UltraTech Cement, the manufacturer of grey cement, white cement and ready-mix concrete, has announced signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (PRESPL), a biomass aggregation and densification company with forward integrated value chain.
The MoU is part of UltraTech’s endeavour to decarbonise its operations and aims to significantly scaleup the use of biomass in place of fossil fuel like coal in UltraTech’s manufacturing operations.
Under the agreement, PRESPL will leverage its technological expertise to replace coal-based systems with biomass-based processes.
PRESPL will execute the biomass-based projects at three of UltraTech’s units. Cumulatively, implementation of these three projects is estimated to generate annual carbon savings of over 1,50,000 tonne of CO2.
As part of this agreement, PRESPL will also build a sustainable supply chain of agricultural waste to be utilised as biomass energy in the kilns of UltraTech’s integrated units.
This biomass-based fuel model helps to safely dispose agri-residue, which is currently burnt in open fields, thus helping reduce Scope-1 and Scope-2 emissions. Higher usage of agri-residue in cement kilns will also augment income for farmers, while reducing the country’s dependency on coal imports.
UltraTech, as a founding member of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has committed to ‘Climate Ambition 2050’ to deliver carbon neutral concrete by 2050.
The company has taken an ambitious target of reducing Scope-1 GHG intensity by 27 percent by 2032, taking 2017 as baseline.
The MoU with PRESPL will help to further accelerate and scale up UltraTech’s use of waste in its manufacturing operations, thus reducing its carbon footprint while also reducing the waste to landfill for society at large.