Hari Mohan Bangur, Managing Director, Shree Cement, talks about the efforts they are putting in to reduce carbon emissions, utilise alternative fuels and raw materials and embrace cutting-edge technology to enhance efficiency.

Tell us about the manufacturing capacity of your organisation and the various types of cement manufactured.
Our manufacturing capacity in India is 57 million tonnes (MT) and we manufacture four types of cements, namely, Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), composite cement and in a small fractional quantity, slag cement.

What are the key steps taken to reduce carbon emissions?
To reduce carbon emission, we have established a waste heat recovery system and we also utilise solar power and wind power as a source of energy in our plants. Of our entire consumption, 60 per cent comes from the waste heat recovery plants.
Up to the stage of clinker production, our carbon footprint is the lowest in the world.

What are the major alternative fuels and raw materials used in your organisation’s manufacturing process?
The major raw material used for manufacturing of cement is limestone at our plants. There is not a lot of variation done in the use of alternative materials for cement manufacturing.
However, if we consider alternative fuels, Shree Cement was the first to use pet coke, which in today’s time is not an alternative fuel. We use a small quantity of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) and more quantities of agro waste as an alternative fuel. We burn hundreds of tonnes of agro waste as an alternative fuel in our plants. These agro wastes include waste from sugarcane factories, rice husk, saw dust, we utilise all kinds of agro waste as alternative fuel in our kilns.
Our plants are based in and around the NCR region in India where use of fossil fuel is prohibited for use as an effort to protect the environment. So, we modified our machinery to become compatible with agro waste as a fuel. The availability of agro waste is possible as our plants across India are located approximately 150 km to 200 km away from agricultural lands.

As part of the Net Zero goal, what are the major steps taken and what has been achieved so far?
I believe it is very difficult to achieve net zero because in the cement industry; the manufacturing process is such that there will be carbon emission. Even if there is use of 100 per cent alternative energy for the production of cement, there will still be emission. Therefore, achieving net zero is difficult to achieve in totality. However, we do take pride in being one of the organisations with the lowest carbon emission in the world.
We are committed to the reduction of carbon emission and we are always adapting new technologies that can help us achieve this goal.

What role does technology play in bringing efficiency to your plants?
Technology and digitalisation have improved the reporting and analysis of our plants. It helps
us get real time knowledge of the plant health and makes us aware of any upcoming issues, for which preemptive actions can be taken, reducing the downtime of the plants.
With older methods any measurement would be taken a couple of hours later and if there were inaccuracies or defects in the functions, efficiency for those hours would be wasted. Real-time reporting helps us attend to the slightest of inefficiencies and we don’t allow it to settle, leading to higher productivity.
With advancement of technology, cement plants are achieving efficiency in processes like grinding and clinkerisation. We function with a dry process today, which is a complete change from what it was 25 years ago. Technology is bringing about change in machine efficiency, manpower efficiency and power efficiency. Small steps are being taken by the industry to make improvements in their processes with time.

How do you foresee change in cement manufacturing in the near future?
The cement industry will be growing at the rate of 7 per cent to 8 per cent, this is what India needs. Earlier the bases were small and now the production capacity exceeds 430 million tonnes. In the next 5 years, we will be needing approximately 150 million tonnes cement production to meet the demand of the country and for that at least 200 million tonnes of production capacity will be needed to be installed at 75 per cent utilisation.
This is a huge requirement, and whatever new instalment the industry puts in, it will be absorbed in the demand of the rising urbanisation and construction of the nation.

• –Kanika Mathur