The Hindu              12.02.2014

Now, gas from vegetable waste!

Everyday the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) does the gargantuan task of mopping up around 4,000 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste generated by the city and transport it to the gigantic municipal dump yard at Jawaharnagar.

Even though segregation of waste has been a non-starter, a few municipal officials have been taking the initiative to ‘manage’ the biodegradable waste. For instance, in Macha Bolarum area under Alwal circle, a unique ‘biomethation’ plant of converting vegetable waste into gas has been running successfully.

Six months ago, North Zone Commissioner S. Harikrishna and his team noticed lot of waste generated by the vegetable market in the area and any slight delay in moving it to the dump yard was leading to much stink. Having seen vegetable waste to gas plant run by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation for a few months some years ago, the North Zone Commissioner decided to set one such unit here. The Khadi & Village Industries Commission was given the task of constructing a gas plant involving an expenditure of Rs.4.3 lakh with vegetable waste as the primary source. A crushing plant fabricated from Coimbatore was brought here and it has been up and functioning well.

The gas thus generated is currently being given free to an orphanage right opposite the plant where about 70 children are staying with the maintenance cost coming to about Rs. 3,000 a month including electricity and labour charges for working about two hours a day.

Huge savings

The gas generated is equal to 10 cylinders a month, which means the orphanage, is spending that much less on LPG cylinders. And this was also leading to 500 kg less of garbage being transported which means savings for the GHMC to the tune of Rs. 3.5 lakh a year, points put Mr. Harikrishna

“Even the vegetable residue coming out after the gas is generated can be a good source of manure although we are releasing it into an existing drain,” he explains.