R123) gas at a cost of USD 76000/- at the Ethicon suture finishing plant at Aurangabad.

The company's dedication to protecting the environment is evident, given that the Montreal Protocol does not require third world countries to phase out CFCs until the year 2010.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kirloskar Group

Our contribution to the environment
- ISO-14001 Environment Management System - Implemented by Kirloskar Brothers Limited and Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd., the group's frontline companies. To initiate and monitor pollution control practices and to improve continuously the environment.
- Kirloskar Copeland Ltd. manufactures Eco-friendly hermetic compressors for A/C and Refrigeration application.
- The R1040 water-cooled engine, manufactured by Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd., is totally environment friendly and conforms to the norms for year 2000.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northern Coalfields Limited :

Technical and biological reclamation of external OB dump in open case mines -
A case study of OB dump No. 2 of Jayant OCP
Summary of Case Study
Northern Coalfields Limited is subsidiary of Coal India Limited located in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh. Overburden dump consisting of soil and stones formed outside the open caste mine alter the surface topography, thus, making it prone to landslides if there are unstable slopes. The case study, funded by the World Bank involves various steps undertaken for technical and biological reclamation of OB dump No. 2 near Madwani reservoir.

Technical reclamation, i.e., construction of OB dumps with safe and stable slopes, has been adopted by preparing benches, including compacting, dressing, sealing of fissures, gullies and cracks, etc. The plan also involved constructing gabion retaining walls made of GI wires net cages filled with stone boulders and anchored with bamboo/ wooden ballies to provide vertical support to the bottom of slope. Drains on tip surface, periphery and along benches, thermally bonded non-woven geo-textiles wrapped under drain system, slit perforated PVC pipes laid in middle of the trench were other measures used to protect the slope surface against rain-cuts and seepage in rainy season.

Biological reclamation, i.e., operation and maintenance of OB dumps by vegetation has been facilitated through saplings planted at each bench as well as top of dump protecting against animals, pests, weather, etc. There are further provisions of jute mesh for facilitating grass growth, good soil mixed with manure and irrigation facilities for growth of grass for anchorage and control of soil erosion and dust emission. With the completion of technical and biological reclamation in Jan 2002, the total cost for the same was Rs. 2.19 Lacs for a slope surface area of 44,500 sqm. In addition to these, there is extensive afforestation program in and around mined area, which resulted in increase in forest cover from 40% to 80%.

Northern Coalfields Limited is involved in Coal Production after removal of Over Burden, processing and dispatch to customers. The above information is sourced from TERI Corporate Environmental Awards 2004-05

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mecpro Heavy Engineering Limited:

Transforming edible oil refining into eco-friendly & efficient process
Summary of Case Study
MECPRO, with its refinery plant in Chattisgarh at Ganpati Solvex Pvt. Ltd., manufactures refined oils, gums, wax, and stearine. The case study focuses on introduction of the additional equipment/system in the existing Vegetable Oil Refining Plants, which helps eliminate Single Bleaching System besides using conventional Deodorisation System. In addition to land degradation concerns in disposal of bleaching earth, the existing deodorisation system also has environmental issues, like high steam consumption, low heat transfer co-efficient & deterioration in oil cum deodorisation technology.

The crude vegetable oil obtained by expression or Solvent Extraction from oil bearing materials contains a lot of unwanted components. Among these components most common are Free Fatty Acid content, phosphatides, colouring pigments, odoriferous material alongwith moisture and suspended solids. Most of these impurities are harmful for human consumption and hence need removal from the oil.

We have designed & developed process technologies for efficient twin bleaching system which reduces the bleaching earth consumption by 30%.

(I) TWIN BLEACHING TECHNOLOGY
In the existing process neutral oil is taken from intermediate tank and heated to raise temperature between 80oC - 100oC. Thereafter, the oil is transferred to bleacher where bleaching earth is added and then the bleached oil is pumped to filter from where the same is sent to final tank in such case 20 to 30% bleaching earth is consumed for removing the volatile material means inactivation's of 40% bleaching earth.

However, in our improved and modified twin bleaching system, initial four steps will be similar but after filtration, spend bleaching earth in the close loop pumped to 1st Bleacher where all volatile material will be removed, oil shall go to 2nd bleacher, where the fresh bleaching earth would be added and then the final bleached oil will be transferred to final oil tank. By adopting this modified process, the consumption of bleaching earth can be reduced by atleast 40%, resulting in significant cost saving.

(II) DEACIDIFICAITON CUM DEODORISATION TECHNOLOGY
The introduction of new technology will allow an alternative approach to the deodorization of oils. The major improvements in deodorization shall be in the areas of economy, quality, flexibility and ecology.

Refining of oils by conventional deodorization is generally made at 3mbar or even less and a stripping steam consumption of at least 20kg/ton of processed oil for deodorisation and 30 Kg for De-acidification. Application of counter current, thin film, new technology allows the stripping steam consumption to be reduced to one third and is accompanied by a dramatic reduction in operating costs with reduction of open steam sparging in turn the steam consumption in booster ejector also reduces

The efficient stripping process also involves a shorter residence time of the oil at elevated temperatures. As a consequence, there will be improvements in the organoleptic properties and quality parameters of the refined oil including low free fatty acid, colour reduction, bland flavour and taste, high levels of tocopherols and extended shelf life

The deacidification cum deodorization technology involves integrated pollution control and is associated with energy saving through high heat recovery and low sparging steam consumption. It is environmentally friendly and embraces the concept of a low emission deodorizer. There are certain disadvantages in the existing processes like in stripping, there is high steam consumption, low heat transfer coefficient, deterioration in oil quality etc.

