HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, in cooperation with the Telangana State Hotels Association, plans to persuade medium and big hotels and function halls, which generate bio-degradable solid waste in large volumes, to establish bio-digester plants on their premises.
Bio-digester plants produce bio-gas from solid waste. The move will not only help promote the use of non-conventional energy source but also help manage and process the solid waste generated at the micro level.
One such bio-digester plant was inaugurated at Suprabhat Hotel at Habsiguda by mayor Bonthu Rammohan on Tuesday. The plant was designed and developed by scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT). Another plant will come up at the Taj Mahal Hotel at Abids by the end of this month.
To explain the advantages of installing bio-digesters, corporation officials will hold a meeting with the owners of hotels, marriage halls and big apartment complexes, and representatives of resident welfare associations. The GHMC would provide support such as technical assistance to those interested in setting up the plants, the mayor told Express.
The corporation wants major eateries which generate solid wastes to go in for such units. If needed, it will discuss with the government the possibility of giving incentives to those establishing bio-digesters plants in GHMC limits, Rammohan added.
About 4,000 to 4,500 tonnes of solid waste is generated in GHMC limits and 50 pc of it is estimated to be bio-degradable and can be utilised for producing energy through bio-digesters. The GHMC will urge big establishments producing bio-degradable solid waste in large volume to install bio-digesters on their premises.
GHMC officials said bio-digester project converts food waste into renewable energy. The solid waste is first crushed and sent to a collecting tank where slurry is prepared. It is then pumped into large digester chambers. The anaerobic digestion can convert approximately 75 pc of the solids into bio-gas which will suffice to produce 100 cubic metres of gas.