TIRUCHY: Eyeing an opportunity to ensure better processing of waste and generate income at the same time, the city corporation is planning to set up a bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) plant at the reclaimed Ariyamangalam dump yard, officials said.
Processing the wet waste from its micro composting centres, the natural gas generated would be made available to commercial establishments like hotels as cooking gas, they said and added that a master plan for the project would be prepared soon.
On the bio-CNG plant plan, Corporation Commissioner R Vaithinathan said it is currently in the early stages and added that once implemented it would be a beneficial project for the city. While a corporation official said a decision is yet to be made on the quantum of wet waste that would be sent to the bio-CNG plant and how much would be set aside for compost generation, the civic body roughly generates about 600 tonnes of compost through its 40 micro composting centres every month.
With plans on to expand the corporation limits to 100 wards from the current 65, the need for more waste processing options like a bio-CNG plant becomes more significant. On setting up the plant in Ariyamangalam, a corporation planning officer said, “We have about 47 acres of land there. Currently, bio-mining is under way there which once served as a dump yard.
There are plans to consider multiple projects on the parcel of land after bio-mining is completed; the CNG plant is one of them." Sources said that the corporation plans to generate good revenue by selling the processed CNG to hotels where they can use it as cooking gas and added that the project is likely to kick off this year itself.