Energy savings and carbon credits: opportunities and challenges for the Indian foundry industry

S H Arjunwadhar*, Prosanto Pal** and Girish Sethi**

* Chairman, National Centre for Technical Services, The Institute of Indian Foundrymen, Pune, India,

**The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, India.

This paper was awarded the second prize in the Best Paper Award at the World Foundry Congress in India in February 2008. It is reprinted with the kind permission of the Institute of Indian Foundrymen and the World Foundrymen Organization.

Abstract

Metal casting is one of the most energy intensive manufacturing processes. A large amount of energy is particularly consumed in the melting operation. Consequently adoption of energy efficient melting technologies by foundries is a win-win option. Improvements in energy efficiency not only reduce energy costs, but also have the potential of generating additional revenues through sale of carbon credits. Seeking carbon credits by developing appropriate clean development mechanism (CDM) projects based on energy efficiency improvements promises to be a win-win option for Indian foundries. While the primary benefit of the CDM project would be the savings in energy, additional revenues through sale of certified emission reductions (CERs) could help in improving the project returns.

The paper also highlights some of the major options to reduce energy consumption in melting furnaces. It also describes the process for acquiring carbon credits by registering a CDM project.

It also provides an overview of what carbon credits are and how the foundry unit may seek additional income by selling the carbon saved by reducing their energy consumption.

Finally, the paper discusses an actual CDM project for foundry units located in Belgaum in the state of Karnataka and a few barriers to implementing similar projects among foundry cluster elsewhere.