Subsidy for biogas plants

Subsidy for biogas plants: CM

Thiruvananthapuram 14-10-2011: Half of the total expense for installing biogas plants at homes will be given as subsidy by the Government, said CM. He was releasing the 12^th Project Policy Paper of Grama Panchayath Association here.
These biogas projects are installed as part of the Garbage Free Kerala initiative. Under this only 25% o the total cost needs to be paid by the consumer. The rest 25% will be given by the local self governing bodies and the rest 50% by the Government.
75% grant will be given to the Garbage treatment plants run by Panchayaths. A maximum of 35 lakhs can be given.
The order regarding the hike in the honorarium of Panchayath members will be issued within a week, said CM.
The Policy paper was received by Minister K C Joseph from CM. Ministers K P Mohanan, V. S Sivakumar and Planning Board Member CP John also spoke at the occasion.

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Biogas in a Bottle

 Biogas in a Bottle

Two technology students in India could be on to a winning idea. Inspired by our Award winners, ARTI in India who turn kitchen waste into biogas for cooking, these students want to develop the technology to store biogas in cylinders as an affordable substitute for LPG. Whilst studying at the Indian Institute of IT, Design and Manufacturing in Madras, they’ve already attracted development funds from angel investors to help them get closer to making this a reality. Not even content with this, they have their sights set on becoming social entrepreneurs using other green technology ideas. We’ll certainly be watching with interest over the coming months to see how they get on.

(Image: ARTI in India build household biogas plants that create fuel from spoilt food)

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CHENNAI, INDIA: Disappointed with galloping LPG prices burning your pockets? Don't worry. Two students from IIIT DM (Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing), Kancheepuram, an institution incubated by IIT Madras campus, have come up with a cost-effective bottled biogas fuel which not only acts as a substitute for your cooking gas but also helps manage kitchen waste.

Biofuels As Future Fuels (BAFF), a project by Kunal Bhambhani and Swagat Sharma who are on a mission to bring in a bottled biogas while keeping the environment clean, has already drawn the attention of many.

“The inspiration behind the BAFF was the amount of waste we noticed in Indian cities. A large chunk of the waste is coming from our kitchens,” say Kunal and Swagat. “We were aware of various gobar gas projects initiated by the government in rural areas, but we want to develop something on that lines for the urban India too.”

But what inspired them the most was ARTI, an Ashden award winning technology in Pune that uses kitchen waste to run biogas plant. “We thought a step ahead and we wanted to use the idea to produce a bottled biogas, which acts as a substitute for cooking cylinder.”

The new cylinder will help the cities remain clean, as it uses the waste from vegetable markets, hotels and residential areas.

It may take a while to make their dream a reality, as a compression technology has to be built to use the gas in a compressed form as a substitute for LPG cylinder. But they assure that the new cylinder will be priced Rs. 100 less than the existing price of the gas cylinders.

Since they want to start a manufacturing unit of household gas cylinders with the compression technology, the initial capital is going to be huge. However, the duo did not have to sweat it out to raise funds. A few angel investors came forward to help them. They will provide a total of Rs. 60 lakhs in two tranches -- Rs. 15 lakh initially, and Rs. 45 lakh later to market the product.


“There is no point in building a prototype as it is not a small machine. So, we plan to have an experimental set up and then go for a proper investment of Rs. 2 crore and start manufacturing compressed gas,” they explain.

Kunal and Swagat have no plans to sell the idea to anyone. “It's our idea and both of us are motivated to make this a reality. We do not want to remain just technologists. We want to be social entrepreneurs and bring about a positive change in the society. We are not just getting rid of the waste but we create renewable energy too. Ours is a green product.”

They are not just going to be satisfied with just one product. “We do not want to restrict ourselves to just biogas alone. We want to produce many more green products. Biogas is only one of them,” they say.

“We know that biofuel and biodiesel also have the potential. That is why we have named our product, BAFF (Biofuel as Future Fuel). We want to see the logo of BAFF all over India like that of Indian Oil. That is our dream.”

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Treading the eco-friendly path

Non-conventional: Ramanamma working at the biogas plant at her home. -Photo: KV Poornachandra Kumar

It took the implementation of an idea that occurred as a flash in K.Ramanamma that resulted in saving of Rs.700 in terms of firewood or Rs.900 in terms of LPG consumption every month. More than that, the path she has embarked on has helped the Mother Earth go green!

Ramanamma, wife of K. Marappa Reddy, cooks midday meals for school children of Diguva Chennamarri in Kurabalakota Mandal of Chittoor district. The arduous task of procuring firewood from the nearby woods and cooking food for 30-40 children made her think of an alternative. The biogas plant sanctioned to her by NABARD in her individual capacity was put to use for the community purpose. As she has two cows and 80 sheep at her barn, the dung thus generated started going into the biogas plant, leaving her with virtually no ‘physical ordeal' to go in search of fuel. She is happily able to cook rice and curry with biogas.

As natural fallout, all the remaining 29 households got 26 biogas plants and three solar cookers installed, thus making the village tread the eco-friendly route. Though the semi-literate Ramanamma could not go beyond the direct benefits, Non-conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NEDCAP) authorities put the reduction of carbon dioxide emission per year at a whopping 86 tonnes, saving of firewood at 60 tonnes and LPG at 5 tonnes for the village. “The biogas plants alone generate organic fertilizer weighing 450 tonnes per year”, NEDCAP District Manager C.B. Jagadeeswara Reddy told The Hindu .

When so much can happen from an innocent woman's initiative, why cannot the State concentrate on alternative sources of energy, especially in the rural areas where cow dung and sunshine are abundant? Every Panchayat school has a kitchen and enough space to stack fuel (firewood).

If biogas plants are built there, cooking will be hassle-free and women engaged in the task can actually see more savings, apart from cutting environmental cost. For those who strain their eyebrows on how and where from to fetch cow dung, Ramanamma says: “Simple. Everybody sells excess cow dung for Rs.1,000 per tractor load and Rs.10 per thatta (basin). The State can procure at a much lesser cost”.

Are the policymakers and administrators listening?

Ramanamma switches to biogas plant for cooking midday meal, spurring the remaining 29 households of the village to follow suit

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Ecosan biogas plant set up at Manjeri

Ecological sanitation plant to use toilet effluents

An ecological sanitation (Ecosan) biogas plant, based on toilet effluents, is being set up at the District General Hospital at Manjeri near here.

Hospital Superintendent A.P. Parvathi said here on Sunday that the plant was ready for commissioning.

The plant will make use of the toilet effluents and food wastes generated at the hospital.

The plant had been set up at a cost of Rs.13 lakh. Funds had been provided from the MP's local area development fund by the then MP, P.V. Abdul Wahab, the Hospital Development Council, and the district panchayat. The plant had been constructed by the Integrated Rural Technology Centre (IRTC), Mundur, a State government-accredited agency, under the supervision of Bio-Energy Systems, a Kozhikode-based agency with technical expertise in ecosan plants.

The model had been done in the Non-Conventional Energy Development Agency (NEDA) model, recognized by the Central government.

The plant would be below ground level, and the roof could be used for parking or gardening. The plant will run on a trial basis for a month, Dr. Parvathi said.

The IRTC will oversee the functioning for three years. The plant would help reduce the problem of waste disposal at the hospital by 85 per cent, she said.

The plant would make septic tanks redundant. A similar plant would soon be set up at the old block of the General Hospital, she said.

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