Welcoming Sivaram Pillai of Proklean to the CLIMAFIX SUMMIT 2022, Nov 25 & 26, Chennai
Globally, the chemicals industry is a sizable contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and so it is in India too.
But the chemicals sector is complex, not just from technology and process perspectives, but also from the decarbonization angle.
For one, there are thousands of different chemicals, each having its own production pathway, attendant energy inputs and emissions profiles. In addition, a large portion of the chemicals industry also uses carbon (mostly from fossil sources) as a feedstock. Finally, in addition to emissions from heating (or scope 2 emissions from power), there are also process CO2 emissions – for instance, the production of hydrogen for ammonia production releases CO2 as a by-product. (Those interested on knowing more abt the chem industry decarbonization canvas may want to read a paper I published in the Chemical Industry Magazine earlier this year – https://lnkd.in/g4hGdjxH )
Thus far, neither government mandates nor end user pressure had significantly weighed down on this sector to decarbonize.
But this is changing. Governments are starting to turn the screws on this sector to go low carbon. And end user markets – both business and consumer markets – are demanding low carbon products.
All said however, it is very early days for the decarbonization process in this industry. Not surprisingly, in our consulting assignments at EAI, we were able to identify only very few decarbonization, low carbon chem industry success stories, and not just in India, but anywhere else in the world.
It is thus our privilege to have a successful green chemistry startup to be part of CLIMAFIX Summit 2022. I warmly welcome Dr. Sivaram Pillai, a co-founder at Proklean Technologies to the summit.
Proklean develops bio-based chemicals for specific industrial and consumer sectors, and enables these users switch over to chemicals that are safe and low carbon.
Proklean is today the poster boy for the Indian green chemical startup ecosystem, and why not. A brief look at their well articulated web page ( www.proklean.in ) will tell you how well they have managed the product-market mix so that they are able to deliver clear green chemistry value to focussed industrial and consumer segments (textiles, hospitality, pulp&paper, home cleaning), while strengthening themselves on the business and technology dimensions (original research and patents for their biotech innovations).
I look forward to listening to and interacting with Sivaram at the CLIMAFIX Summit 2022, organized by the Climate Startup Intelligence division CLIMAFIX of Energy Alternatives India and Energy Consortium – IIT Madras , and held at the IIT M Research Park, Nov 25 & 26, 2022. More about the CLIMAFIX Summit for Indian Climate Startups
Narasimhan Santhanam, Co-founder & Director, EAI
Key words: Chemicals, Climate Change, Decarbonization, Green Chemicals, Green opportunities
