BIOGAS PROJECT AT MAMALLAPURAM

Bio gas Project at Mamallapuram Runner Up of the BBC World Challenge Contest!

Hand in Hand's waste-to-energy project at Mamallapuram has been chosen as a runner up by BBC's Down to Business World Challenge Series for promoting sustainable livelihoods and enterprise creation across the world. The project was chosen from nearly 640 nominations from across the world. Hand in Hand's Global Advisor, Dr. Percy Barnevik, received the award. The BBC World Challenge competition for sustainable businesses aims to provide practical help for small and medium sized enterprises throughout the world, with a special emphasis on turning sustainable ideas form niche business into mainstream enterprises. BBC ran a special programme series on each of the chosen NGOs and their projects and a world-wide poll was conducted by the BBC and Newsweek magazine.

Hand in Hand's Intervention at Mamallapuram SWM project

Mamallapuram, also known as Mahabalipuram, is a coastal town in the Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. Located 50 kms south of Chennai, it lies on the Coromandel Coast facing the Bay of Bengal.

Mamallapuram is a 7th century port city and was the 2nd capital of the Pallava dynasty who ruled Kancheepuram between the 3rd century to the 9th century. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is home to some of the most magnificent temples and other historic monuments built between the 7th and 9th centuries, including the Shore Temple.

A very popular tourist destination, the town attracts thousands of national and international tourists every year. It has a population of nearly 15,000 and nearly 30,000 people visit the town every day.

Hand in Hand’s intervention:

Hand in Hand initiated its Solid Waste Management project at Mamallapuram in January 2008. Initially, the project was started in one ward covering 380 households and with 3 'green friends' (people engaged in door to door collection, segregation and processing of waste). The project was then expanded to 10 wards in June 2010 and now covers nearly 3600 households including the small businesses in the town. On an average nearly 4 metric tonnes of waste is collected out of which nearly 60% is processed and thereby diverted from the dump yard. The food waste is converted to vermi-compost in a compost park set up exclusively for the purpose. Recyclable wastes are segregated and sold to respective recyclers.

Ban of disposable plastics: 

In addition to the waste management initiative in the town, Hand in Hand also initiated the idea of banning disposable plastics in Mamallapuram along with the town panchayat. The ban came into effect from the 10th of February 2011 with all the stakeholders of the town panchayat extending their

support for the ban. Shops and other small enterprises have replaced plastic bags with net bags and paper cups have replaced plastic ones at tea stalls and small hotels since then.

Bio-methanation plant: 

With the objective of achieving sustainable development through environment friendly technologies and practices, Hand in Hand in association with the Mamallapuram Town Panchayat has also installed a bio-methanation plant to efficiently manage bio-degradable waste, especially food waste, generated by the hotels in Mamallapuram. On an average 3 MT of food waste is generated per day from the hotels in Mamallapuram.

A 100 cu.m bio-methanation plant with a capacity of handling 500 to 800 Kgs of food waste every day has been installed and the food waste converted to methane which is in turn converted to electricity. A 12.5 KVA generator, supplied by Kirloskar and which runs exclusively on bio-gas has also been installed. The generator has a capacity of producing electricity at 10 KW per hour.

Prior to the waste management initiative and installation of the bio-methanation pant, tons of food waste was sent to the dump yard every day. But now, a sustainable, environment friendly solution has been provided to prevent the air and water pollution caused by dumping the food waste. The project also provides sustainable employment opportunity to a handful of underprivileged men and women. The facility at Mamallapuram is also a model to demonstrate the reduced dependency on onventional energy sources as the entire waste management campus uses electricity generated by the plant. The biogas plant is also expected to serve as demonstration unit for the other local bodies to replicate for resource recovery and proper management of organic waste, particularly food waste. The project is of a great benefit to the environment, to the local community and to the larger population of enthusiastic tourists who pour in from all over the world to the historic town.

labels : bio gas production in india, biogas project in mamallapuram , bio gas energy, green energy, tamil nadu energy production, methanation process, green revolution, energy projects in tamil nadu, waste management, waste management in tamil nadu, solid waste management, swm projects