Energy from garbage: Hyderabad shows the way

By Our Science Correspondent

BANGALORE, MAY 1. In the face of burgeoning urban populations and growing mounds of garbage, an initiative in Hyderabad could show the way for other cities. A private company has begun converting the city's garbage into fuel pellets and now plans to establish a 10-MW power plant.

In about a decade, Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta would be generating 5,000 tonnes of garbage everyday and disposal would be difficult, according to the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous body under the Union Government's Department of Science & Technology (DST). The existing dumping yards would create enormous pollution and health hazards. Municipal authorities would find it expensive to transport garbage and dispose it of scientifically, according to a TIFAC data sheet on `Fuel pellets from municipal waste'.

Using garbage as fuel is nothing new and other countries have been doing so for years. An imported plant was installed in Delhi as part of the Centre's initiative to generate power from garbage. But the plant never worked because of the very different nature of Indian garbage.

As part of a pilot project for Integrated Waste Management, the DST in collaboration with CMC Limited established a prototype fuel pelletisation plant at Deonar in Mumbai in the early 1990s. The plant was designed to process Indian garbage. The garbage was first dried to bring down the high moisture levels. Sand, grit and other incombustible matter were then mechanically separated before the garbage was compacted and converted into pellets.

Fuel pellets have several distinct advantages over coal and wood, according to the TIFAC data sheet. It was cleaner, free from incombustibles, had a lower ash content and lower moisture content, was of uniform size, cost-effective and eco- friendly.

The plan was that after the demonstration period, the Mumbai plant would be handed over to a private operator who would thereafter keep it running. In fact, an expert committee identified a suitable private operator. But bureaucratic wranglings stalled the handover. As a result, the plant had to be shut down and has not been operational for several years now.

The Hyderabad plant has been established by a private company, Selco International, with the technical assistance of CMC Limited and some financial support from the Union Government's Technology Development Board. While in Mumbai the garbage was dried on an open yard, at the Hyderabad plant it can be dried indoors using hot air from a roof-mounted solar heater, says Dr. Srinivasa Setty, CMC's Vice-President, heading its Technology Applications Group.

The Hyderabad plant currently has a capacity to produce 500 tonnes of fuel pellets per day, fives times that of the Mumbai plant. The company plans to double the capacity and use the processed garbage in its own 10-MW generation unit. Finalisation of a power purchase agreement and financial closure for setting up the power plant were expected to be completed in the next few months, according to Mr. G. V. Ramakrishna, the company's managing director.

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