As part of the Bridgestone Group’s worldwide commitment to reduce its absolute CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030, Bridgestone India has announced the commissioning of a carbon-neutral boiler plant at its Pune manufacturing facility.
Built in collaboration with Thermax Onsite Energy Solutions (TOES), the plant uses carbon-neutral biomass briquettes made from agricultural waste, which, while generating steam 123,236 tonne per year at full capacity, will reduce 19,396 tonne CO2 per year.
Steam is utilised in the tyre curing process to provide heat energy to stimulate chemical reactions between rubber compounds and other materials to give tyres their final shape.
Parag Satpute, Managing Director, Bridgestone India, said this boiler plant is the third in Bridgestone’s global operations and the first in Bridgestone’s EMIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) region. “Reducing CO2 emissions is an essential step of our global sustainability strategy and with this plant we will save 0.157 tonne CO2 for every tonne of steam produced. This will also result in annual savings of INR 6.9 million as compared to conventional energy usage.”
Bridgestone India’s plants at Pune and Indore supplement their energy requirements through the use of solar power. The two plants currently have a total of 6.72 MW of solar power installations.
NB: Photo is representational.