Page 133 - CW E-Magazine (28-1-2025)

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LACKING CAPABILITIES

Beverage industry unsure of meeting recycled plastic

norms for PET bottles from April 1

The beverage industry has expressed representations to the government, have the projected demand for recycled plastic
concern regarding the implementation said that there are challenges in meet- needed to adhere to these regulations.
of recycled plastic norms, pointing to in- ing these norms. In a meeting with the
adequate availability and limited infra- Central Pollution Control Board held Companies will be forced to import
structure to produce food grade recycled in December, industry representatives recycled plastic to meet the 30 percent
plastics. stated that the 30 percent plastic content content obligation. Besides being very ex- PRODUCT RANGE
threshold is very stringent, expressing pensive, it will defy the objective of these
As per the regulations notifi ed by concerns about the lack of availability regulations, which is to ensure that more
the Ministry of Environment, Forest of enough rPET to meet these norms. and more plastic gets recycled within the
and Climate Change, which will be en- Beverage and FMCG companies asked country.
forced from April 1, beverage makers the government to set a more realistic
will need to ensure that 30 percent of targets of for recycled plastics to be used Companies have also raised concerns
recycled plastic is used to make Cate- in beverage bottles. that not all food grade rPET manufacturers
gory-1 packaging. Category-1 is defi ned as have FSSAI licenses. Industry bodies also
rigid plastics and includes PET bottles. Some industry players suggested to stated that some of the rPET food grade
The norms state that recycled plastics initially set the plastic content level obliga- standards are still in the draft stage and
in this category will need to increase tion to 15 percent, which can then be have not been fi nalised.
by 10 percent year-on-year to touch increased by 5 percent year-on-year.
60 percent content levels by FY28-29. Industry players have also raised con-
Supply shortage cerns about the possibility of recycled
Several industry bodies including According to industry bodies and plastics makers hiking prices of rPET
the Indian Beverage Association and FMCG companies, there are only about resins once the norms are enforced
the Federation of Indian Chambers of 18 food grade recycled plastic manufactu- and have sought intervention from of the
Commerce & Industry (FICCI), in their rers in India and their capacity is less than government in this regard.

BACK-UP POWER
BPCL to deploy VolksEnergie’s LFP-battery-powered

solar power plant for oil & gas pipelines

Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) is used to prevent corrosion of pipelines. “Our proven track record in deploying
has entrusted VolksEnergie with deploy- Further, SCADA system is deployed for solar solutions with pipeline projects using
ment of solar power plants backed with gas pipeline monitoring. These two criti- Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries posi-
LFP-based (lithium-ion phosphate) bat- cal loads over the pipeline need to work tions us uniquely to implement the fi rst-
tery energy storage systems (BESS) for its to ensure energy supply even in the event of-its-kind LFP-based system. It’s a signi-
oil and gas pipeline project. of extreme conditions like calamities and fi cant technical advancement,” noted
national security issues. Solar plus storage Mr. Goyal. This project marks BPCL’s
As part of the project, Volks Energie systems are deployed to provide backup foray into leveraging the advanced LFP
will deploy a combined solar capacity of to these systems,” said Mr. Piyush Goyal, batteries for its oil and gas pipeline pro-
280-kW backed with battery capacity of CEO at Volks Energie. ject. Till now, NiCd have been deployed
1.6-MWh across 14 strategic locations in for oil and gas pipeline projects.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. EIL will Volks Energie’s scope of work in-
oversee the entire project as a project man- cludes complete design, supply, installa- The deployment of LFP batteries is a
agement consultant. “Oil & gas pipelines tion, and commissioning with eight years strategic move as these batteries offer a
need to operate safely. Cathodic protection annual maintenance contract (AMC). higher energy density.

132 Chemical Weekly January 28, 2025 Chemical Weekly January 28, 2025 133

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