South Korea technology’s Waste to fuel plant ready in Tura

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 15, 2022

The South Korea based technology plant of converting Waste to fuel Plant at Tura, West Garo Hills District will be operational from Tuesday.

Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya will inaugurate the plant in the presence of HE Chang Jae Bok, Ambassador of South Korea to Indian.

This Pilot Project 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 13th March 2019.

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The meeting agreed to set up 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, 35 MT installed capacity plant was agreed to be set up at the existing dump yard site in Tura.

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Management and maintenance of the plant and training of local resources will be done by Chamhana.

Chamhana 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.

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.