The Hindu              16.08.2013

Coimbatore Corporation to use bio-fuel to power Amma canteen

In a couple of months from now, the food served at the Amma canteen at Saravanampatty will be environment friendly in that the food will be cooked using bio-fuel. The Corporation planned to install a biomethanisation plant to power the stoves with methane gas, said Commissioner G. Latha.

The food and vegetable wastes from the canteen’s kitchen and also those from nearby restaurants would go into the digester, where they would undergo fermentation. There were three stages involved in the process – hydrolysis, acidification and methanisation.

The Coimbatore Corporation had designed the plant with a three metric tonne capacity at Rs. 9.50 lakh. The plant would produce 25 cubic metre gas, which would be sufficient or little more than sufficient to meet the canteen’s requirement.

Ms. Latha said that at present the canteen used three commercial cylinders every one-and-half days. If the digester plant were to start generating gas, the Corporation would save on cylinder.

But that was not the main objective. The idea was to rely more and more on renewable energy sources and clean fuels, the Commissioner said.

Sources in the civic body said that for the first three months the digestion process would be slow. Thereafter it would be better in that the gas production would be in full swing.

Ms. Latha also said that if necessary the Corporation would divert green waste from the neighbourhood to the biomethanisation plant. This way the Corporation need not carry the waste till the Vellalore dump yard.

After studying the success of the plant, the Corporation would go in for more such plants. The Corporation would also approach the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to see if the plant attracted a subsidy.

The Corporation planned a community kitchen at Kamarajar Colony in ward 6. The civic body would dump the waste from the area into the biomethanisation plant and use the gas there from in a community kitchen, where womenfolk from the area could cook the food for their homes. The Corporation was in the process of preparing a detailed project report the same, she added.