Indian textile conglomerate, Arvind, has joined hands with Mumbai-based global climate investment firm Peak Sustainability Ventures to establish a large-scale cotton stalk torrefaction plant in Gujarat. The facility, with a planned capacity of more than 40,000 tonnes per year, is aimed at advancing Arvind’s decarbonisation agenda and promoting torrefaction technology at scale.
The project will convert cotton stalk into torrefied biomass, a cleaner, drop-in alternative to coal for use in Arvind’s manufacturing boilers, thereby reducing the company’s reliance on fossil fuels. Torrefaction is a thermal process that heats agricultural or woody biomass in a low-oxygen environment to create a stable, coal-like biofuel with higher energy density and improved handling characteristics.
The industrial-scale initiative is the first of its kind in India for cotton stalk and is intended to serve as a scalable and economically viable model for companies seeking to shift from coal to biomass-based energy sources. It also offers a productive solution for the more than 500 million tonnes of agricultural waste generated annually in India. Cotton stalk, typically left unused or burned in fields, is already utilised by Arvind for thermal energy, but torrefaction enhances its calorific value by up to 20%.
The torrefied biomass produced at the new plant will power Arvind’s industrial boilers, enabling the company to replace at least 20% of its coal-based thermal energy. Arvind and Peak Sustainability Ventures may also explore producing biochar in the future, which could be supplied to farmers to improve soil health and support regenerative agriculture.
Samir Shah, Managing Partner at Peak Sustainability Ventures, said the collaboration aimed to demonstrate to the wider industry that waste-to-energy solutions could be economical, circular and catalytic in accelerating India’s shift away from fossil fuels.
Arvind has received a grant from the Apparel Impact Institute’s (Aii) Climate Solutions Portfolio Grant programme to support the project, which forms part of its ambition to eliminate coal use entirely by 2030. The initiative will also enable Arvind’s global customers to lower their Scope 3 emissions through supply chain decarbonisation.
Punit Lalbhai, Vice Chairman of Arvind Limited, said sustainability remained a fundamental responsibility for the company. He noted that the torrefaction project represented one of the strongest examples of circularity and waste-to-energy innovation in the textiles sector, calling it a “bold step toward responsible manufacturing at scale.”
