Leading natural gas company GAIL (India) will soon ink a pact with Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) to convert wet waste into biogas, an environment-friendly fuel, by September 2020.

RMC commissioner Manoj Kumar confirmed that the proposal of GAIL (India) had been sent to state urban development department for a final nod to pave the way for the signing of the MoU.

“Recycling of wet (green) waste is a cause of concern for us. We have received a proposal from GAIL (India) Limited to set up a compressed biogas (CBG) plant which would manufacture biogas for use in compressed natural gas (CNG) stations for automobile fuels and piped natural gas (PNG) for domestic fuel. The proposal is good as we stand to save between Rs 30,000 and Rs 40,000 a month, which otherwise is spent in transporting waste. We hope to get a nod from the urban development department soon,” the commissioner said.

The commissioner further said that GAIL (India) would recycle the wet waste into biogas which forms the bulk of waste generated in the capital.

“We generate over 300 tonnes of wet waste out of over 550 tonnes daily. The rest of the waste includes debris from construction and demolition, sludge and sewage, and dry waste. It would solve a great deal of our problem in recycling of the waste. We will soon fix an agency to recycle construction and demolition waste into paver blocks and plastic waste into roads,” added Kumar.

Wet waste, which is biodegradable, includes a host of items from everyday life including raw and cooked kitchen leftovers and peels, wilted flowers, fruits and others.

As of now, the waste is dumped in Jhiri, around 15km from Ranchi.

A source in the RMC said that GAIL had even agreed to set up the compressed biogas (CBG) plant at Jhiri and proposed to set up a biogas station at Edalhatu.

CBG, popularly dubbed the “fuel of the future”, can replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial areas, given the abundant biomass availability within the country.

“CBG is purified and compressed biogas, produced through a process of anaerobic decomposition from waste and a host of biomass sources such as agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud and the spent wash of distilleries, sewage water, municipal solid waste, biodegradable fractions of industrial waste,” the source said.

“CBG has properties similar to CNG and can be used as green fuel in vehicles, industrial and commercial sectors along with CNG.” He added that GAIL officials had seen the sites at Jhiri, the landfill, and Edalhatu, the proposed place for the biogas plant.