1.2 kg cooking gas from 2 kg kitchen wastes a day
Mysore, May 21 (KMC)- For the urbanites facing energy crisis, producing renewable energy is the only solution. This can be done by producing biogas using kitchen wastes; thus solving two other major problems — overcoming the scarcity of LPG and disposal of solid wastes.
With merely two kgs of kitchen waste a day, your biogas unit, installed at a very affordable cost, can produce enough biogas for cooking at least for three hours a day. Thus, you have not only saved the trouble of disposing the wastes but also have reduced LPG consumption. Moreover, the kitchen waste slurry released after producing biogas can be used as manure for your kitchen garden.
The quantum of production and its profits are directly proportional to the capacity of biogas plant. If installed in institutions wh-ere the quantity of organic wastes is more, the unit will prove to be more beneficial.
Take for example the Biogas Unit newly- installed at K.R. Hospital at a cost of Rs. 1.20 lakh. It uses kitchen wastes of Nursing Students’ Hostel. The unit, installed by National College of Engineering’s Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (NIE-CREST), is the first of its kind in city at an institutional level.
"Taking cue from the multipronged beneficial project, the JSS Institutions have commenced work on installing 2 Biogas Units at Suttur Mutt, each of 100 kgs capacity," disclosed Shamsundar, Director of NIE-CREST and added that the Administrative Training Institute (ATI) too would install a biogas unit at their campus in city in a month's time.
K.R. Hospital project is an initiative undertaken by its Medical Superintendent Dr. Geetha Avadhani, assisted by Prof. Jagannath of ATI, under Karnataka State Urban and Rural Development Pro-gramme with technical know how provided by engineer Shamsundar. Cost of annual maintenance (to ensure that organic wastes are segregated from non-biodegradable wastes) is sponsored by R.N. Murthy of Rangarao & Sons.
The K.R. Hospital biogas unit has a capacity of 20 kgs of kitchen waste a day, generating 3 cubic metre of biogas per day, which is equivalent to 1.2 kgs of LPG. A month's biogas generation would equal 36 kgs; more than two LPG domestic cylinders.
As per the current market rate of Rs. 63 per kg of LPG, a month’s biogas production would fetch Rs. 2,280. The LPG, an exhaustible form of fossil fuel, would surely become dearer in the coming days. Taking into account the quantity of manure produced by the biogas unit (say about Rs. 500 a month), the initial installation cost of Rs. 1.20 lakh will be recovered in four years’ time, based on the calculations made by Shamsundar.
"Commercial benefits apart, the environmental advantages of such products are immense and cannot be calculated in terms of money," Shamsundar said.
"The biogas unit can also be used to generate electricity by attaching a generator to it," Shamsundar said and added that the methane gas generated by the biogas unit, if purified and compressed, will yield Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), a popular form of fuel used in the public transport vehicles in Delhi to reduce the level of air pollution.
It may be recalled that the price of LPG had been more than doubled by the Petroleum Ministry last Wednesday.
Shamsundar said that NIE-CREST was ready to provide assistance in installing such biogas units at institutional level, even up to 5000 kg per day capacity. Shamsundar can be contacted at his office in NIE-CREST, Manandavady road on Ph: 4250502 or 4004914 or e-mail:
Courtesy : Star Of Mysore