Economy & Market

We are shaping the future of clean air

Published

2 years ago

April 16, 2024

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Monil Parikh, Managing Director, Techflow Enterprises Pvt Ltd, leads us to a better understanding of how cutting-edge designs and advanced technologies are revolutionising the process of filtration, driving efficiency and environmental responsibility within the cement sector.

Tell us about your air pollution control systems.
Techflow Enterprises, operating from our expansive 30,000 sq m facility, which is one of India’s largest, manufactures a comprehensive suite of air pollution control systems specifically designed for cement plants. Our solutions include:

Pulse Jet Bag Filters: Employing compressed air for efficient cleaning, these capture fine dust particles generated during grinding and packing. Techflow’s bag filters are designed to restrict the outlet emission up to 5mg/Nm3.
Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs): Ideal for ultra-fine particulate matter in kiln exhaust gases, ESPs utilise an electric field for superior dust capture with 99.9 per cent capacity.
Centrifugal Fans: We offer various fans like induced draft (ID) fans for draft creation, process fans for dust-laden air transport, and kiln fans for high-temperature gas streams.
Techflow’s commitment to quality is evident in our proven track record. We are actively supplying solutions to leading cement players like Adani Cements, Ambuja and ACC Cement, Dalmia Bharat Cement and Wonder Cement. Our installations across India and Asia stand as a testament to our expertise in handling cement plant dust control challenges.

How do your products and systems integrate with cement plants?
Techflow’s air pollution control systems seamlessly integrate into your existing cement plant. Our pulse jet bag filters fit effortlessly downstream of grinding mills and packing stations, effectively capturing fine dust particles generated during these processes. Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs) excel in kiln exit gas streams, working alongside existing cyclones to achieve ultra-fine particulate control, a critical step in maintaining clean air emissions.
Techflow’s comprehensive offering of centrifugal fans ensures a perfect fit for any application. Our ID fans seamlessly integrate into the kiln system, creating the necessary draft to pull exhaust gases through the air pollution control equipment. Process fans, strategically placed throughout the plant, efficiently convey dust-laden air from various generation points, like clinker coolers and raw material handling, towards the filtration units. This modular approach minimises disruption during installation and ensures optimal dust collection across your entire cement production process.
How do your innovative designs better the process of filtration at cement plants bringing efficiency to the process?
Techflow’s commitment to innovation translates to superior filtration efficiency and operational cost savings for cement plants. Our pulse jet bag filters incorporate features like:

High-efficiency filter media: Designed for specific dust types, this media minimises pressure drop across the filter, reducing energy consumption.
Improved flue gas entry design
Low Pressure Cleaning Systems
Optimised pulse cleaning systems: These systems efficiently dislodge dust cake buildup using compressed air, maximising filter media life, and minimising downtime.

Our ESPs utilise advanced electrode designs to enhance particle collection and reduce maintenance intervals. Furthermore, Techflow’s centrifugal fans are meticulously crafted for superior aerodynamic performance, leading to lower energy consumption and improved overall plant efficiency.
Techflow has developed a SMART-LINK automation module for better maintenance and real-time remote tracking of performance of each equipment. Cement plants equipped with Techflow’s systems experience reduced operational costs, minimised downtime and compliance with ever-evolving environmental regulations.

What is the key differentiator between traditional filters and modern filters?
Traditional bag filter systems often relied on manual cleaning methods, leading to inconsistent performance, increased downtime, and potential worker exposure to dust. Modern pulse jet bag filters, like those offered by Techflow, address these limitations.
Our systems leverage automated cleaning mechanisms, ensuring consistent filtration efficiency and minimal operator intervention. Additionally, advanced filter media materials in Techflow’s bag filters offer superior dust capture capabilities compared to traditional fabric filters.
This commitment to modern technology translates to a safer and more efficient and environmentally friendly dust control solution for cement plants.

Can your designs be customised as per the requirement of the customers?
At Techflow, we understand that every cement plant has unique dust control requirements. That is why we prioritise customisation across our entire product range:

Pulse Jet Bag Filters: Filter media type and micron rating based on dust properties, number of filter bags, and pulse cleaning system configuration like cycle time and pressure can all be adjusted to optimise performance for your specific dust and airflow. The system can be designed to achieve less than 5mg/Nm3 outlet emission standards as well.

Electrostatic Precipitators (ESP): ESP design can be customised with features like the number of electrode rows, electrode spacing, and power input like voltage and current to achieve the desired dust collection efficiency for your specific outlet emission capacity less than 20mg/Nm3.
Centrifugal Fans: Fan designs are tailored by adjusting factors like impeller diameter, blade design, and motor size to meet the specific pressure and flow requirements of various processes within a cement plant.

This focus on customisation ensures Techflow’s air pollution control systems perfectly match your cement plant’s needs, guaranteeing optimal dust capture and efficient operation.

What is the role of technology and automation in building filtration systems?
Techflow has designed a SMART-LINK System that can be integrated to our equipment which tracks and monitors performance of equipment in real time.

Continuous diagnostics
Condition-based maintenance
Prevention of unplanned downtime
Early problem detection using AI
Data collection for process optimisation and efficiency maximisation
Auto alert with warning driving timely human interactions
Remote maintenance assistance by Techflow Team.

What are the major challenges in the filtration process and your system integration at cement plants?
The cement industry’s focus on sustainability, higher production and diverse fuel sources creates filtration hurdles. Adapting to changing dust properties, handling increased dust loads, and integrating seamlessly within space constraints are key challenges.
Techflow tackles these issues through advanced design techniques, exploration of innovative filter media, and modular system design. This ensures our filtration systems remain adaptable, efficient and seamlessly integrated within your cement plant, empowering your success.

How do you plan to further better your products and bring innovation in the future?
At Techflow, we are not just building filtration systems, we are shaping the future of clean air in the Indian cement industry. After successful expansion of the manufacturing facility in 2023, now it is time to improve designs and process optimisation. The future holds exciting possibilities: next-generation filter media with self-cleaning properties and
extended lifespans, minimising maintenance and maximising efficiency.
Techflow’s legendary after-sales support is about to get even better. We are expanding our global service network to provide you with 24/7 access to a team of India’s most experienced filtration specialists, ensuring your system operates flawlessly throughout its lifecycle.
Together, we will lead the way towards a sustainable future, paving the path for a greener tomorrow with green cement.

–Kanika Mathur

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Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

Published

2 days ago

April 27, 2026

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

Concrete

WCA Welcomes SiloConnect as associate corporate member

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

admin

The World Cement Association (WCA) has announced SiloConnect as its newest associate corporate member, expanding its network of technology providers supporting digitalisation in the cement industry. SiloConnect offers smart sensor technology that provides real-time visibility of cement inventory levels at customer silos, enabling producers to monitor stock remotely and plan deliveries more efficiently. The solution helps companies move from reactive to proactive logistics, improving delivery planning, operational efficiency and safety by reducing manual inspections. The technology is already used by major cement producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Heidelberg Materials and is deployed across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Concrete

TotalEnergies and Holcim Launch Floating Solar Plant in Belgium

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

admin

TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a floating solar power plant in Obourg, Belgium, built on a rehabilitated former chalk quarry that has been converted into a lake. The project has a generation capacity of 31 MW and produces around 30 GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be used to power Holcim’s nearby industrial operations. The project is currently the largest floating solar installation in Europe dedicated entirely to industrial self-consumption. To ensure minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, more than 700 metres of horizontal directional drilling were used to connect the solar installation to the electrical substation. The project reflects ongoing collaboration between the two companies to support industrial decarbonisation through renewable energy solutions and innovative infrastructure development.