In India non-hazardous industrial waste is generated at a staggering rate of about 30 million metric tonnes/year; considering the major generators (excluding power plant and mining industry waste) as ...per Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India (GoI), thus disposing of them is a challenge. The industrial waste generated from fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) trade rejects and expired product is also enormous (although largely remains unaccounted) and needs to be disposed of by the producer as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, GoI. Co-processing of this industrial trade rejects in cement plant can be a prominent solution as it reduces the disposal problem of the solid waste stream and provides an alternative methodology for complete thermal and material recovery of the waste with no by-products. Co-processing further reduces the use of conventional resources by utilizing the waste as an alternative fuel and raw materials. The study thus analyzes a co-processing trial of a month in a cement plant in the southern part of India and based on the obtained data, the environmental and operational sustainability was studied. The economic benefit obtainable was also analyzed based on the achieved substitution benefit. Parameters such as emission and quality of the final product were gauged. The leaching behavior of the final product was also analyzed. Thus, the findings will help in reducing the carbon footprints of the industrial wastes, specifically the FMCG trade waste, and will show the sustainability of co-processing waste in Indian cement plants.
The business performance of manufacturing organizations depends on the reliability and productivity of equipment, machineries and entire manufacturing system. Therefore, the main role of maintenance ...and production managers is to keep manufacturing system always up by adopting most appropriate maintenance methods. There are alternative maintenance techniques for each machine, the selection of which depend on multiple factors. The contemporary approaches to maintenance technique selection emphasize on operational needs and economic factors only. As the reliability of production systems is the strategic intent of manufacturing organizations, maintenance technique selection must consider strategic factors of the concerned organization along with operational and economic criteria. The main aim of this research is to develop a method for selecting the most appropriate maintenance technique for manufacturing industry with the consideration of strategic, planning and operational criteria through involvement of relevant stakeholders. The proposed method combines quality function deployment (QFD), the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the benefit of doubt (BoD) approach. QFD links strategic intents of the organizations with the planning and operational needs, the AHP helps in prioritizing the criteria for selection and ranking the alternative maintenance techniques, and the BoD approach facilitates analysing robustness of the method through sensitivity analysis through setting the realistic limits for decision making. The proposed method has been applied to maintenance technique selection problems of three productive systems of a gear manufacturing organization in India to demonstrate its effectiveness.
e-Waste is generated at the staggering rate of 6.1 kg per person. In 2016, 44.7 million tonnes was generated globally, and the amount is estimated to reach 52 million tonnes annually by 2021. The ...management of this huge quantity of e-waste is a major problem across the world, primarily in developing countries. An effective e-waste management system is linked to the sustainability of e-waste processing plants, and currently it is plagued with different supply chain network (SCN) issues. To address the issues and challenges of SCN, there is a need to prioritize and address the constructs. The study thus combines two multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) tools, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and quality function deployment, to prioritize the constructs identified from literature and supported by field studies. The house of quality (HOQ) has been used for analyzing different stakeholders’ requirements. The degree of importance for HOQ-1 has been derived using the AHP tool. The study revealed the most intriguing issues and challenges of e-waste processing plants considering the requirements of different stakeholders. The results showed formal collection, storage, semi-informal collection, and e-waste quality to be the major issues of processing plants. The findings obtained from MCDM analysis have been validated though two case studies in India and China. If the results obtained are applied to the existing e-waste SCN, a holistic e-waste management system can be achieved for developing countries.
Acid tar sludge (ATS) is a hazardous waste generated in steel plants as a process by-product. ATS disposal is a major challenge for the steel industry around the world and specifically for developing ...nations. Hazardous wastes are usually disposed of in a dedicated expensive thermal treatment plant as per existing rules. Due to inadequate capacity of treating the total amount of hazardous waste, study of other economical options are required. India generates over 7.2 million metric tonnes of hazardous waste annually as per Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Government of India. Thus, co-processing of ATS in cement plant as an alternative means of disposal was studied based on a number of trials. During the five trials of 5 day each, feed rate of ATS was maintained at 0.4 tonne per hour (TPH) with an average coal feed rate of 10 TPH. No incremental variations in emissions were observed during the trials. The analysis further revealed insignificant impact on clinker quality, leach behaviour and cement property. The study also showed negligible impact on ambient air quality based on NOx, SO2, RSPM, SPM measurement at varying location around the cement plant. Thus, co-processing of hazardous waste such as ATS in cement plant can be an effective way to address the hazardous waste disposal problem in developing countries such as India.
An integrated steel plant generates a large amount of blast furnace flue dust – about 18–22 kg/t of hot metal – as a by-product of the production process. The major component of this flue dust is ...iron oxides and coke fines. The recovery and reuse of this iron and coke is very important with increasing price of conventional resources. Cement plants on the other hand are looking for alternative fuel and raw materials as a substitution to the traditional fuel and raw materials, thus co-processing of the flue dust is a solution for both the industries. The study gauges the potential of flue dust utilization in a cement plant in India, using an experimental trial of one month and also analyses the techno-economic feasibility of the co-processing route. Since flue dust contains iron which is a limiting constituent in the limestone deposit of this plant, feasibility of reducing the iron content in the flue dust was evaluated through the magnetic separation route. The objective was to utilize maximum quantum of flue dust with acceptable iron content and high energy content. It was observed that the magnetic separation does not effectively segregate the iron present in the flue dust and neither increases the energy content. The cost analysis of the usage of flue dust also revealed that flue dust can be used effectively by the cement industry if its cost ranges in an acceptable range of USD 35–39 (approximately).
