Mahindra lines up 8 bio-CNG plants for APP Madhusudhan Reddy

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh will soon be a home to eight bio-CNG plants that use organic waste as raw material for producing the green fuel as well as bio-fertiliser if plans of a Mahindra group company bear fruit.

Mahindra Powerol, part of $19-billion Mahindra group, is gearing up to establish these plants at different cities and towns including the famous temple town of Tirupati and also at Madanapalle, both in Chittoor district, once
it gets final nod from the AP government.

"We are taking up bio-CNG in Andhra Pradesh in a big way. We entered into a contract with the AP government on this. AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu saw our technology which was on display at Swachh Bharat exhibition, and invited us to set up the plants in his state.

We will start establishing these eight plants after we formally sign a final agreement with the government there," P Palaniappan, Business Head, Mahindra Powerol, told The Hans India recently. Each of the plants requires Rs 5 to 6 crore investment, but the outlay will depend on the capacity of the respective plant.

The production capacity varies from 10 to 40 tonne per day with the plant at Tirupati having highest capacity.

Organic waste like food waste is used as input for the plants which produce bio-CNG (compressed natural gas). The company will handle marketing of the gas as well. “We will invest on the plant, collect the waste on our own and produce the fuel,” he said, adding that even poultry droppings and cow dung could be used as raw material.

The company has already established a 50-tonne capacity plant at Malur near Benguluru on its own to demonstrate the effective of the technology which was developed in-house. Using food waste and poultry droppings, the plant, which went on stream in June this year, produces 1,200 kg of bio-CNG and 15 tonnes bio-fertiliser a day.

For Mahindra group, it installed plants at Mahindra Research Valley (10 tonne a day) in Chennai and Mahindra’s tractor and commercial vehicle plant (1 tonne) at Zaheerabad in Telangana. Recently, the company, which implements these projects under Mahindra Waste to Energy Solutions Limited, also bagged a contract from Indore to establish a plant there. “Through the Bengaluru plant, we showcase to the world that we could do it. We will do it in a big in AP now,” he said.

According to him, biomass, manure, sewage waste, municipal waste, green waste, plant material and harvest residues can also be used for producing biogas. “Biogas technology provides an alternate source of energy in India, and is hailed as an archetypal appropriate technology that meets the basic need for cooking fuel in rural and urban areas,” he explained.