During the last year, couple of friends of mine (Karnum Shashidhar and Sharad Jaiswal) and I have been trying to understand waste and its management in India. We thought of waste broadly ( solid waste, human waste and industrial waste). Our motivation was all the solid waste strewn all over Bangalore and our aim was to see if there is a good viable business model that passes the test of being good to the environment.

We have talked to several people and companies in this area. It would be fair to say we are still searching for the idea. However, we have encountered several good ideas and almost tried one out. We are sort of in the middle of the story. Over the next few blog postings, I will try to relay that story (not necessarily in order) that has happened so far.

I will begin the series with a book log. It kind of began with a meeting that I went to. It was organised by New Ventures India. It was a day workshop where venture capital firms and start-ups in the green technology space ( broadly defined) had a forum to meet together. Below, is a list of companies that presented (along with my notes about what each one does). Needless to say my notes may not be error free. Figures are as off a year ago and not necessarily reflective of current status.

  1. Nuetech Solar
    • Make solar water heaters and p.v. lights
    • Around since 1992
    • for residential homes and government
    • benefit from National Solar Mission
  2. Proto-comm microsystems PCM ltd.
    • make lED lamps (solar and lithium batteries)
    • made 100 lamps, using wafer forms not PCB
    • 10 years lifetime and 24 hour between recharge.
  3. EMSI
    • Make bio gas from biomass (energy crop, hybrid grass).
    • 400 tons per hectare of crop, lifetime 20years, water once in 10 days
    • yields 15kg/day/acre of bio gas (methane 70% and C02 30%)
    • purification technology to make CNG
    • have adsorption storage technology at low pressure
    • no fertilizers used.
  4. Enlen Energy System
    • in april 08 Sapgreen.com (tree sapling gift company; closed)
    • in Jan 09 invertors (closed)
    • in Jun 09 — Biomass gasification
    • focus now on agri processing industries (Coffee processers)
    • Revenue 2.7 crores/annum at a plant
    • have one big project (3 MW plant) starting up in Kushinagar.
    • Idea:- use cured coffee hus– gasify– electricity
  5. Samki-Teck Resources
    • developing technology for recycling plastic and rubber waste to fuel oil.
    • sell complete plants
    • can dig up landfills (not much sorting/cleaning of plastic is required)
    • claim to prevent toxic emissions
    • Revenue 1400 crore /year
    • have a plant running in coimbatore
    • Expected return is 240% in 3 years
  6. Black Gold Market Eco watch
    • Propose to do Solid waste management in Tier 1 and 2 cities
    • developed a rotating compostor
    • Mainly work with gated communities
    • plan to dig up dry waste for FMCG data
    • sell analysis/market research to companies
    • set up cost per apartment is 50000Rs
  7. Ecologix
    • Carbon software that allows enterprises to track and analyze energy consumption and GHG emission and undertake reduction projects.
    • Inventory tool, Optimisation tool; Analytical tool
    • these provide enterprise energy solution
    • said it was LP based
  8. Autoboxx
    • The company is in the business of remote monitoring of air-conditioned spaces thus providing energy efficiency services
  9. E-farm
    • agri suppl chain management
    • sustainable agriculture and supply chain
    • connect folks: farmers, storage, retail, transporter
    • Turnover 1 crore by end of 2010-11
  10. Pro-nature organic foods
    • procuring organic foods and selling through a multi channel approach
    • branded certified organic food products
    • bangalore based, plan to move all over south India
    • Products: pulses, flour. plan to get into snacks, processed food.
    • Procurement:- all over india UP to Orissa; plan to be changed:things to bought at harvest rather than from storage on a monthly basis
    • Distribution:- chains, stand alone retail stores.
    • cash flow issues and had low fill rate
    • 2009- 50 lac, 2010 1 crore (turnover)
    • will make 10 crore this year and 100 crore in 5 years
  11. Dubdengreen
    • moved to organic farm 20 years ago
    • pilot project in south delhi (a stand alone store)
    • claimed, interest and premium is not an issue anymore
    • need to provide broad range of products.
    • Plan– set up flagship store along Harods model
    • outsource production
  12. Skyshade delights
    • provides energy efficient solutions in buildings by allowing sunlight to enter premises reducing lighting needs
    • taps light coming from outside spreads it across the room, to reduce electricity usage.
    • have a technology called light pipes, installed in factories (10 pepsico factories have taken this up)
    • 2.5 crores per year turnover
  13. Potential green
    • develop closed cell drainage / water infiltration systems and Rainwater harvesting systems.
    • did not get much else out of the presentation
    • could be a good company
  14. Greentech Aqua
    • desalinate seawater using waste heat from refineries, thermal power plants
    • cost of water very minimal, energy used is waste heat
    • pilot plant in tuticorin
    • scrub the gas and clean it out, also reduces temperature of effluent gas from 140 to 70degrees cent
    • 360 crores revenue
    • need a refinery or a thermal power plant to run this desalination or distillation of bad water
  15. Nextgen PMS Pvt.
    • developing bio gas for use in enterprise client premises using food waste
    • break even for a plant is 3 years
    • getting into carbon accounting, emission management project
    • started by Bits pilani students, average age 21
    • has tetrapak as one of the listed clients
  16. Ecoloove
    • social enterprise is attempting to develop a rural sanitation and for sanitation for slums
    • had data on amount of shit, open defeacation and prolems for women
    • design and build eco-san toilets
    • sell fertiliser
  17. Prakruti Hydro
    • makes micro hydro turbines.
    • need flowing water, creating 300 kw turbines to home usage turbines
    • 1 crore turnover
  18. Kata hydro desilting systems
    • treat silting of tanks through hydrosuction
    • want to give technology away for commercial purposes
  19. Mars Vapours
    • use tidal waves for generating electricity.