Indian SUV maker Mahindra has inaugurated its all new Bio-CNG plant in Mahindra World City (MWC), Chennai. A joint CSR initiative between Mahindra Research Valley and Mahindra World City Developers Limited, the plant is spread over an area of 1,000 square metres, and aims to create a carbon neutral ecosystem at Mahindra World City, Chennai. The Bio-CNG plant will convert 8 tons of food and kitchen waste generated daily at MWC, into 1000m3 of raw biogas. Further the raw bio gas can be enriched to yield 400kg/day of purified CNG grade fuel which is equivalent to a 200kW power plant. As a byproduct 4 tons of organic fertilizer will be produced per day.
The green energy (bio CNG) can be effectively used to replace CNG as automotive fuel and LPG for cooking purposes as well as to power street lights at MWC. The organic fertilizer will be used by farmers to enhance soil fertility. Overall it will create an end to end carbon neutral ecosystem, wherein even the waste will be utilized for the benefit of the farmers. Hence MWC has rightfully claimed the title of being India’s first food-waste free city. The plant will also work on an aerobic digestion of biomass to produce biogas which can be further enriched to make it an auto grade CNG equivalent. Subsequently, the purified gas will be compressed to 200 bars and stored in cylinders to power automobiles. The manure that will come out from the plant will be utilized as fertilizer or composted with organic material for producing compost fertilizer. In MWC the biogas will be used for generating power and fueling CNG buses and tractors. Further, the power generated will be used for street lighting, buses for free shuttle service and tractor for cultivation.