Convert waste to energy, urges Pradhan

Pune: Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan has urged urban local bodies, districts, and other authorities to maximise use of municipal, farm, forest, and other waste for conversion to energy, such as power and biogas, to tackle climate change.
Pradhan was speaking at a virtual foundation stone-laying ceremony of a sugar pressmud-to-biogas plant set up by firm Leafniti at Karnataka’s Bagalkot district, using technology provided by Pune-based Praj Industries.The plant, capable of generating 10 tonnes per day (TPD) of compressed biogas (CBG), will use 200 tonnes of sugar pressmud from an adjacent sugar processing plant. The process will also generate natural manure as a by-product.
The plant’s developers have signed a deal with the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) to supply generated biogas in future, expected in the second quarter of 2021. IOCL will buy the generated biogas under the Centre’s Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) strategy, to use cleaner, alternative fuels.
“There is an abundance of biomass all over the country, be it municipal waste, farm waste, or forest waste. But there is a lack of strategy to deal with the waste. We should try to monetise this waste and convert it into wealth in the form of energy, such as this model with sugar mud,” Pradhan said in his address.
He also cited a recent deal between the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and the IOCL to convert waste to energy.
“The agreement between the NDMC and the IOCL, signed yesterday, provides a model for urban local bodies as to how to manage urban waste. There will be a provision for processing 2,500 tonnes of waste per day at the plant,” Pradhan said.