In light of the recent challenges that are being faced due to the energy crisis, the Indian Pulp & Paper Technical Association (IPPTA) is hosting a zonal seminar on 17 and 18 November, 2022 at Vapi, Gujarat. The theme for the seminar is Energy conservation, cost reduction and developing alternate sources of energy. 

The session will start with a welcome address by Sunil Agarwal, chairman, programmer committee and president, Gujarat Paper Mills Association as well as CMD, Shri Gajanan Paper and Boards. The chief guest will be Kanubhai Desai, finance minister with the Government of Gujarat. 

The IPPTA journal will also be launched during this session.

Post this, the first day will have a panel discussion moderated by Tushar Shah of Daman Ganga Board Mills and a technical session chaired by Mahesh Gandhi, director of Sri Chaitanya Industrial Automation. The speakers during this session will be covering a variety of topics related to energy. For instance, a delegation from TNPL, Kagithapuram (Chinnaraj S, Thinagaran S, Balamuragan S, Varadarajan SJ and R Seenivasan) will be speaking about Circular economy for resource conservation, GHG emission reduction and carbon sequestration. 

Anil Kumar Nathani of Shreyans Industries will be talking about "An innovative approach to prevent industrial pollution in pulp and paper industries - anaerobic digestion.

On the second day (18 November), there will be a technical session chaired by Parveen Kumar Goyal, associate vice president, Kuantum Papers where the speakers will share their insights and a panel discussion on the topic engineering our way in the future which will be moderated by Ashraf Nathani, managing director, Mehali Paper.

As per the IPPTA website, "The seminar will cover topics related to energy that could help the industry to adopt new energy conservation techniques, improving existing operations and technological tools that can help in reducing energy costs among others. Industry experts will be sharing their ideas that can benefit the industry at the seminar. Case studies will also be presented by those who are running mills and technology suppliers."

With the Ukraine war still ongoing, the demand for oil and coal-based energy and price for fossil fuel have increased significantly in many countries. As a result, this has put many governments under pressure due to the disruptions in the global energy market. In India, domestic prices of natural gas have been hiked to bring them in line with elevated global energy markets. This hike along with surging coal prices will dampen the country’s industrial production. For the wider industry in India, elevated prices of coal - which accounts for half of the country’s energy requirement - pose a serious operational problem. Many industries were deterred from importing the fossil due to increased prices and sought to procure them locally.