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Udupi CMC plans to set up a vermicompost plant and a biomethanation plant
 
The Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) is giving importance to green technology to process the garbage produced in the city.

The CMC is planning to have a vermicompost plant and a biomethanation plant to process biodegradable or green waste. The vermicompost plant will be able to process three tonnes daily.

The city generates about 60 tonnes of garbage per day, which is now being processed at the Solid Waste Management Plant on 22 acres of land in Alevoor village near here.

The vermicompost plant will come up in a portion of land at the Alevoor Solid Waste Management Plant.

B.S. Raghavendra, CMC Environment Engineer, said that the vermicompost plant will have two sheds, each having about 20 pits. Three tonnes of biodegradable waste would be put in one pit daily. The biodegradable waste would require 40 days to 60 days to get processed.

The processed waste would then be removed from each pit after 40-60 days. This vermicompost generated would be used for gardening in the parks of the city.

The vermicompost plant is estimated to cost Rs. 25 lakh and is expected to come up in a couple of months. It would require six workers to look after the plant. “We are thinking of training our civic workers to take care of the plant,” Mr. Raghavendra said.

Nearly 1.5 tonne green waste is generated from the vegetable and fruit markets daily and the CMC plans to use this for the vermicompost plant.

Biomethanation

The biomethanation plant will come up in five cents of land at Beedinagudde here at an estimated cost of Rs. 34 lakh. It will process two tonnes of biodegradable garbage daily. Here, the garbage would first be converted into slurry. This slurry would then be fed into the digester of the plant.

The waste would decompose in two days and start giving out methane. This methane would be passed into a generator, which will produce 10 kW of power per day. A power line will be drawn from this generator and the power generated would be used to light 40-60 street lamps, helping the CMC to save on its electricity bills.

The construction of the biomethanation plant will take about six months and its commissioning will take another two months.

Now, there is no segregation of waste at source in the city.

“If segregation of waste is done at source, we will have about 24 tonnes of biodegradable waste daily,” Mr. Raghavendra said.

Udupi CMC plans to set up vermicompost plant and biomethanation plant