According to the latest data from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), the use of hazardous waste as an alternative fuel and raw material (AFR) in cement kilns has risen 35 times since 2009 – 2010 from 15 693 tpa to 543 569 tpa in 2013 – 2014. Furthermore, during the past year, the amount of waste utilised by cement plants increased by 185% from 190 707 tpa in 2012 – 2013.
The GPCB has taken measures to strike a balance between disposal of toxic hazardous wastes, environment protection and economic interest. The safe disposal of toxic hazardous waste was a major challenge before the pollution regulator initiated the disposal of toxic waste through cement kilns under controlled conditions.
In 2011, the state produced 108.6 billion tpa of incinerable waste, 1107.1 billion tpa of land-fillable waste and 577 billion t of recyclable hazardous waste. These included plastics, spent carbon, TDI tar, mixed waste liquid, pharmaceutical waste, tyre chips, agricultural waste, solid waste, chemical gypsum, iron sludge, copper slag and flyash. For this reason, GPCB encouraged major industrial clusters and cement plants to provide waste collection centres and pre-processing facilities for hazardous waste for co-processing. The regulator allowed cement producers access to its data on waste generated in the state via Extended Green Node (XGN) software, which ensured the supply of suitable wastes.
Hardik Shah, Member Secretary at GPCB noted that the use of alternative fuel in the Indian cement industry has been limited. The thermal substitution rate (TSR) in the industry is less than 1% in India, compared to 10% in Japan and 40% in European nations. Shah further stated that the GPCB has set a target of three years to achieve a TSR of 10% by using alternative fuels and raw materials.
Edited from various sources by Rosalie Starling
