Closing the loop in Southern India

Our manufacturing facility at Ambas in Southern India has seen major investments over recent years to place it amongst the most advanced and sustainable sites across Coats. This has included a new synthetic dye house, a biomass-based steam boiler and a solar power plant, as well as a reverse osmosis effluent treatment plant.

One of the key features of this plant is that it can recycle 95% of the water it uses during the manufacturing process, with zero discharges of effluent to the environment. This process involves the filtration and cleaning of some 28,000 liters of water a day which is then reused. The plant uses a combination of biological and physical processes to ensure the high quality of water used.

This has only been possible due to the introduction of a new biomass plant, owing to the high level of heating required during the process. Without this the amount of fossil fuel energy used would have been prohibitive, from both cost and environmental points of view. As the wastewater is heated, it evaporates leaving behind a waste residue while the clean water condenses for reuse. To close the loop on this process the solid waste or ‘sludge’ is collected and used by a nearby factory as a material for cement production.

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