RANCHI: In a first of its kind initiative, food leftovers at hostels and messes in Birla Institute of Technology, Sindri, will not be simply dumped as waste. Instead, this will be utilised for generating biogas for cooking, by setting up a plant in the campuses of leading engineering colleges in Jharkhand.
This is an initiative of five B Tech students, who launched a start-up called ‘Urja Viable Solutions’ with an eye on generating energy from waste as part of a sustainable development initiative.
It was founded by Kumar Aryan, Adarsh Tirkey, Geet Kumar, Nitish Kumar and Raj Kumar Singh. All are BIT Sindri students.
The first project was launched by these students in their college. Though this was conceived a year ago, groundwork including team constitution took some time.
According to Aryan, the biogas plant with a capacity of treating 100 kg of waste per day will be set up by January.
Equipment is being developed in Bengaluru. From 100 kg of waste, 8 kg of biogas will be produced, which will used for cooking. Aryan said more such plants will be set up in other hostels to reduce dependency on LPG.
Tirkey said scarcity of fossil fuel has triggered the idea.
“Demand of energy is increasing exponentially along with the scarcity of fossil fuels. Therefore, we should start finding alternative sources of energy and save the existing ones. In future, we have to switch to renewable energy. Our start-up is mainly focused on the renewable energy sector,” he said.
“Although this biogas plant is the first project of our company, we will gradually move towards renewable energy production as a second step, with the ultimate objective of ensuring zero waste and an eco-friendly BIT,” Tirkey added.
Rs 9 lakh sanctioned
The Head of the Department of Production Engineering said the start-up is sponsored by BIT Sindri Alumni Association. A fund of Rs 9 lakh has already been approved.