The Refuse Derived Fuel or Waste-to-Fuel Plant at Tura in Meghalaya was inaugurated by Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya on Tuesday in the presence of HE Chang Jae - Bok, Ambassador of South Korea to India.
"Delighted to inaugurate India’s 1st pilot project Chamhana GW-Refuse Derived Fuel Plant at Landfill site, Tura, Meghalaya in the presence of HE Chang Jae Bok, Ambassador of the Republic of South Korea," the chief minister tweeted on Tuesday.
Sangma also said: "Through this #WasteToEnergy project, we envision to transform the municipal waste from Tura into solid fuel briquettes. Hopeful that the replication of this project in other locations will address the challenges of waste management faced in Meghalaya".
This Pilot Project between the Government of Meghalaya, Tura Municipal Board and Chamhana GK, South Korea was finalised in a meeting between Chief Minister of Meghalaya and his team with senior officials of Chamhana Institute of Technology, South Korea led by Dongmin Choi, Chairman, held at Shillong on March 13, 2019.
The Chief Minister and the team convinced by the potential of the technology, after a detailed presentation, agreed in principle to a PPP mode approach, to set up a small scale plant, on pilot project mode, with NO COST to Government of Meghalaya.
The Chief Minister stressed that this approach was primarily to assess practical viability of the concept before deciding on introduction in treating much larger volumes of daily waste generated in Shillong and other major towns.
Accordingly, an agreement was reached to set up a small 35 MT installed capacity plant at Tura, in the existing dump yard site, including management and maintenance of the plant and training of local resources by Chamhana, which will have the rights to market the fuel briquettes generated from conversion of the waste, to recover its capital investment.
The project which was to come up in 2020 was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plant and equipment was finally shipped to India and thereafter by road to Tura in February this year. This current project in Tura has been envisioned as a working model demonstration project (Proof of Concept), to manage the daily incoming municipal garbage of Tura and its adjoining areas.
The core of Chamhana's waste-to-fuel technology lies in the manufacturing of a catalyst WASTEF with the addition of a special patented enzyme.
Organic Waste (Biomass) and all non-recyclables including plastic waste is the primary ingredient used to manufacture WASTEF.
All waste, except for recyclables like metals, glass, wood, e-waste, construction waste etc, first goes through a crusher for rupture and thereafter mixed with the prefabricated WASTEF and enzyme, followed by the consolidation and moulding process with simultaneous moisture control by dryer machine to finally produce clean, green, odourless and smokeless fuel blocks.
The entire process flow is completed through an automated and integrated mechanism, free of manual handling.
The Chief Minister, who has accorded a lot of confidence and hope on the project, is positive that if the technology succeeds, replication of the same will go a long way in resolving the rising challenge of waste management faced in Shillong, Jowai and other major towns of Meghalaya.
(With inputs from NNN)
