The Hindu Business Line : Carbon trading: 20 Indian projects registered at UN panel

TWENTY projects from India have been registered at the UN panel as clean development mechanism (CDM) activities till date with the latest being those of Rajshree Sugar and Chemicals Ltd, Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Ltd and Indo Gulf Fertilisers Ltd.

CDM activities are those projects that reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions and trade carbon credits.

Registration by the UN panel signifies acceptance of a project as a CDM activity.

It is the prerequisite for the issuance of certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits by the UN.

Rajshree Sugar's cogeneration expansion project in its Tamil Nadu unit is expected to generate 80,157 CERs a year. Each CER stands for one tonne of GHG reduction.

The project, whose consultant was Agrinergy, involves the installation of a high-pressure boiler and a 22-megawatt (MW) turbine generator, which would be powered by steam produced from bagasse combustion. This would enable the company to export electricity to the Tamil Nadu grid.

Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Ltd's project involves methane extraction and fuel conservation at its pulp and paper mill at Kagithapuram unit in Karur, Tamil Nadu and is expected to generate 35,860 CERs a year.

The project activity is the installation of a system that will produce and collect high quality methane-rich biogas from bagasse wash wastewater generated at the unit. Indo Gulf Fertilisers, an Aditya Birla Group company that was merged into Indian Rayon and renamed Aditya Birla Nuvo, has been registered for its technology upgradation project at its plant in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

The technology upgradation is expected to generate 24,449 CERs annually. The project seeks to upgrade the originally designed carbon dioxide removal process of an ammonia plant with more energy-efficient technology.

The project will help reduce GHG emissions by lowering steam consumption in the carbon dioxide removal system.

Lower steam consumption would lead to reduction in the energy (natural gas/naphtha) required for steam generation in the plant.

The UN panel has also issued CERs to SRF Ltd's project envisaging GHG emission reduction by thermal oxidation of trifluoromethane at a refrigerant manufacturing facility of the company.

SRF Ltd has been issued 5,42,829 CERs from July 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005.

This is the second Indian project that has been issued CERs among the six projects worldwide that have been issued CERS. The first Indian project that was issued CERs was of Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd that involved electricity generation from mustard crop residues.