HYDERABAD: Wouldn’t the world be a better place if the waste generated in your homes could fuel your own vehicles? Hyderabad is a few steps away from achieving this.
A detailed project report on setting up treatment plants in the city, which would generate compressed biogas (CBG) from sewage sludge, is being prepared by the Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation Limited (TSREDCO). Once the report is ready, it will be submitted to the State government for approval.
The proposed CBG plants based on sewage sludge will become the second-of-its-kind in the country, the first being located in Haridwar, which uses 40 MLD sewage to generate CBG. Officials said that these plants would use three lakh litres of sewage water every day to produce 2,000 kg CBG.
“We are proposing to set up the biogas plants at Amberpert and Nagole, where sewage treatment plants (STPs) are already available,” said TSREDCO consultant N Kiran.
Kiran, who is preparing the project report, said that the proposed biogas plant would be bigger than the CBG plant located in Haridwar.
How does it work?
Generally, after the treatment of sewage, huge amounts of solid waste persist as sludge. Raw sewage consists of organic and inorganic solids in dissolved and suspended forms.
The sludge would be fed to a closed container, called biogas digester, and it would then produce methane.
At present, over 700 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage is being treated in the city, and close to 1,850 million litres of sewage is generated every day.
Gas from poultry litter
Meanwhile, Solika Energy, a private firm, set up the first CBG plant that generates gas from poultry litter, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
“We have tied up with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) to establish the plant. CBG may be available at the IOCL outlet in Attapur by the end of this month,” Himadeep Nallavadla, promoter of Solika Energy told Express. Solika’s compressed biogas plant capacity is 2.4 tonnes.
“We are currently in the process of setting up our second CBG plant in the State. This project is expected to have a CBG production capacity of 3.6 tonnes per day,” said Himadeep.
Second-of-its-kind in the country
The proposed CBG plants will become the second-of-its-kind in the country, the first being located in Haridwar, which uses 40 MLD sewage to generate CBG.
Officials said that these plants would use three lakh litres of sewage every day to produce 2,000 kg CBG. They will be bigger than the Haridwar plant