Carbon Credits For Gujarat Inc.
(The Economic Times, Ahmedabad, August 27, 2005)

GACL, GSFC & NRE Coke Find New Revenue Stream

THE companies in Gujarat are looking outside their traditional businesses to generate additional revenues. Several firms have started tapping the emerging carbon credit market through clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol agreement.

Companies such as Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals (GACL), Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals (GSFC) and Gujarat NRE Coke have all joined the bandwagon to claim carbon credits, which is expected to generate huge revenues in the long run. It will also help the companies become socially-responsible entities and attract more businesses from overseas clients.

CDM enables companies in the developing countries undertake projects helping in sustainable environment development by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions calculated in carbon dioxide equivalent and earn carbon credits. The credits could be sold to companies or agencies in the developed world like Europe and Canada according to the prevailing market price.

Gujarat NRE Coke is planning to extensively use wind energy to power its captive requirement. The company already has a 2.5-mw wind power plant, which it is planning to increase to 25 mw in two phases with an investment of Rs.120 crore. In addition, the company has announced plans to invest Rs 60 crore in setting up captive power plant using heat generated during coke production as its feedstock. �We expect the feasibility report to be ready in a month�s time after which a decision will be taken,� Gujarat NRE Coke president Sumit Khetan told ET.

Similarly, public sector GSFC is looking at projects to produce ethanol using gas as feedstock. �The project could be used in securing carbon credits. Studies in this regard are on,� sources in the company told ET.

GACL is also in the process of identifying projects where it could get certified emissions reductions or carbon credit that could be sold to the developed countries. �We are exploring the possibility of extensively using hydrogen as a fuel and fuel conversion from naphtha to gas at our unit undertaken in 2002,� said GACL managing director P K Taneja. The company is also contemplating appointing a consultant to study the prospects.

Gujarat Fluorochemicals, a refrigerant gas manufacturing company, was the first company in the country to receive project registration from executive board of CDM established under CDM and hopes to produce three million tonnes of certified emissions annually.

So far, projects of four companies from Gujarat have received approval from the host country authority, Designate National Clean Fuel Development Authority (DNA) for CDM. The total number of Indian companies who have received approval so far touched 90 last week.