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Options Through Innovations Kerala is a relatively prosperous state in south India, with a growing middle class population. Disposing of waste food in the open is simply not acceptable in this suburban environment as it attracts scavenging animals and the rotting debris fester and stink. There is a huge demand for clean and hygienic disposal of waste from homes, institutions and municipalities. Many local councils operate door-to-door waste collection services, but animals tear open rubbish sacks to get to the food waste and create more litter. In 1994, driven by a desire to see an end to the dumping of waste in public places, BIOTECH was established to focus on ways of managing organic waste to produce alternative sources of energy. Four years later, BIOTECH launched its innovative biogas programme which uses unwanted food waste and other organic waste to produce gas for cooking and, in some cases, also produce electricity. Suresh Mohan of Ambalamukku is one of BIOTECH’s happy customers: ‘My plant is one of the first that BIOTECH built. It is ten years old. It gives me one to two hours of gas a day. I sometimes ask for food waste from the local shops to get more gas. I get more coconuts from my trees when I use the effluent on the roots.’ Waste to Energy Plant in Sreekaryam Market In order to bring about a vast
change to the waste problem in Kerala as also
Around 160 of the domestic plants installed also use the waste from ‘eco-friendly’ toilets. Using night soil in the digester helps manage human waste at source and avoids groundwater contamination. BIOTECH’S use of latrines is considered to be a major breakthrough in combating water and air pollution. Anna Benedict from Kumbalangi island Panchayat, comments, ‘Before we had the plant, all the waste went into the sea. Now that we have a latrine and biogas plant, the waste is treated properly.’ In Kadakal Panchayat (council), BIOTECH has installed the first integrated waste management system of its kind with a capacity of about one tonne of waste per day. The municipal solid waste is manually sorted into wet waste, dry biodegradable waste, glass, plastics and metal. The wet waste goes into a biogas plant and other materials are sold for recycling. Blood and wash water from a local abattoir is also taken by the plant, but a separate digester is used so that the bacteria is optimised for the specific waste type, and a suitable retention time can be established. Introducing this system has paved the way for a new ideas in waste management projects across Kerala. The disposal of food waste and
the production of clean energy are not the only
‘Before I had the plant, I had to walk 30 minutes to dump my waste in the corporation bin. Earlier, one cylinder of LPG lasted 40 days, but now it lasts 70 days. There have been no problems. Four or five of my friends have seen it and also want them,’ says Dolly Ravikumar of NCC Nagar. Households with a biogas plant replace about 30 per cent of LPG or about 44 kg per year, saving Rs 1,200 per annum. This means that the family can pay back their contribution to the cost of the plant in about three years - even faster if they collect extra food waste from nearby shops to increase their biogas production. The effluent or residue in the biogas plant also makes good fertilisers, resulting in higher food production. Domestic Biogas Plant BIOTECH’s successful scheme is a great model in rapidly growing urban areas where the safe disposal of organic waste at source is essential for hygiene and cleanliness, and the value of the gas produced is significant for households and institutions. However, there is perhaps an even greater potential for replicability at the municipal level, where there are serious public health risks from large volumes of organic waste, including pollution of water supplies. If successful, Ashden Award money would be used to publicise the benefits of the programme and to extend the use of the technology to other parts of India. q
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produce
significant amounts of clean energy, BIOTECH has developed biogas
digesters that are not only suitable for domestic use but also for
schools and hostels and even larger municipal sites. To date, BIOTECH
has built and installed 12,000 domestic plants, 220 institutional plants
and 17 municipal plants that use waste from the municipal fish markets
to produce biogas which is then used in a 3kW engine to generate
electricity to light up the market. 
benefits
of BIOTECH’s scheme. The plants also replace the LPG and diesel
equivalent to about 3.7 tonnes/day, or 1,400 tonnes/year which, in turn,
results in saving about 3,700 tonnes/year of CO2, with further reserves
from the reduction in methane production as a result of the uncontrolled
decomposition of waste as also from the transporting of LPG.