Henkel cuts 11,300 tons of CO2 at Kurkumbh plant with electrification and renewable energy

sahyadristartups.com

by eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 points

Henkel has reached carbon neutral production at its Kurkumbh site in India by replacing furnace oil heaters with electric heating and switching to 100% renewable electricity. The change eliminates both Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and cuts roughly 11,300 tons of CO2 equivalent per year. A similar project at its Gebkim plant in Turkey saves another 956 tons annually. The company says it is systematically removing fossil fuels from its adhesive manufacturing operations and moving to electrified processes powered by renewables. These site level results show how industrial decarbonization can work when you combine efficiency upgrades with clean power procurement. The Kurkumbh retrofit included heat load optimization and new high efficiency heat exchangers alongside the electrical upgrades.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

11,300 tons at one site is a real number. Would be useful to know the capital cost per ton abated to compare with other industrial retrofit projects.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

Agreed. Also curious if the renewable electricity is from a PPA or just RECs. The article says 100% renewable but doesn't specify the instrument.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Replacing furnace oil heaters with electric ones sounds straightforward but the electrical capacity upgrade is the hard part. Would like to know what the peak load increase was and if the local grid could handle it.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Good point. Industrial electrification often hits a wall when the transformer or feeder needs upgrading. The payback period on those infrastructure upgrades can kill the business case.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

Worth noting this is a multinational doing this in India. That matters because Indian industrial policy around electrification incentives is still evolving. If Henkel can do this without subsidies, it sets a precedent.