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| Sunday, 4 September 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
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From Abroad Renewable energy : Electricity from vegetable waste The biomethanation process is nothing new, but Chennai will soon have the distinction of becoming the first in India to set up a power plant using vegetable waste as fuel. Officials in the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority(CMDA), the project promoter, say that the vegetable waste generated by the Koyambedu wholesale market - which is generally transported to the Kodungaiyur dumping yard, will now be used as 'dependable fuel' for a power plant. Set to come up in the backyard of the Koyambedu vegetable market, the Rs. 5 crores plant is likely to be commissioned soon. Not all the 80 tonnes of waste generated by the market is to be used for the power plant. The plant will generate about 4,800 units of electricity a day. The project makes a good case for the participation of multiple agencies. The Union Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources is providing Rs. 3.75 crores as a grant, with the balance being met by the CMDA. This is how the process works, thirty tonnes of vegetable waste is reduced into minuscule particles in two stages, before being fed into an anaerobic digester. The digester, constructed in cement concrete, looks like a massive overhead water tank. Through a natural process, the particles develop into gas, which will occupy one-third the space of the unit. The gas comprises 65 per cent methane and 35 per cent carbon dioxide, and is transferred into a gas holder from where it will operate an engine for the production of electrical energy. A by-product of the plant is bio-fertilizer, produced out of the liquid generated from the digester. The CMDA has entered into an agreement with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, under which the power generated from the plant will be sold at Rs. 3.15 per unit. The Hindu |
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