“In sustainability solution digital transformation helps to predict potential environmental consequences by analyzing more and more data through ML and AI tools”, Annanya Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO of Runaya

Annanya leads the sustainability practice, where he aims to create technologically advanced and sustainable solutions for the resources and material sciences sector. Annanya understands the need to make collective efforts toward the earth with an eye for sustainability and overall societal growth.

Under his leadership at Runaya Refining, the company has achieved various milestones in less than five years of its operations. During this time, he has been extensively involved in the project of Restora and has also been undertaking many Greenfield projects. Annanya strongly believes that with Runaya, he can solve the biggest resource sector issue and build a greener tomorrow. 

Annanya comes with a rich global experience across varied fields in renowned companies, including Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, and Standard Chartered Bank.

Annanya studied Economics and Sociology at Emory University, an alumnus of United World College South East Asia (UWCSEA), Singapore.

AlCircle: How is digitalization now essential to achieve sustainability goals?

Annanya Agarwal: At Runaya, we are on a mission to create a more sustainable and greener world, which is the need of the hour for the entire world. This can be achieved through digitalizing our processes. The need to protect the environment and develop sustainable solutions drove the creation of Runaya, which helped us understand the value of technology and innovation in the modern manufacturing and resource sectors. We hope to have a profoundly positive impact on the mining and metals industry through our innovative approach. The circular economy, which is intended to be restorative, is promoted by Runaya's technologically enabled sustainable solutions for processing mineral waste. These solutions assist in turning 'waste into wealth'. Runaya helps the aluminium industry reduce its carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions as a result of its proprietary manufacturing technique.

AlCircle: Runaya Group is a fast-growing manufacturing company using top-of-the-line technology. Which technology is this that has been mentioned as being world-class?

Annanya Agarwal: At Runaya we have deployed licence patented technologies to transform industrial waste, such as dross (waste generated during aluminium production), into value-added products for other industries. This, in turn, prevents a significant amount of industrial waste from going into landfills, thereby eliminating the adverse impact it could have on communities, ecology, and climate. One such technology of ours eliminates the usage of elements such as gas, water, salt, or heat to recover aluminium from the dross, thereby making it one of the most environmentally friendly technologies in the world. Today, Runaya is one of India’s fastest-growing manufacturing start-ups focused on creating sustainable solutions for the resources sector and is acclaimed globally as a circular economy champion. 

Runaya has also pioneered a ground-breaking product innovation in the form of ‘Restora Ultra’ (ultra-low carbon footprint aluminium). This makes it the most sustainable aluminium ever produced and has been a significant hit with top manufacturing companies worldwide.

AlCircle: What role has digitalization played in Runaya’s two main verticals - sustainability solutions and niche manufacturing?

Annanya Agarwal: Digital transformation (DT) will engage all levels of our employees and develop them for an optimized digital platform. By DT, we simplify our processes and have a single source of truth for our data to provide employees with consistent and accurate data to enable us to become an Insights-driven organization. By having clear data and integration strategies, our digital portfolio will enable us to deliver a better customer and employee experience and drive continuous improvement to our top and bottom-line financials while growing our market.

In sustainability solutions, DT helps to predict potential environmental consequences by analyzing more and more data through ML and AI tools. The same data is used to generate insights so that we can arrive at possible solutions in solving environmental problems such as toxic dross dumps or ammonia emissions. Thereby enabling sensors to adapt to green manufacturing where the production process is optimized for environmentally friendly operations and converting WASTE to WEALTH. Greening addresses

• Lesser use of natural resources such as Electricity
• Reduced pollution, emission and residue
• Recycling of residues

 In Niche manufacturing, DT enables us to efficiently utilize production to limit inventory and better control margins by minimizing the operation cost through

• Modern technology (IOT and patented technologies),
• Slimmer workforce,
• Efficient use of existing facility space and
• Effective outsourcing

AlCircle: How does Runaya bring zero waste and discharge solutions to the aluminium industry?

Annanya Agarwal: Runaya has designed a unique business model for a start-up catering to the disposal of industrial waste to recover precious metals and convert them to value-added products. With this, Runaya has been able to curb approximately 280 billion tonnes of industrial waste that is generated every year. The operations started in 2019 and converted around 2500 tonnes of dross into precious metal and value-added products. In just three years, the company increased its operational capacity to 40000 tonnes (including COVID times) 16 times. Hence, with this process, we are able to prevent 40000 tonnes of industrial waste from going into landfills each year.

We are currently at five global markets of aluminium dross with an executable pipeline of 30 within the next three years. The global dross industry is one million tonnes a year, and Runaya aspires to make an impact of three hundred million tonnes by 2025.

AlCircle: How far will Runaya's industrial solutions be integrated with digital technology in the future?

Annanya Agarwal: Runaya aims to enable innovation, sustainability, and efficiency improvement in the natural resources industry with a key focus on executing projects that enable a circular economy and promote the concept of waste to wealth. As an organization, we have ensured that all our manufacturing products are not only solving the current problems faced within the industry but are equipped to handle any problems that may arise in the foreseeable future. In line with this, we have some of our upcoming products used to make solar panels, while others are used in EV Batteries. In addition, we are also continuously working towards achieving our target of being the best in class regarding data tracking and automation.

Not just limited to the aforementioned, Runaya has been taking a slew of measures to set it apart and has been ushering in pioneering steps that are an industry first. We have already enabled digital intervention across all our operations and processes through the means of automation and artificial intelligence. Runaya is also participating in "Digital India" and the 5G revolution through our Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Rods business. Focusing on value-added products such as Aramid Rods, Flat FRP, Water Soluble FRP and Rough FRP, we are perfectly positioned to cater to domestic and export markets.

Alcircle: What has been the transformational journey of Runaya since it was founded in 2017?

Annanya Agarwal: Runaya aims to enable innovation, sustainability, and efficiency improvement in the natural resources industry with a key focus on executing projects that enable a circular economy and promote the concept of waste to wealth. Runaya has been taking a slew of measures to set it apart and ushering in pioneering steps that are an industry first.

Runaya is a fast-growing manufacturing start-up that leverages best-in-class technology and relationships with international partners to create innovative solutions in the resources sector. Founded in 2017 with the vision to deploy cutting-edge technology in the manufacturing sector in India, Runaya aims to revolutionise the resources industry by creating sustainable solutions. Currently, even the best practices in the industry can only process 50% of waste. Runaya works on the circular economy model, and its patented technology ensures that we can follow the ‘Zero Waste Zero Discharge’ approach, thereby helping to create a cleaner and greener environment.

A manufacturing project currently underway is the High technology product of Fibre Reinforced Plastic rods, which find applications in the telecommunication industry, including Fibre Optic Cables. This plant is at Silvassa, and the bulk of the production will be for global markets. The current capacity to be installed is of 1million kilometres.

Runaya is also setting up a minor metal recovery complex to recover metals such as Cadmium, Copper Dross, Copper Matte, etc., which are found in the mining supply chain of base metals such as Zinc, Copper, and Silver.

In addition to these projects, Runaya is also investing in an ‘Innovation Centre’ at Jharsuguda in Odisha. The Innovation Centre has the vision of making India the global hub for innovation in the resources sector and to pioneer the identification of new processes and applications in the space of Metal Recoveries, Waste to Wealth, and studies in areas of minimising the impact on the environment and enhance enhancing sustainability.