However, by adopting thin film evaporation process, there would be less steam consumption and shall be highly mechanised and there will be less retention time required for deodorization, moreover, the limitation of stripping of FFA of less than 2% will also be eliminated. Presently, 2% of steam is consumed in deodorization process and 3 to 4% sparging steam is consumed in deacidification process. By introducing new system with bubble cap and structural column with seal less magnetic pump, the deacidification will be done with 1.5% steam consumption as compared to 3 to 4%.

Cost Benefit From Twin Bleaching System for a 100 TPD Edible Oil Refining Unit
Bleaching earth consumption = 70 Kg/MT
Saving due to twin bleaching 40% = 28 Kg/MT
Cost on bleaching earth (Average) = Rs. 25
Savings per day = 28 x 25 x 100 = Rs. 70,000
Savings per year = 70,000 x 300 = Rs. 2,10,00,000
Total oil processed in the country = 8000000 Tons
Total savings for the nation = 8000000 x 700 = Rs. 560 Crores

Cost Benefit from deacidification cum deodorisation system
Total heat energy required for Deacidification of 1 MT oil = 115000 KCAL
Heat recovered through economization = 57500 KCAL (50%)
Calorific value of LSD = 11000 KCAL/Ltrs.
LSD saved per MT of oil = 6 Ltrs.
Total oil processed = 8000000 MT
Total LSD saved = 48000000 Ltrs.
Cost of LSD = Rs. 26/Ltr.
Net savings for the nation = Rs. 124.8 crores

The majority of the nutritional components present in vegetable oils are being destroyed or removed during traditional alkali refining. Chemical refining of vegetable oil generally results in losses considerably higher. The reasons for the higher losses are attributed to the presence of larger amounts of free fatty acids and non-oily constituents. Refining losses can be considerably reduced using physical refining. The important prerequisite for successful physical refining is to keep the phosphorus content in the oil <10 ppm. The presence of phosphorus-containing components cause color fixation in the final oil during its exposure to the higher temperatures of physical refining. Water degumming is the simplest method for removing phospholipids (lecithin) from vegetable oils. However, only hydratable phospholipids can be removed during water degumming leaving 80 to 200 ppm of phosphorus in the oil, depending upon the type and the quality of the crude oil due to the presence of non-hydratable phospholipids. Presently, many refineries are pretreating vegetable oil with phosphoric acid or an organic acid (such as citric) for removing non-hydratable phospholipids. However, these methods failed to reduce the phosphorus content to <5 ppm and no method is known which can be reduce phosphorus level upto 5 ppm in industrial scale operations.

Enzymatic process is the answer for the entire problem as it catalyzes the conversion of non-hydratable phospholipids into water-soluble lyso-phospholipids, which are then removed by centrifugation, yielding degummed oil low in phosphorus. We have been able to upscale the lab scale technology developed by Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad to commercial scale successfully which has been implemented in several units across the country in association with IICT, a national laboratory of CSIR. An efficient enzymatic degumming technology for vegetable oil with commercially available enzyme, ensures a residual phosphorus level of 0 to 5 ppm after bleaching and dewaxing. This oil, if refined in a well-maintained physical refining unit, will produce good quality edible oil.

Advantages of Enzymatic Degumming process:
i. The enzymatic degumming process is very simple in operation. It can be adapted to the existing refineries with minor modifications in the pretreatment process. Adoption of this technology should give a big boost to proper utilization of this commodity and reduce the gap upto some extent in edible oil supply in the country.

ii. By adopting enzymatic degumming technology one can produce gums and waxes separately. Hence lecithin and lysolecithin from gums; and bleached wax and triacontanol from crude wax can be easily obtained.

iii. The oil loss during enzymatic degumming process is lower than in the conventional phosphoric acid degumming. The yield of the gums in enzymatic degumming is about 1.5% against 2-4% in the conventional degumming. The oil content of the enzymatic degumming gums is only 30-35% compared to 50-60% in the conventional gums. Thus there is a saving of about 0.6 to 1.4% of oil during the enzymatic degumming of the vegetable oil.

iv. The enzymatic degumming process does not alter the fatty acid composition of the vegetable oil.

v. The oryzanol present in crude rice bran oil remains almost intact during the enzymatic degumming.

vi. The enzymatic degumming is an eco-friendly process, as it does not generate effluent water. Effluent water is generated in the water wash step after conventional phosphoric acid degumming, whereas, water wash is not necessary after enzymatic degumming. Thus the possible oil loss in water washing step is also avoided in the process.

Mecpro Heavy Engineering Limited manufacturs refined oils, gums, wax, stearine..
And the above information is sourced from TERI Corporate Environmental Awards 2004-05