A three-year-old pilot project of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) of producing energy from waste, near Urwa Market, has now grounded.
The ‘Nisargruna’ biomethanation plant, set up using the technology developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, stopped functioning from this month, according to sources in the corporation.
The plant had been set up as the first of many such plants in each ward or for a group of wards to dispose of garbage at ward level.
This project aimed at reducing the bio-waste dumped at the compost plant yard of the corporation at Pachchanady. Transportation cost from wards to Pachchanady could also be brought down, and solid waste management could be decentralised. The plant started functioning from November 2011.
The sources said that the plant was not supplying energy to the shops at Urwa Market. After supplying power to the shops for some months it was stopped due to irregular supply, and the shopkeepers opted for grid power.
The sources said that it had been planned to use the energy produced at the plant to light some street lights in the Urwa Market area. The plan has not been realised.
The sources said that the plant had been getting vegetable waste mainly from Akshaya Patra Foundation as it was supplying mid-day meal to some schools in the city. As schools were closed for summer, there was no mid-day meal supply, which in turn affected the supply of waste to the plant. When schools remain open, the plant gets between 600 kg to 800 kg of waste daily.
The energy (methane gas) produced at the plant was being used operate a generator, which in turn produced power.
The plant could process up to two tonnes of bio-waste a day. This bio-waste could produce between 100-160 cubic metres of methane gas. That could produce up to 200 units of power.
The plant had been set up by Wipro Eco Energy under the guidance and technology provided by Sharad Kale, Professor, Homi Bhabha National Institute, and Head, Pesticide Residues and Soil Science section Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division, BARC.
Prakash B. Saliyan, chairman, standing committee for public health, education and social justice said that he would see how the plant could be revived.
