ZLD will soon become a reality in India

For almost two decades in the industry, Enviro Analysts & Engineers Pvt Ltd offers services in turnkey projects, consultancy services and laboratory services. In addition to this, the company also supplies industrial chemicals and laboratory equipment to supplement these projects and services. Enviro has a well equipped laboratory recognised by MoEF. Further, the company has branch offices at Nagpur, Pune, Nashik and Tarapur.

Rohan Desai, Director of Enviro Analysts & Engineers, speaks with ITJ Sr Sub Editor Karthik Muthuveeran in an exclusive interview.

Take us through the journey of Enviro Analysts & Engineers over the years.

We are a 25-year old company. My dad started this company in 1991. Before this, he was working for environmental consultancy firm, which were dealing with wastewater turnkey projects. For more than seven years, he has worked there. During his tenure, he worked on his first big project for the Bisleri factory, Mumbai in 1992. He did the entire zero liquid discharge (ZLD) for the Bisleri factory. By the time, we had established ourselves in Tarapur, Maharashtra, which were dealing with a lot of chemicals. And then slowly we started growing in Tarapur, and now we have almost 120-150 wastewater units in Tarapur. This includes textiles, steel, pharmaceuticals, electro plating, etc.

What are the various services offered by the company?

If you have any industry coming up, then we provide environmental engineering solutions – it can be wastewater or it can be even environmental clearance, etc. We have been accredited by MoEF. We do layer studies, we represent them in front of the Ministry. Otherwise, we also provide system solutions to high-rise buildings. It can be rainwater harvesting, solar, etc. Industry-wise, we provide turnkey projects for wastewater treatment. We have a monitoring system and we have a laboratory which do all the analysis related to water and soil.

For textile industry, what have you done?

We have done many projects for the textile industry. We have worked for Welspun, Detco Textiles, and have provided consultancy to SK Garments and many more. There are at least 7-8 projects in Tarapur itself. We have done their turnkey projects, we have found solutions for their issues with the solutions control board and made sure that solutions control board has no issues with this.

What are the USPs of the technologies offered?

Especially in a place like Mumbai and around space is always a constraint. Companies that were there long time back did not have space for ETPs and wastewater. We had to find the solution and find the best in that space. One of the textile companies, Detco Textiles, they had to shift the ETP to some other place. But the space they provided was less than before. We made sure that everything suffices in the same area. If you look at the plant, you cannot figure out it is 300 to 400 kwH plant. The place they provided was only 150 kwH. Cost is always the issue especially in a textile industry.

Kindly let us know your ongoing or completed projects.

In textiles, we have just finished the Detco project. For Welspun, we did the whole consultancy service for them. For ETP, we only did the designing part and not the erection.

Tell us more about ZLD.

Definition of ZLD in terms of pollution control and in terms of a layman is: In every process, water is been used in a maximum. ZLD is a water treatment process in which all wastewater is purified and recycled. Why ZLD has become so famous? It is because; there is CETP all over Maharashtra which does not cater to all the plants. Imagine the CETPs were made in 1990s with the capacity of 25 MLD. Currently the minimum requirement is almost 100 MLD. Tirupur became the first textile cluster in India to achieve ZLD in their units. It has not reached that level yet. It will take time. ETP is based on four different processes: physical process, biological process, chemical process and tertiary process.

Is complete ZED a reality in India?

Of course it is. The biggest issue that comes is the trust factor. A lot of suppliers have become consultants now. We are design consultants who provide turnkey solutions. There are only consultants who does only supply but also provide designs and put the plant there with low cost. That is the biggest issue right now. Cost is also the biggest issue right now.

Small companies have still not adopted these technologies. Why so?

I would rather say, textile industry does not require such huge technologies. I would say yes if you are going for advanced technologies like higher membrane technologies. If you are going for regular ZLD technology, then it is bigger investment for textile industry because those membranes work in terms of BODs. But the BODs are very high here and the amount of chemical will affect the membranes. Unless you do a proper study on zero effluent, till then don’t go for any solution people are providing. We have stopped doing direct solutions. Membrane bio-reactor (MBR) is the latest technology in the market right now. It can work in the biological treatment. It is like membranes and biological work together.

What should the industry do?

For industry, they need to cater in terms of effluent. Consult proper people before going for these huge projects. This is not only for textile, but for any other industry.

Are your projects – CETP or ETP?

We have provided CETP projects before. But right now, my target is only ETP for medium to small scale industries. So that they can have proper solutions even though the main body is not working.