The process of manufacturing sodium silicate requires high temperature and the raw materials used for sodium silicate manufacture are soda ash and quartz silica.

Aster was earlier using conventional furnace for manufacturing sodium silicate at their Kheda unit. The existing Kheda unit has three triple pass regenerative furnaces and utilizes lignite as a fuel. The project proponents will now switch from lignite to biomass in the Kheda unit. They will buy biomass briquettes which will undergo controlled combustion in the gasification plant and producer gas/biogas generated will be utilized as a fuel in the furnace.

Aster will now go in for capacity addition which involves two new sites, in Jhagadia district Bharuch and Bhavnagar in Gujarat. Phases I consist of fuel switch from lignite to biomass in Kheda unit and new site Jhagadia which has two furnaces of capacity 100 MT each- will now utilize biomass as a fuel source. Phase I will starts from March 2009. Phase II consists of the Bhavnagar unit, having two furnaces of capacity 100 MT, each will be utilizing biomass. Bhavnagar unit will be functional from March 2010.

The total project cost is 19.5 million INR. The project hopes to generate 89907 CERs per year.