Back to back introductory workshops conducted for ACIDLOOP project in India

Oct. 29, 2012 - PRLog -- The ACIDLOOP Project held introductory workshops last August 27, 2012 at Hotel Jayapushpam in Chennai, India.

Graced by special guests  B.Vijayakumar, President of AeA association and Mr. Sivagnanam, Director of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), the event introduced the project and its objectives to the SMEs.

ACIDLOOP is a PPP initiative that advocates sustainable production through market penetration of closed loop technologies in the metal finishing industry. Set to run for four years, it is implemented by a project consortium composed of ASSIST, The Energy and Research Resources Institute (TERI), Austria Recycling (AREC), Adelphi, BFI, STENUM Asia, and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

The project partners were represented by Mr. Christian Angerbauer and Stefan Melnitzky of AREC, Mr. Sebhastian and Mr. M.R.Srinivasan of ASSIST, Dr. Frank Roegner, and Dr. Miriam Sartor of BFI, Germany, Mr. Rajat Batra of Stenum Asia, India, and Dr. Malini Balakrishnan and Dr. Vidya S. Batra of TERI.

ACIDLOOP was launched in response to the growing demand for SMEs dealing with various types of metal surface treatments amid the boom in India's automobile industry. In particular, the Project Team saw the inefficient processes, outdated technology, poor environmental performance and unsafe working conditions among the SMEs.

Through this initiative, the Project Team seeks to help SMEs meet the industry requirements by transferring the best practices on process optimization, resource efficiency, cleaner production, waste minimization/management, pollution control and acid recovery.

Specifically, the project seeks to 1) provide training and on-site consultancy to the SMEs on resource efficiency which would lead to reduced lead to reduced operating costs and improved environment and 2) introduce Acid Recovery technologies among SMEs in the target sector.

As the project proceeds, three demonstration systems will be integrated in the companies identified during the introductory workshops. Continuous training workshops will also be held.

The event was launched through the efforts of ASSIST South Asia Director Platosen Samarasam, Project Managers Daphne Serena and Sebhastian, and Senior Technical Expert M.R Srinivasan.

ASSIST is an international non-profit organization focused on capacity-building. It seeks to promote sustainable practices to address social problems in the developing world, with focus on Asia and Africa. It takes pride in its process-oriented approach to capacity building towards social improvement and sustainable transformation. Its goal is to empower its target groups to make them resilient to the social, economic, and environmental challenges.

It is presently based in Makati City, but also has operations in India and Vietnam and manages projects in over 10 countries. Through its Partner to Progress philosophy, it has successfully implemented such projects in collaboration with the European Union, United Nation Environment Program (UNEP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), USAID, International Finance Corporation (IFC), GIZ, and DEG/ KFW amongst other organizations. To know more, visit http://www.assistasia.org. #