The project activity, located at the JCT textile mills in the state of Punjab, India, involves the installation of a rice husk based cogeneration plant for captive power generation. The project activity which is based on a carbon neutral fuel generates electricity and steam to meet JCT’s in-house electricity requirement thereby replacing an equivalent amount of electricity the plant would have drawn from the Northern grid. The project activity will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by the regional grid which is dominated by fossil fuel based power plants.

The present power plant setup at the textile factory includes a 5.5 MW condensing cum extraction type turbine generator and a 35 tonnes per hour capacity rice husk fired boiler generating steam at a pressure and temperature of 44kg/cm2 and 440°C respectively. There is a 12tonnes per hour rice husk fired boiler in operation which will be kept as stand by to feed the synthetic fabrics plant during shutdown of the project activity boiler. There are two DG sets of capacities 1100 kVA and 1000 kVA which operate as back up units in periods of grid shortage.

The project activity involves the installation of an 8MW condensing cum extraction type turbine generator operating at a pressure and temperature of 66 kg/cm2 and 485°C respectively. A 50 tonnes per hour capacity boiler operating at 66 kg/cm2 pressure and 495°C temperature will also be installed to feed steam to the turbine generator, which will co-fire coal and rice husk. The electricity will be generated at 11kV and stepped down to 440V for the adjacent textile plant.

Contribution of the project activity to sustainable development

The project activity will make a significant contribution to sustainable development not just directly through the provision of renewable electricity but also through the establishment of a power plant in a small town. The saved electricity can be used to meet the power demand of the local population. The plant also contributes to a small increase in the local employment by employing skilled and unskilled personnel for operation and maintenance of the plant. The plant is expected to employ 38 new people in the project operation, a number of whom will be skilled boiler and turbine operators and engineers.

Contribution of the project activity to the environment

The generation of captive renewable electricity and steam will also reduce the dependence of the textile factory on existing fossil fuel based generation, which dominates the regional grid. This will have a positive impact not only through the reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases associated with such generation, which is predominantly coal based, but also through a reduction in the emissions of other harmful gases (NOx and SOx) that arise from the combustion of coal. This not only helps in conserving CDM – Executive Board

coal (a non renewable resource) but also leads to a reduction in ash generation since ash content in rice husk (10-12%) is lower than that of Indian coal (30-40%)1.