The small-scale limekiln sector contributes significantly to India’s rural development and employment. There are an estimated 6,000 operational limekilns in India that exist in clusters in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Meghalaya. The sector employs outdated technologies and inefficient practices and as a result encounters numerous challenges ranging from environmental pollution, high fuel consumption, low product yield and quality, and safety and health of workers. As a result, a number of limekilns across the country were closed down during the past two decades.

Against this backdrop, the European Union (EU), under the Asia Pro Eco Program contracted WII to implement the project “Enhancing the Competitiveness of Small-scale Limekilns in India (ENCOL)” with the objective to identify viable strategies that help enhancing the performance and competitiveness of the sector. WII was assisted in this project by two EU partner organizations – International Technology Development Group (ITDG), UK and TDG, The University of Twente, The Netherlands.

The specific objectives of the ENCOL are to:

• Assess the current level of performance of the small-scale lime kiln industry and set energy and environmental benchmarks
• Identify industry best practices that can improve productivity and product quality, reduce fuel consumption and consequently reduce cost of production;
• Promote cost-effective cleaner production by disseminating the best practices information widely to industry and other key stakeholders;
• Explore the utilization of renewable energy sources such as biomass; and
• Assess clean development mechanism (CDM) as a funding source for actions that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in lime production.

The major activities envisaged and accomplished in the project are:

• Benchmarking energy and environmental performance of limekilns
• Prepare and disseminate best practices manual
• Inventorization of small-scale limekilns in India
• Review and document environmental market information and feasibility of the selected environmental project for India
• Assess social, health, and safety conditions, gender issues and identify solutions for improvement
• Feasibility of biomass as supplementary fuel
• CDM opportunities for financing energy efficiency proj
• Information dissemination, publications (newsletter/brochures), and outreach

The accrued benefits of successful completion of the project are:

• Increased awareness among the limekiln industry on current performance of their kilns in relation to energy, environment, productivity, efficiency of other resources, and potential thereof for performance improvement.
• The project had identified viable solutions for fuel efficiency and best practices that were envisaged to bring significant economic gains by way of reduced fuel and resource consumption and operating costs.
• The project has identified viable solutions for fuel efficiency and best practices that are envisaged to bring significant economic gains by way of reduced fuel and resource consumption and operating costs.
• Utilization of locally available crop residues or agro-industrial residues as supplementary fuel in lime burning helped in reducing fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Implementation of the best practices and cleaner production solutions had lead to better compliance of industry with existing environmental rules and regulations.
• he project sensitized the government, regulatory bodies, and concerned departments regarding the potential for development of the sector and the need for supportive policies and regulatory actions.
• The project provided opportunities for various stakeholders such as service providers, equipment/fuel/material suppliers to realise the potential and work on a sustainable basis for the development of this sector. WII has produced various reports and news bulletin on limekilns.