UltraTech and PRESPL sign MOU for scaling up use of Agri Waste as fuel in cement manufacturing

13th October 2021: UltraTech Cement, the largest manufacturer of grey cement, white cement and ready-mix concrete in India, has announced signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Punjab Renewable Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd (PRESPL), India’s largest biomass aggregation and densification company with forward integrated value chain. The MoU is part of UltraTech’s endeavor to decarbonize its operations and aims to significantly scale-up 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 150 thousand tonnes of CO2.

As part of this agreement, PRESPL will also build a sustainable supply chain of agricultural waste to be utilized 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 Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has committed to ‘Climate Ambition 2050’, to deliver carbon neutral concrete by 2050. We have taken an ambitious target of reducing Scope-1 GHG intensity by 27% by 2032, taking 2017 as baseline. Our MoU with PRESPL, is a step to further accelerate our efforts to decarbonise our operations and deliver our sustainability targets,” said Mr Kailash Jhanwar, Managing Director, UltraTech Cement.

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.

Enabling Circular Economy

UltraTech has been one of the early adopters of alternative fuel and alternate raw material in its manufacturing operations. UltraTech uses waste including municipal solid waste as alternative fuel in its kilns through co-processing. UltraTech uses industrial waste as alternate raw material in manufacturing thus reducing and conserving the use of natural resources such as limestone.

In FY21 alone, UltraTech has used more than 20 million tons of industrial waste as raw materials. This has resulted in annual CO2 reduction of more than 10 million tons. Additionally, UltraTech has used three lakh tons of waste, including municipal waste, as alternate fuel in its kilns. As a result, in FY21, UltraTech replaced more than three per cent of its fuel requirement with alternative materials, and more than 18 per cent of its raw material needs were met through alternative sources. In fact, over the last ten years UltraTech has used more than 100 million tons of waste as raw material and fuel in its manufacturing operations.

About UltraTech Cement Limited

UltraTech Cement Limited is the cement flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. A USD 5.9 billion building solutions powerhouse, UltraTech is the largest manufacturer of grey cement, ready mix concrete (RMC) and white cement in India. With a consolidated grey cement capacity of 116.75 MTPA, it is the third largest cement producer in the world, excluding China. UltraTech has the distinction of being the only company globally (outside of China) to have 100+ MTPA of cement manufacturing capacity in a single country. The Company’s business operations span UAE, Bahrain, Sri Lanka and India.

UltraTech is a founding member of Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). It is a signatory to the GCCA Climate Ambition 2050, a sectoral aspiration to deliver carbon neutral concrete by 2050. UltraTech has adopted new age tools like the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Internal Carbon Price and Energy Productivity (#EP100) as part of its efforts to accelerate adoption of low carbon technologies and processes across its value chain and thus reduce carbon footprint over the life cycle. UltraTech is the first company in India and the second company in Asia to issue dollar-based sustainability linked bonds. As part of its CSR, UltraTech reaches out to more than 2.1 million beneficiaries in over 500 villages in 16 states across India covering areas of education, healthcare, sustainable livelihoods, community infrastructure and social causes.