Bio-CNG - Turning Waste Into Wealth (E)
About 35% of India’s population lives in Urban areas and generates over 70 million tonnes of waste annually. But, this quantity of waste is rapidly increasing and it is predicted to top 165 million tonnes by 2030. The pace of urbanisation, industrialization and economic growth have resulted in increased municipal solid waste generation. Recovery and recycling from waste is a crucial element of the circular economy of both urban and rural areas and plays a key role in waste management as it reduces the volume of waste, prevents overloading landfills and can be used to produce clean energy. The city of Indore in Madhya Pradesh, with a population of over 31 lakh people, is a shining example on how India can efficiently manage its waste. Indore has also got the distinction of winning the 'cleanest city' tag for five consecutive years in the national survey of the Swachh Survekshan report, published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs which look at some 471 towns and cities, awarding scores for areas such as sustainable sanitation, collection and transportation, processing and disposal of waste. Not resting on its laurels, Indore added another feather in its cap with the installation of Asia’s largest Bio-CNG plant which has a capacity to treat 550 tonnes of wet waste to produce around 17000 kilograms of Compressed Natural Gas through the process of biomethanation. Biomethanation is a process by which organic material is converted into biogas. The Gobar Dhan plant enables operation for 400 city buses and 1,500 small vehicles on Bio-CNG every day. Installations of bio-methanation and waste-to-compost plants are a part of the government of India's Gobardhan Waste to wealth scheme under the Swachh Bharat mission 2.0. The Mission is being implemented under the overarching principles of "waste to wealth" and "circular economy" for maximising resource recovery. So in this episode we will travel to the cleanest city in the country Indore in Madhya Pradesh and visit Asia’s largest Bio-CNG plant. We will talk about the science of Biomethanation and processing of wet waste to produce clean energy. We will exclusively show you the working of this huge plant and shed light on the science behind the process of converting the segregated wet waste through the process of Pre-treatment, Digestion and Vacuum Pressure Swing adsorption technique. This and much more on this episode of Science for a Self-Reliant India only on India science.
