In a populous country like India, effluent and waste water from industries and households is a perennial problem which has always
attracted concern of the environmentalists. There are not many agencies or individuals to find permanent solutions to issues related to waste water management and solid waste disposal without affecting the water bodies and thereby the environment. There is an increasing awareness about the need to adopt scientific methods for safe disposal of waste.
Lakshmi Energy and Environment Designs Ltd. (LEED) is a part of the Lakshmi Ring Travellers (LRT) group of Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. (LMW), Coimbatore. LRT, global leaders in ring travellers, was incorporated in 1974 and its operations were organized into independent business clusters comprising of ring traveller division, engineering, foundry, CNC profile cutting division, water treatment and waste to energy division.
In order to focus on the emerging concept of energy and environment management solutions, LRT floated its new company recently called LEED. As the name suggests, LEED was formed to serve industries in total water management and solid waste management areas. The company provides state-of-the-art treatment plants from its overseas technical collaborations, a few technical institute from Turkey and technical tie-ups with leading professional consultants from across the globe. The company’s product range consists of providing complete solutions in the field of water and waste water treatment, solid waste management and waste to energy.
Waste water treatment
LEED has different divisions for waste water treatment which include sewage treatment plants (STPs), effluent treatment plants (ETPs), reverse osmosis plants (ROPs), zero liquid discharge plant (ZLDs), salt recovery solutions, mechanical evaporator, bio remediation, and chemicals and operation and maintenance.
The company helps in setting up ‘Zero Discharge Biological Effluent’ treatment plants for all verticals, right from textile industries to real estate. It provides design, construction and operation and maintenance contracts for installing zero discharge effluent treatment plant in these areas. With advanced technology and superior quality raw materials, these plants efficiently remove pollution effluents and keep the environment safe.
The company manufactures and supplies wide range of skid mount sewage treatment plants (STP) which uses advanced technology to 
filter contaminated water, so that industries can set up the plant to ensure good flow of fresh and pure water. The plant’s setting up cost ranges may range from ten lakhs to a few crores depending upon the needs of the customer. LEED offers any equipments required in water treatment like agitators, auto bar screens, clarifiers, dosing systems, evaporators, filters, floculators, RO, softeners, UF, aeration systems, anarobic coagulation systems, cooling towers, all types of pumps and membrane digestion systems.
Waste to energy
Since there is an enormous increase in the quantity of waste materials due to human activities, the company has taken several initiatives to minimise, reuse and recycle such wastes using technologically advanced solutions thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The company’s waste to energy division provides solutions for converting any solid waste into useful energy. “We have products for the entire environment solutions. In the case of bio gas plants, we have solutions for capacities starting from 100 kg of waste per day. When the waste is less than 100 kgs we provide solutions for composting. We have an organic waste convertor (OWC) which can convert food waste into manure within 21 days. The OWCs have capacities ranging from 10-100 kgs,” says Mr. J.M. Balaji, in an exclusive interview to The Textile Magazine.
Clean, green energy from agricultural waste
LEED manufactures fuel pallet manufacturing machines which can convert all kinds of garden and agricultural waste into fuel pallets. These fuel pallets are environmentally sustainable, economically viable and technically feasible and provide productive solutions to garden waste management.
These pallets can be used as a cooking fuel in biomass cooking stoves. They have a 
very high calorific value and can substitute any other material at almost half the cost. The machine can produce almost one tonne of pallets a day. These machines can be installed anywhere and can generate good revenue by selling these pallets at Rs. 6-7/kg. By using these products the customer can reap the benefits within a short period of two-three years, says Mr. Balaji.
Energy and environment designs being a new concept, the company is confident of a huge market demand for its products. Talking about the company’s target for the year, Mr. Balaji adds: “Our concept is a new one. With low maintenance and a fool proof mechanism, we are confident that there is a good market for our products. Going forward we have decided to focus not only in India but outside the country also.”