Cleaner technology need of the hour

Rourkela: An awareness workshop on “Accelerating Low Carbon Pathways for Climate Change mitigation in India” was organized by Regional Industries Centre, Rourkela, in association with Development Alternatives and Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, New Delhi. The workshop, organized today at Brahmani Club here focused on promoting cleaner brick production technologies in the state, especially fly ash brick technology.

S K Hota, General Manager, RIC informed the entrepreneurs about the various schemes provided by the government.

Speaking on this occasion, Chief Guest R K Nehru, Executive Director, Material Management, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) commended the efforts of bringing together different stakeholders together on a common platform. He stressed the need of awareness about these technologies. He urged the government to bring out suitable policies for the adoption of fly ash bricks.

Dr. Soumen Maity, Senior Programme Director, Development Alternatives, talked about the key initiatives to accelerate cleaner brick production technologies. He talked about the status of brick industry in other countries like Vietnam, Bhutan, China, etc. and how we can learn from them. He highlighted the proactive policies in states like Odisha, Bihar, Delhi, etc. on promoting clean brick technologies and products. He introduced the entrepreneurs to a variety of clean technologies like Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln, Zig-Zag technology, Hybrid Hoffman Kiln etc. “Its very sad that the banks don’t see the brick industry as a suitable business opportunity”, Maity added. 

Presence of V K Pandey, DGM, NSPCL (joint venture of NTPC and SAIL) at the workshop made the participants to know about the initiatives taken by NSPCL for the easy supply of fly ash to various entrepreneurs free of cost. He stressed on the importance of quality control and that being the key to increasing the acceptance among customers. The mindsets of the people need to change for the acceptance of fly ash bricks. NTPC uses fly ash in their own construction efforts, Pandey informed.

Mahesh J Vajir, President, Rourkela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) raised the concern of the large amounts of fly ash being generated. He urged looking at ways of collaboration with industries to manage this. He looked at other applications besides bricks, raising awareness among customers, economic viability of fly ash units and how schemes can contribute towards this, taking into account realistic expenses in present context.

Pradosh Mishra, President, District Small Scale Industries Association, highlighted the dependence of our country on thermal power generation and the benefits of fly ash bricks. He suggested that the government and promotional agencies should create awareness about these opportunities in the MSME sector and make the financial regime more favourable for brick entrepreneurs.

Dr. P Sahu, Assistant Director, Dalmia Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research focused on the scientific facts related to fly ash. He stressed that the fly ash generation would increase in the coming years due to increasing thermal power generation in the country. He praised the fly ash technology saying that they are economically feasible and sustainable.

The workshop was attended by over 100 along with various other prominent personalities like T. Nagaraju, AGM NTPC Civil, S K Thakur, DGM, CPPI SAIL, officials from different government departments like OSFC, IDCO, RIC Rourkela, DIC Jharsuguda and Sundargarh and entrepreneurs from Rourkela, Sundargarh and Jharsuguda.

Apart from this, service providers like TARA Machines and Tech Services Pvt Ltd, Dass Engineering also attended this workshop. Anamoy Ranjan of TARA Machines showed a video about the fly ash brick production technology. Kulamani Mishra, an existing fly ash entrepreneur recounted his experience of starting this enterprise with the help of TARA Machines. However, he was saddened by the limited market for fly ash bricks due to less awareness about the fly ash bricks. This was followed by an open discussion with the entrepreneurs where all their queries were answered and site visit to existing fly ash units to demonstrate this technology.

Energy intensive technologies like Clamps and Bull’s Trench Kilns (BTKs) are prevalent in Odisha. Therefore, this workshop is extremely important in context of climate change mitigation.