Waste to wealth – A new frontier in waste management

Recently ASSOCHAM organized a National Conference on Waste to Wealth initiatives. Focused at leveraging the opportunity for power generation from industrial waste along with effective management of the industrial waste, the conference provided a national platform to discuss and debate strategies, policies and demonstrate best practices, technologies in relation to generation of renewable energy in industries.

cKinetics, a sustainability consulting firm, developed a knowledge paper highlighting  the current landscape of the Indian industrial waste management. ASSCOHAM conference on “Waste to Wealth”, supported by Knowldege Partners, cKinetics, brought together government and industrial leaders to dwell on the opportunity, challenges and way forward.

The paper highlights:

(a) The opportunity and potential of reusing Waste to generate Energy and as potential input materials for other products

(b) Priority areas in the industrial sectors and the technological options for Waste Conversion particularly Waste to Energy Technologies 

(c) Operating Environment and the gaps that need to be addressed for large scale uptake

(d) Insight into the Road Ahead

Report Synopsis

As the term suggests, Waste to Wealth is about creating economic benefits out of what was traditionally regarded as waste. Waste and, in particular, the exponentially growing Industrial Waste offers an invaluable opportunity to generate energy from waste; thereby incorporating a natural by-product of industrial production into meeting the industrial energy demand. 

Generation of waste is inevitable in all industrial processes. Each industry is unique in its waste generation spectrum. In the background of rising energy costs, scarcity of resources, and deterioration of ecological systems, innovative mechanisms to shape waste into useful ingredients (energy and/or other useful by-products) represents an appealing solution to several pressing problems. 

Waste generated from manufacturing and agri-industries presents a formidable opportunity to create energy in an economically viable fashion. The global waste to energy market has grown from $4.83 billion in 2006 to $7.08 billion in 2010 and the market is expected to exceed $27 billion by 2021 or roughly 10% of the global energy needs.

In the Indian context, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has identified a few key sectors generating industrial wastes as those with high energy potential. Industrial waste-to-energy projects have been successfully implemented independently in industrial sectors like distilleries, pulp and paper, dairy etc. The waste streams from these sectors represent a potential of almost 1900 MW that can be generated successfully by the end of the 12th five year plan.

The Government of India has, through policies and directives, laid significant emphasis on the need and the pathways to exploit the waste to energy potential in India. Various programs are providing assistance to industrial units to set up plants to convert waste to energy. 

The economic viability of Industrial Waste as a substantial, easily available and renewable source of energy is a key catalyst to drive industrial uptake of ‘Waste to Energy’ programs. Investments to generate energy from industrial wastes are cost effective and offer attractive rates of returns in the range of 20+%.

In addition to the support from the central government for Waste to Energy (WTE) projects, project developers also have access to concessional loans and lines of credit set-up to support such projects. Amongst the institutions that support these projects are: IREDA, NABARD, SIDBI, state financial corporations and even some commercial banks. 

Despite a sufficient policy framework to drive, direct, assist and govern the market for Waste to Energy projects in India, the potential has not been fully tapped into. There exist several gaps in a comprehensive rollout of these projects. To accelerate the adoption of Waste to Energy programs, it is imperative to understand and mitigate roadblocks for all stakeholders. 

To read the complete knowledge paper, click here.