MANGALURU: In a first for Karnataka, the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has commissioned a dry waste-to-fuel pellet manufacturing plant at Kemral near Mangaluru, converting non-recyclable waste into an alternative industrial fuel and reducing the need to transport such waste hundreds of kilometres for disposal.
The facility gives commercial value to waste that was earlier considered unusable, including discarded clothes, footwear, single-use plastics and other non-recyclable dry waste, by processing it into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) pellets for use in industrial boilers. The project was commissioned a fortnight ago under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).
Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat CEO Narwade Vinayak Karbhari said the project was conceived after a study visit to a similar plant in Maharashtra.
Around Rs 50 lakh has been spent on machinery, including a pulveriser and pelletiser, while the existing dry waste processing shed at Kemral was upgraded for the facility.
High-calorific pellets can replace coal, says ZP CEO
“The plant can process any RDF waste by pulverising it and converting it into high-calorific-value pellets that can replace coal in industrial boilers,” the ZP CEO said. To ensure assured offtake, the Zilla Panchayat has signed an agreement with the machinery supplier, a Pune-based company, which will buy back the pellets at Rs 5 per kg once every month.
The pilot plant has a processing capacity of two tonnes a day and is expected to produce around 50 tonnes of pellets a month if operated for 25 days. It currently processes waste collected from the Yedapadavu Material Recovery Facility (MRF), which generates nearly 50 tonnes of dry waste every month.
The unit is managed by the Kordabbu Sanjeevini Gram Panchayat Level Federation under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, providing employment to five persons.
Dakshina Kannada currently has four MRFs at Yedapadavu, Ujire, Kedambady and Narikombu, with a combined dry waste handling capacity of 31 tonnes a day. About half of this waste consists of RDF material, indicating the need for additional pellet plants if the pilot proves successful.
Until now, non-recyclable waste from these MRFs was transported cement factories in Belagavi and Kalburgi for co-processing, costing around Rs 48,000 per truckload. Karbhari said the Kemral plant would substantially cut transportation costs while promoting scientific waste management, reducing dependence on fossil fuels.