Cement production consumes 9.10% of the total industrial energy, thus making it the third largest consumer of energy. Each ton of cement generates approximately 0.7-0.93 ton of CO
2
depending on the ...kiln technology used. The top 10 cement producing countries along with the European Union emits 1445 million tonnes of CO
2
each year. Therefore, increased focus is given on different strategies of carbon mitigation. Co-processing is seen as one of the most prominent methodologies for making the cement manufacturing a low carbon process. The study shows low carbon manufacturing potential of cement plant in India based on the available literature and two case studies, considering economical and environmental sustainability. Co-processing leads to low carbon cement manufacturing process as traditional fuel and raw materials are saved and simultaneously waste going to the landfill gets reduced, thus making co-processing a holistic methodology for resource recovery.
Resilient supply chains are often inherently dependent on the nature of their complex interconnected networks that are simultaneously multi-dimensional and multi-layered. This article presents a ...Supply Chain Network (SCN) model that can be used to regulate downstream relationships towards a sustainable SME using a 4-component cost function structure — Environmental (E), Demand (D), Economic (E), and Social (S). As a major generalization to the existing practice of using phenomenological interrelationships between the EDES cost kernels, we propose a complementary time varying model of a cost function, based on Lagrangian mechanics (incorporating SCN constraints through Lagrange multipliers), to analyze the time evolution of the SCN variables to interpret the competition between economic inertia and market potential. Multicriteria decision making, based on an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), ranks performance quality, identifying key business decision makers. The model is first solved numerically and then validated against real data pertaining to two Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from diverse domains, establishing the domain-independent nature of the model. The results quantify how increases in a production line without appropriate consideration of market volatility can lead to bankruptcy, and how high transportation cost together with increased production may lead to a break-even state. The model also predicts the time it takes a policy change to reinvigorate sales, thereby forecasting best practice operational procedure that ensures holistic sustainability on all four sustainability fronts.
Display omitted
•Generalized cost function for a sustainable supply chain (cradle-to-utilization).•Lagrangian mechanics analyzing the time evolution of an Optimized Sustainable SCN (OSSCN).•Analytic Hierarchy Process ranking key econometric contributors in the OSSCN.•Case Studies of an anonymous Indian SME — two scenario model prediction & verification.•Model based policy prediction and monitoring towards a sustainable production line.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) nations account for one-quarter of the world’s land area, having more than 40% of the world’s population, and only one-quarter of the world gross ...national income. Hence the study and review of waste electrical and electronic equipment management systems in BRICS nations is of relevance. It has been observed from the literature that there are studies available comparing two or three country’s waste electrical and electronic equipment status, while the study encompassing the BRICS nations considering in a single framework is scant. The purpose of this study is to analyse the existing waste electrical and electronic equipment management systems and status of compliance to Basel convention in the BRICS nations, noting possible lessons from matured systems, such as those in the European Union EU) and USA. The study introduced a novel framework for a waste electrical and electronic equipment management system that may be adopted in BRICS nations and revealed that BRICS countries have many similar types of challenges. The study also identified some significant gaps with respect to the management systems and trans-boundary movement of waste electrical and electronic equipment, which may attract researchers for further research.
Co-processing in cement kiln achieves effective utilization of the material and energy value present in the wastes, thereby conserving the natural resources by reducing the use of virgin material. In ...India, a number of multifolded initiatives have been taken that take into account the potential and volume of waste generation. This paper studies the factors which might influence the sustainability of co-processing of waste in cement kilns as a business model, considering the issues and challenges in the supply chain framework in India in view of the four canonical pillars of sustainability. A pilot study on co-processing was carried out in one of the cement plant in India to evaluate the environmental performance, economical performance, operational performance and social performance. The findings will help India and other developing countries to introduce effective supply chain management for co-processing while addressing the issues and challenges during co-processing of different waste streams in the cement kilns.
Waste management is a serious issue around the world. It is most prominent in the developing countries. Non–hazardous industrial waste is another aspect at 100 million tons/year with coal ash ...accounting for 70 million ton/year in India. It is the second highest waste stream ending up in landfill site. The quantity is projected to be increased at faster rate in coming years with increasing industrialization. This industrial waste has characteristics of municipal solid waste with percentage of non-biodegradable waste on the higher side. Co-processing of this waste for energy recovery and as an alternative raw material in cement kiln can be an effective management methodology for this waste stream. This is being practiced sustainably in number of countries but in India the process lacks proper implementation. The auxiliary technological requirement is less and the process is highly economical and effective. This study specifically shows the effectiveness of the co-processing in cement plants in India, as a way for an effective utilization of energy and recoverable raw materials locked in the industrial waste. The robustness of the co-processing of industrial waste has been analyzed based on three cases studies in India. The findings revealed that it can be one of the most effective industrial waste disposal techniques in India and in other developing countries considering other practices of waste disposal methodology in terms of zero ash generation, emission, less auxiliary technology requirements, less set up cost, etc. The robustness of the co-processing as a waste disposal technique was also revealed by the economic and environmental statistical analysis. The study shows the sustainability of co-processing as an energy and material recovery process and addresses the issues related to sustainable management of industrial wastes. Number of study is available in the literature but analysis based on multiple case studies specific to Indian scenario is scarce.