Major energy savings in the steel re-rolling sector and in the small tea processing enterprise, initiated by the UNDP, has seen a substantive increase in energy efficiency in these industries.
UNDP, India, country director Caitlin Wiesen, told this newspaper, “Intervention in the steel re-rolling industry has seen efficiency levels go up between 30-40 per cent.”
India has more than 1,200 small and medium steel re-rolling mills which produces more than 57 per cent of the country’s steel. Some of the new technologies introduced included conversion to gas-fired furnaces with regenerative burners, oxy-fuel burners and the use of bio-mass briquettes. This saw a 30 per cent reduction in furnace oil consumption, 33 per cent reduction in coal consumption and an eight per cent reduction in electrical energy consumption.
“We were able to reduce the burning loss by 50 per cent while mill utilisation went up by 15 per cent and yield increase went up two per cent. Last year, these mills were able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 73,962 tonnes,” said Ms Wiesen.
The tea industry in the Nilgiris in south India employs more than five lakh workers with most of the tea being grown in one hectare plots owned by 60,000 small tea growers. This largely women-dominated enterprise sells the tea leaf to 100 small-scale factories which process the leaf into tea.
Ms Wiesen explained that in the past, these factories were consuming nine million kilograms of fire wood annually, much of which was being transported from distances of 400 km and more.