The facility will also produce a large quantity of high-quality compost.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tomorrow virtually inaugurate Asia's biggest Bio-CNG plant at Madhya Pradesh's Indore. Nearly 400 buses in Indore will soon run on the Bio-CNG produced from waste at this plant situated in the Devguradia village, eight kilometres away from the city. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will also be present at the event which has been projected as a model of "waste-to-wealth".
The trenching ground at Devguradia, which was known for mountains of garbage, has turned into a 'city forest' now and become a symbol of cleanliness. The Bio-CNG plant has been set up here over a 15-acre trenching ground at an investment of Rs 150 crore. The municipal body did not have to spend a single rupee but will earn Rs 2.5 crore per year from the waste it sends to the plant, the Indore Municipal Corporation has claimed.
The trenching ground at Devguradia before the plant was set up.
The city has a population of 35 lakh and facilities have been created for the daily safe disposal of 700 tonnes of liquid waste and 400 tonnes of dry waste. Indore, which has been named India's cleanest city in the Centre's Swachh Survekshan, works on a "3R model" of reduce-reuse-recycle.
Touted as the largest such facility in Asia by local civic officials, the plant will produce 18,000 kilograms of Bio-CNG daily
The municipal corporation collects the segregated garbage and transports organic waste to the trenching ground where it is kept in a deep bunker, the project head of the Indore Bio-CNG plant, Nitesh Tripathi, explained. The waste is then lifted with a grab crane to the pre-treatment area where it is converted to a slurry through the milling technique.
This technology has been imported from Denmark. The slurry is then kept inside digesters where it is processed to make biogas. The preparation of Bio-CNG takes around 20 to 25 days. This biogas contains 55-60% methane. For converting biogas to CNG, 95% methane is required. So, after cleaning and upgradation it gets converted to Bio-CNG. A filling station has also been built for ready CNG where city buses of the municipal corporation can get CNG.
Touted as the largest such facility in Asia by local civic officials, the plant will produce 18,000 kilograms of Bio-CNG daily, which will be used to power IMC's transport buses. It will also produce a large quantity of compost.
"We are planning to convert all the city buses to CNG; this will also help purify the air quality. With a total capacity of 550 MT, the plant will produce CNG with 96 per cent pure methane gas. The plant has been set up on the waste-to-wealth concept of the Prime Minister wherein biogas will be generated through wet waste," Indore Collector Manish Singh said.
The plant will produce around 18,000 Kg Bio-CNG and 100 tonnes of high-quality compost every day. Half of the total fuel produced at the plant will be provided to run public transport vehicles at Rs 5/Kg less than the market rate, while the remaining will be made available in the open market.
The plant was to be built in 18 months but despite the challenges of Covid-19, it was completed in 15 months. Indore Municipal Commissioner Pratibha Pal said, "The points for waste processing are high in this year's Swachh Survekshan (cleanliness survey). So, it will be a milestone for us that we are converting not only from waste to compost but from waste to Bio-CNG. Our claim for the cleanest city in the country is very strong".
"About 1,100 tonnes of garbage is generated every day, about 600 tonnes of it is household wet waste. By using this wet waste, we have set up a Bio-CNG plant on a Public-Private Partnership model with a capacity of 550 MT. The company will pay us Rs 2.5 Crore as premium for next 20 years for taking the garbage to produce CNG," she added.