The Hindu 16.08.2013
Coimbatore Corporation to use bio-fuel to power Amma canteen
The bio-methanisation plant near the Saravanampatti 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.
