It is quite surprising that we are looking at sustainability initiatives within the industry in isolation as this should have been a part of business long back, says Ankur Singh, Head - Strategy & Business development, DCM Shriram Limited.

 

“Sustainability is an inherent part of the business as it is something that is linked to our whole business operations. Earlier we didn’t pay much attention but as we grew we realized that while business is growing, the resources and means are depleting. Sustainability, therefore, can be kept in isolation and it should rather be a part of every business discussion. Time has come where sustainability and business survival has to go hand in hand. Another area that requires attention is water conservation. The companies should look at using water judiciously as after energy as it is another area that has the biggest bearing on the agriculture sector. As we have depleting sources of water, the government may limit water usage for industries such as chemicals. We should, therefore, act responsibly towards the environment and put our efforts to achieve sustainability,” added Singh.  

 

Leading chemical industry members were discussing ways to strike a balance between the long term growth agenda and the innovative sustainability practices at the NextGen Chemicals & Petrochemicals Summit 2021’ organized by Indian Chemical News on October 7-8, 2021. The panel discussion, appropriately titled as ‘Sustainability: Earlier The Better’ was moderated by Pravin Prashant, Editor, Indian Chemical News.

 

“To innovate next generation chemicals, industry requires a favorable policy environment from the government. In countries such as the US and Brazil, we have witnessed authorities incentivizing companies to develop better alternatives as well as supply chains. Therefore, to switch over to environmentally sustainable products, it is also important that we learn from global perspectives,” says Samir Somaiya, Chairman & Managing Director, Godavari Biorefineries Limited.

 

“We cannot sustain our business in the fossil economy. Our company is doing a lot of work on renewable feedstock. There is a huge difference in mindsets between what is renewable and what is fossil. With fossils it is very clear that what we have today will always be lesser than what we had yesterday. And that continues to go ahead like that. With renewables, if you are a good steward of the earth, if you farm it well and take good care of soil microbiology, you can ensure that what you have tomorrow will be as good as what you have today. But you have to do a lot of work to develop such renewables. The feedstock based on agricultural waste is also solar powered," said Samir Somaiya. 

 

We are trying to do low carbon farming and that also creates a lower footprint on earth. Second thing is that in green processing, we are talking about cascading biorefineries or a circular economy, all of these are looked at as value streams. How can that value stream be used to create other products? As a company we are looking at creating the circularity of the products. There are two kinds of products: Duplicate products based on fossils and products that are based on green chemistry, better than each other. We all have to create partnerships and address the issues holistically,” added Somaiya.

 

"Sustainability is very important as we are heavily dependent on fossil fuels and non-renewable sources of energy. We have to look at the new renewable sources and recycling of water as it is an important source of energy. As the demand is growing in the industry, it has to look at the ways of recycling the chemicals and product waste. If we cannot control the solid waste as an industry, we cannot grow and it will impact the overall economy. We have to think sustainable over a longer period of time. As a country we are heavily dependent on oil and gas imports. Given the lack of enough resources, we must shift our focus towards renewable energy technologies and recycling of chemicals and plastics. While earlier the focus was lacking completely, we can now see that companies have started thinking in this direction. For long term growth, sustainable technologies will certainly have to play a huge role,” says Maulik Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Meghmani Finechem Limited.

 

“Small and Medium companies too have started using the hydrogenation technology that reduces the solid waste which is hazardous. We have started using Hydrogen peroxide in manufacturing. Earlier it was used more into textiles but now its usage in treating the chemical effluents has increased, reducing the environmental damage. It is a long-term and sustainable solution being used by many companies now. We have also announced an epichlorohydrin project which is completely based on renewable feedstock instead of propylene which is the conventional feedstock in the western part of the world. The plant will be operationalized in the first quarter of next financial year,” added Patel. 

 

"Digital tools can provide help in addressing the environmental challenges and augmented sustainability practices. As soon as a company has its roadmap for digitization, the chances of success becomes higher. Since digitization at times could be overwhelming, companies must carefully align with the right technology partners. Next step is to put the data in the hands of all operational specialists, enable them to easily and quickly analyze operational issues and make data driven decisions to contribute to operational performance and environmental challenges. With gradual monitoring and documentation of these successes, we can accelerate the initiatives,” says Sabine Pietruch, Data Analytics Engineer, TrendMiner.

 

Adsul Mahendra Bhanudas, Manager – Sales, Clean Technology Systems, Dürr India says, “Digital technologies are becoming an important part of processes to control the use of resources and optimization. Reduction of environmental footprint, de-carbonization and reduction of resource consumption are critical to operations and digital tools make it possible to achieve them. Digital functions will continue to grow with the new sustainability initiatives. We will, therefore, expect that in addition to production, customers will take into account the digital technologies for achieving sustainability goals. As a company, we are looking at reducing 100 million metric tonnes of greenhouse emissions. Our product portfolio is full of many key technologies. One of these is Oxi.X Air Pollution Control Systems based on a highly efficient thermal process, which is used to purify exhaust air containing solvents and unpleasant odors. It can achieve a purification level of over 99.8 percent.”