KOCHI: The Kochi police probe into the Brahmapuram fire outbreak has revealed that the refuse-derived fuel (RDF) generated from bio-mining at the waste yard has few takers due to its poor quality and other feasibility issues, which has led to its heavy accumulation. This was stated in a report filed by City Commissioner K Sethu Raman to the chief secretary on March 27.
The report suggested expediting bio-mining of legacy waste at the site to prevent future fires. The yard is estimated to contain 5.51 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste collected over 10-15 years spread across 40.82 acres of land.
The total area containing legacy waste is divided into seven sectors, of which bio-mining has been completed in four sectors. One sector comprises waste from the 2018 floods which cannot be bio-mined. Sector one is the largest with around 2.5 lakh cubic metres of waste that is yet to be bio-mined.
Arash Meenakshi Envirocare Pvt Ltd, which received a sub-contract from Zonta Infratech for bio-mining, claims it has mined 1,48,999 cubic metres of legacy waste at the yard. Out of this, it derived 1,05,400 cubic metres of RDF (60% of total), while rejects constitute 28,036 cubic metres (30%) and 13,975 cubic metres comprise good earth (10%). This is despite the mandate that rejects should not be more than 10% of the total.
Unfortunately, almost all of the RDF is lying in the dump as only 1,500 cubic metres of RDF is bailed and stored. During the recent fire, nearly 80% of bailed RDF was burnt and only 60 cubic metres of RDF could be transported to a cement factory in Tamil Nadu.
“Contrary to expectations, bio-manned RDF is not sourced by cement factories. The Malabar Cements plant in Palakkad is the only cement manufacturing unit in Kerala. But they do not have the required furnace and shredder machines. Cement factories in neighbouring states don’t source the RDF from Brahmapuram because it is of inferior quality and not shredded. Moreover, they get adequate supply from their own states. Even if they are willing to take RDF from the plant, the suppliers have to bear a huge cost for each cubic metre of RDF,” the report said.
The police report also cites feasibility issues in removing RDF from the plant. “The subcontractor claimed that he is paid Rs 450 by Zonta Infratech for biomining a cubic metre of legacy waste which includes Rs 320 for bio-mining activities and Rs 125 for bailing. Ironically, the subcontractor claimed that they spent Rs 1,500 per tonne to a cement factory in Tamil Nadu for burning it and Rs 2,200 per tonne to transport it to the cement factory in Tamil Nadu which is more than 500km away. In effect, it costs no less than `3,700 per cubic metre, which is not economical,” the report read.
The bio-mining activities are carried out with the help of two machines which are German and Belgium made, worth Rs 1.75 crore each. Each machine has a capacity of bio-mining 60 cubic metre of waste. On a typical day 10-hour day, each machine can mine around 1,200 cubic metres of waste every day.
Non-biodegradable waste
The non-biodegradable waste at Brahmapuram is handled by Bharath Traders. Each day, around 120-130 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste arrives at the plant.
The company claims that it was able to retrieve 1,383 tonnes of waste for recycling last year, for which it paid Rs 24.48 lakh to the Kochi corporation. The difficulty is that out of 120-130 tonnes of non-biodegradable waste that arrives at the plant daily, only five tonnes are recycled.
Bio-degradable waste
Star Construction Ltd is tasked with processing bio-degradable waste using effective microorganism composting technology. The company claims that it processed around 6,000 tonnes of organic waste, which produced around 200 tonnes of compost. In effect, 90% of waste gets dumped at the site, the report said.
‘Expedite bio-mining of legacy waste’
The report filed by City Commissioner K Sethu Raman to the chief secretary suggested expediting bio-mining of legacy waste to prevent future fires. The yard is estimated to contain 5.51 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste collected over 10-15 years spread across 40.82 acres of land
