Is it too early to get energised about bio fuel, or has the time come for transformation to clean energy?
To manage the ever-increasing volume of municipal solid waste and the surpassing capacity of waste landfill site in the Valley, converting waste to energy and reaping benefits of it is the need of the hour in order to manage garbage sustainably. The recent KMC project garnered significant attention for its sustainable approach to waste management in the Valley. Whether this project will be a precursor to similar projects or is it a one-time initiative on the authority’s part is yet to be seen.
KMC’s pilot project, officially inaugurated on June 27 this year, showed the possibility and feasibility of converting waste to energy in Kathmandu’s weather — weather being the deciding factor with required temperature to turn waste to energy being as high as 37 degree Celsius — as it produced 14 KWs of electricity from Biomethanation Plant in Teku. The first sample production of electricity was done in the latter half of 2016. The project was commenced under the Integrated Sustainable Solid Waste Management Project (ISSWMP) in partnership with Himalayan Alliance on Climate Change and financial support from the European Union with a total investment of Rs 1.82 crores. The Solid Waste Management Act 2011 divided waste into two categories — organic and inorganic. The KMC project uses organic waste. Bishwa Mani Gyawali, Executive Director of Solid Waste Management Technical Support Centre under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, stressed that segregation of these two types of waste from household level and making compost from organic and reusing or recycling the inorganic ones is the most effective way of waste management. However, for the management of large volume of municipal solid waste, proper sustainable mechanisms such as waste-to-energy must be implemented. Basanta Acharya, Information Officer at Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) stressed that KMC alone cannot operate on large scales projects and that the private sector too must be involved.
Gyawali informed, “As per the data collected from the municipalities, the Valley generates 1,000 tonnes of solid waste every day. 70 per cent of the Valley’s trash is dumped to Sisdole landfill site of Nuwakot district.” Acharya added, “The current practice using the dumping method to manage waste in Nepal is conservative and harmful. There has to be a scientific and systematic approach towards waste management.”
Large biogas plants
Although the production of energy from waste has a long history on a domestic level in Nepal, the use of large-scale plant for the production of bio-fuel is of recent development. Prakash Aryal, Senior Officer of Biogas Energy at Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC), said, “Though Nepal has significant experience in domestic biogas production, large scale biogas projects started only in 2014 with the support of World Bank.” He expressed that the constraint of resources was/is the main hurdle in Nepal. According to Ram Prasad Dhital, Executive Director, AEPC, the centre has initiated large scale biogas projects in urban and semi-urban areas of Nepal with the financial support from World Bank under Scaling up Renewable Energy Programme. According to the project, entrepreneurs are provided with 40 per cent of subsidy (World Bank’s 20 per cent, Nepal government’s 20 per cent) for initiating a single biogas plant. According to him, under the project, 46 large biogas plants have completed construction, 136 have completed Detailed Project Report (DPR) and among them 108 are under construction. According to Dhital, Bhairahawa based bio gas plant is the largest biogas plant of Nepal with a capacity of 3,700 cubic metres that produces one bullet worth of LPG per day. Large scale biogas plants in Nepal are institutional, commercial and community based. Besides large scale biogas plants, four lakhs domestic biogas plants are built so far. Aryal shared, “Gobar Gas Plant is used in domestic production of biogas and large biogas plant are based on Modified Gobar Gas plant in Nepal.”
Waste-to-energy prospective
Transforming waste to energy saves environment from harmful green house gases produced from waste such as methane and carbon dioxide; produces clean energy, in effect, keeps the city clean. “Some dumping sites fall under residential complexes and the residents of course raise objections. Therefore, not just for better management but for the overall well-being of communities and its people it is wise to convert waste to energy in a sustainable manner,” stressed Aryal.
According to him, the Nepali market has always been vulnerable or dependent on the import and supply market especially for fuel. The economic blockade in 2015 highlighted Nepal’s vulnerability furthermore. The dependent market, increasing livestock farms and rapid urbanisation among other factors demand the use of biogas in Nepal. He expressed, “Although biogas is not a lucrative sector as of now in terms of commercial usage, reducing import of gasoline to some extent would benefit Nepal at large.” He said that depending on import for even basic amenities like cooking gas is hazardous to the Nepali market. Therefore, entrepreneurs and private investors should be encouraged to produce biogas on a larger scale in Nepal.
Projects in the pipeline
Maha Prasad Adhikari, Chief Executive Director, Investment Board Nepal (IBN), said that to transform waste to energy in a systematic and modern way and to convert waste to wealth, Integrated Solid Waste Management Project (ISWMP) was envisioned in Nepal. Through public-private partnership approach, ISWMP is categorised into three packages in which the first package will be run by Nepwaste (a joint venture of Finnish Compunication Oy and The Organic Village, Nepal) with Rs six billion investment. The second and third packages are awarded to Clean Valley Company Pvt Ltd (a joint venture of BVG, Greenfield Waste Management Company and Kryss International) with Rs two billion investment. As per a source at IBN, the first package will operate in nine municipalities such as Tarakeshwor, Tokha, Budhanilkantha, Gokarneshwor, Nagarjun, Chandragiri, Kageshwori-Manohara, Sankarapur and Dakshinkali including KMC whereas the second and third packages will serve seven municipalities such as Kirtipur, Godawari, Mahalaxmi, Bhaktapur Suryabinayak, Madhyapur, Changunarayan and one Lalitpur Sub-Metopolitan City. The officials of IBN informed that the first package will generate 5-7 MWs of electricity, organic fertiliser and
Refuse-Derive Fuel (RDF) and Solid Recovered Fuel from 800 metric tonnes of waste whereas the second and third packages will produce natural gas, compost, RDF, biomethane, petroleum from plastic and organic fertilisers.
Formalising the system of waste collection is also one of the aims of ISWMP. Gyawali informed that 40 per cent of the municipal solid waste is collected by municipalities and 60 per cent by private entities. He said that there are about 55-60 private waste collecting entities in the Valley. The IBN officials said that the project will transform the informal sector of waste collection into a formal one and assure regular service of household waste collection.
Although the project was proposed earlier — in April 2009, the implementation of the project is yet to start. “However, the first package of ISWMP project is in its final stage of negotiation. The project will start as soon as the negotiations are finalised,” said Adhikari
How feasible is it?
Gyawali said that transforming solid waste to energy entails high temperature conditions and that it is too early to favour biogas production in Nepal. Rabin Man Shrestha, Chief Officer, Environment Management Division of KMC, shared, “ISSWMP was a test project we conducted. We are still in the trial phase to be able to judge the feasibility and sustainability of the project and whether it can be replicated in a larger scale on a greater number.”
A version of this article appears in print on July 09, 2017 of The Himalayan Times.
Source: The Himalayan Times
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