After successfully commissioning four out of the seven biogas plants, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has sought an official nod from the Maharashtra Electricity Commission (MERC) for a generic tariff for the power generated from the plants.
Currently, four out of the seven proposed plants are in operation mode in various parts of the twin-city having a collective capacity of recycling wet garbage to biogas averaging 50-tonne per day (TPD), which can generate 275 kilovolt-amps (kVA) electricity during 100 per cent input of property segregated waste.
The total recycling capacity of all the seven plants is pegged at 100 TPD, which can generate 575 kVA electricity. The MBMC has adopted the technology developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) having a good potential for energy generation through bio-methanation for an eco-friendly disposal of wet waste. The plant decomposes organic waste and converts into methane. The gas is injected into a generator to produce electricity.
“These biogas plants are part of our objective to decentralise the waste managing system which not only ensures a significant reduction in quantum of wet waste ferried to the unified process plant, but is also an asset in sustainable energy transition,” said civic chief Sanjay Katkar while appealing citizens to segregate daily household garbage at source, which will prove to be an important contribution for the success of the much-needed project.
At present, the generating energy used to meet the electrical power needs of the four plants. After an approval from the MERC, the extra quantum of energy can be transmitted to the grid of the service provider in exchange for credits in future billings of power consumed at other administrative units of the MBMC under the gross metering model.
“This is our modest bid to take energy efficiency to the next level. The energy generated from the biogas plants will not only reduce expenditure towards monthly electricity bills but the additional power transmitted to the power grid of the service provider will save money spent from the civic kitty,” said deputy civic chief Kalpita Pimple. Apart from the 550 tonne of garbage, an additional quantity of more than 10 tonne is generated by the twin-city in the form of industrial and biomedical waste.
Fuel of the future
The MBMC also has an option of converting the wet into compressed bio gas (CBG) – the fuel of the future – which has calorific value and other properties similar to compressed natural gas (CNG) and hence can be efficiently utilised as a green renewable fuel in automotive, industrial and commercial areas.
Decentralisation benefits
The de-centralisation move will result in fuel saving owing to reduction in the transportation cost by limiting the trips of trucks, which ferry 100 TPD garbage by travelling a distance of nearly 9km to reach the process plant in Uttan. Each truck carries 3 tonne of waste and it takes around 33 trips to ferry 100 TPD garbage.
