Ram Charan inks pact with Bhilai Steel Plant for greenhouse gas emission management

As per the agreement, Ram Charan will undertake complete management of greenhouse gas emissions at the steel plant

Chennai-based Ram Charan Company Pvt Ltd has inked an agreement with Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) for the complete management of greenhouse gas emissions, which includes converting them to value-added products and fuel for the Bhilai Steel Plant with no residue left behind.

The pact between BSP and Ram Charan will lead to a 25 TPD unit being set up at Bhilai, which will then be scaled up to a 200,000 TPD unit to manage complete emissions from BSP and make the plant carbon neutral within a span of a year, according to a release by Ram Charan.

“This is the first such effort globally by a steel plant and a firm to step forward in helping India achieve a carbon neutral position. The Steel Authority of India Ltd has taken a firm step forward managing greenhouse gases, working closely with Ram Charan’s team to ensure that this is completed,” the release said. This will lead to an investment of Rs 6,000 crore in the equipment from Ram Charan, it added.

What SAIL says

Nirbhik Banerjee, ED, SAIL, told Moneycontrol over the phone that they would initially set up a proof-of-concept unit. Based on the results, this would be expanded. He was particularly happy that an Indian company was willing to come forward to manage greenhouse gas emissions. "There is always a limit to decarbonisation in blast furnaces," he said.

Nevertheless, he felt that the MoU with Ram Charan would go a long way in helping carbon capture and storage (CCS). CCS is a way of reducing carbon emissions, which could be key to helping to tackle global warming. It’s a three-step process, involving capturing the carbon dioxide produced by power generation or industrial activity, such as steel or cement making; transporting it; and then storing it deep underground. Banerjee said that the yield in terms of converting the emissions into value-added products was over 80 percent with the technology developed by Ram Charan. He said the learnings from the proof-of-concept unit and the products that flowed from it would have implications beyond SAIL.

Kaushik Palicha, managing director of Ram Charan, told Moneycontrol that this MoU with BSP “means a lot for us”. The enthusiasm and commitment shown by BSP, one of the largest integrated steel producers, demonstrated the progressive outlook of the PSU, he said. The technology for emission conversion developed by Ram Charan was a patented one, he said.

The waste converter unit will be owned by BSP and Ram Charan will help BSP to set it up.

BSP is the country’s largest producer and supplier of rails for the Indian Railways. The plant also specialises in other products such as wire rods and merchant products. The plant also produces heavy structurals, including channels and beams.

About Ram Charan

Ram Charan hit headlines in December 2021 when it attracted a $4.1 billion investment from the American fund TFCC International.

It was able to attract massive investment reportedly due to its technology, which promises to convert un-segregated waste into energy without leaving behind any toxic residue.

Kaushik Palicha and his brother, who jointly own Ram Charan, are fourth-generation entrepreneurs. Speaking to Moneycontrol, Kaushik Palicha said in December 2021 that the group had come a long way from being a distributor of chemicals to becoming an organisation pursuing deep research and development in the field of waste treatment.

Since it started in 1965 as a single-product and single-location organisation, Ram Charan has grown to become an organised multi-product industrial distributor.

Being the second largest populous country, India, according to him, posed quite a challenge in managing waste. Ram Charan, Palicha said, had carried out research on converting waste into energy. The company’s technology, it is claimed, is environment friendly, as it can be used to convert all types of unsegregated waste into energy, with zero toxic residue.