UltraTech and PRESPL sign MoU for agri waste fuel

UltraTech Cement has announced signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Punjab Renewable Energy Systems Pvt Ltd (PRESPL). The MoU is part of UltraTech’s endeavour to decarbonise its operations and aims to significantly scale up the use of biomass to replace fossil fuels such as coal in UltraTech’s manufacturing operations.

Under the agreement, PRESPL will leverage its technological expertise to replace coal-based systems with biomass-based processes. PRESPL will implement the biomass-based projects at three of UltraTech’s units. Cumulatively, these three projects are estimated to generate annual carbon savings of over 150,000t of CO₂.

As part of this agreement, PRESPL will also build a sustainable supply chain of agricultural waste to be used as biomass energy in the kilns of UltraTech’s integrated units. This biomass-based fuel model helps to safely dispose of agricultural waste, which is currently burnt in open fields, thus helping reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Higher usage of this waste in cement kilns will also augment income for farmers, while reducing the country’s dependency on coal imports.

“UltraTech, as a founding member of Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has committed to ‘Climate Ambition 2050’, to deliver carbon neutral concrete by 2050. We have taken an ambitious target of reducing Scope-1 GHG intensity by 27 per cent by 2032, taking 2017 as baseline. Our MoU with PRESPL, is a step to further accelerate our efforts to decarbonise our operations and deliver our sustainability targets,” said Kailash Jhanwar, managing director, UltraTech Cement. 

In FY21 alone, UltraTech has used more than 20Mt of industrial waste as raw materials. This has resulted in annual CO₂ reduction of more than 10Mt. Additionally, UltraTech has used 3Mt of waste, including municipal waste, as alternate fuel in its kilns. As a result, in FY21 UltraTech replaced more than three per cent of its fuel requirement with alternative materials, and more than 18 per cent of its raw material needs were met through alternative sources. In fact, over the last decade, UltraTech has used more than 100Mt of waste as raw material and fuel in its manufacturing operations.