Governor visits Biogas plant at Bowenpally vegetable market praised by PM Modi

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan visited the biogas plant installed at Dr BR Ambedkar Vegetable Market Yard in Bowenpally, Secunderabad

The plant visit is significant as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann ki Baat Radio aired on January 31 praised the innovative biogas plant set up in the market yard.

CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has developed and patented the “Anaerobic Gas lift Reactor (AGR)” technology for the generation of methane rich biogas and nutrient rich bio manure. The installation of this biogas plant in the market yard is a Swachh Bharath Mission initiative jointly funded by the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Agriculture Marketing, Telangana. Ahuja Engineering Services has executed the project under the technical supervision of CSIR-IICT.

The plant has a capacity to treat 10 tonnes of waste every day generating 400-500 units of electricity, and replace about 30 kg of LPG on a daily basis.

Since its installation, the biogas plant has resulted in the treatment of more than 1,400 tonnes of market and vegetable waste for the generation of 34,000 m3 of biogas which has been converted to 32,000 units of electricity. More than 600 kg of LPG has been replaced and about 700 kilolitres of bio manure was produced from the plant which is made available to the farmers for use in their farms. The average electricity bill of the Agricultural Market Committee has reduced to ₹1.5 lakh from ₹3 lakh per month.

By treating all the waste in-house in a scientifically safe manner and generating green energy from it, the market has set a positive example to other vegetable markets not only in our state but also in other states, said AG Rao, Chief Scientist and Innovator of the technology from CSIR-IICT.

The DBT has sanctioned another project to be set up in 2021–2022 for the installation of five more plants in other market yards of Hyderabad city based on the performance and the efficacy of the plant at Bowenpally. Out of the five biogas plants, one plant of 500 kg/day capacity has already been commissioned at Erragadda vegetable market, while the remaining four plants at Gudimalkapur (5 Ton/day), Gaddiannaram (5 Ton/day) , Alwal (500 kg/day) and Saroornagar (500 kg/day) market yards are underway.

CSIR-IICT is now making efforts to install biogas based CNG plants for the replacement of conventional vehicular fuel with renewable green fuel.