Potential investors might be reluctant to set foot in Punjab due to severe power shortages, but Ambuja Cement has evolved a solution to generate captive power at its grinding unit at Ropar in Punjab. The multi biomass co-fired captive power plant of Ambuja Cements Ltd has developed a unique technology to operate on coal and a wide variety of biomass, which reduces carbon-dioxide emissions significantly.
The 30 Mw captive power plant heralds the arrival of multiple biomass power generation technology in India. The plant has a modified furnace that can use 24 different kinds of biomass wastes as its fuel, like rice husk, mustard stalk, wood bark chips, cow dung cakes, sunflower stems, sugar mills waste, etc.
The company needs 18 Mw for its Ropar plant and 4 Mw for the Bhatinda plant.
Of the total fuel used for generating electricity, 20 per cent is biomass. The design of a boiler co-fired to accept a wide variety of biomass is the most suitable source of sustained generation of industrial power.
Regional Geocycle Project Head of Holcim (South Asia) Ramesh Suri added, "While it is common to find single biomass based power plants, what makes this captive power plant unique is its capacity to use over 20 different biomass substances to generate power."
The captive power plant at Ropar is the only multiple biomass co-fired power station which uses agricultural waste for power generation. This comes out when the manufacturing industry is often attacked by the green lobby for pollution and possible fallouts on environment. Thus, this plant signals a change as it puts a technological innovation to use and also leads the way for the rest of the world to follow.
By implementing this technology, the usage of biomass in the plant effectively counters the carbon-dioxide(CO2) emissions, mainly associated with fuel combustion.
The reporter was recently in Ropar