The Hindu Business Line : ITC unit to apply for carbon credits

ITC's Bhadrachalam Paper Division alone is expected to put up four CDM projects covering social forestry, energy conservation, low-heat recovery process, and a free flowing film evaporator plant.

Kolkata , Feb 24

ITC's captive power unit at its recycled Folding Box Board plant at Coimbatore (acquired from Bipco/BILT in March 2004), which utilises non-traditional biofuels such as de-oiled bran and saw dust mixed with lignite, is well set to apply for carbon credits under a small scale clean development mechanism (CDM) project of the Kyoto Protocol.

Under earlier managements, the unit had remained shut for a total period of two-and-a-half, till ITC acquired it through an asset sale to effect a virtual rescue job.

ITC has already invested over Rs 70 crore to make the Kovai plant more energy and water efficient through upgraded facilities.

This includes an investment of Rs 48 crore on an eight MW modern co-generation power plant.

The co-gen plant, according to unit head, Mr C. Ayyappan Nair, generates power at low cost using high-pressure steam and utilises the-low pressure steam for heating purposes.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr R. Srinivasan, Member, CMC, ITC, said that the board mill, located about five km from the Bhavani river, does not discharge any effluents into the river.

He added that the effluent quality, with characteristics far better than the norms prescribed by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, was highly suitable for irrigation purposes.

According to him, substantial investments in fibre recovery and water filters (Petex) have enabled the unit to benchmark water consumption with the best mills abroad.

Water consumption at the unit is just nine cu m per tonne of production against the normal 50 cu m for such mills. The international norm is 6-7 cu m, "that is what we intend to touch soon."

Located at Thekampatty village in Coimbatore covering an area of 310 acres, the ITC-PSPD CDM project for "Utilisation of agri-residue in a co-generation system" is now being put up before the Ministry of Environment and Forests for registration.

The project developer-consultant is PricewaterhouseCoopers. The unit will be the sole owner of the certified emission reductions (CERs) generated from the above project, and the first CER is likely to be delivered around August 2006.

The objective, said Mr Nair, was to change the carbon balance through greater use of biofuels. ITC's Bhadrachalam Paper Division alone is expected to put up four CDM projects covering social forestry, energy conservation, low-heat recovery process, and a free flowing film evaporator plant.

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