The Gorai landfill project is a part of overall Waste Management Scheme which envisages conversion of about 80 hectares of land including the dumping ground at Gorai and small portions of land in Mulund and Deonar dumping grounds into green areas for the residents of the city. The present dumping rate at which garbage is disposed at the site is 1700 tonnes/day. The overall Waste Management strategy for treatment and disposal will focus on environment friendly technologies including Composting and Biomethanization. Gorai landfill has caused serious problems in the past such as odour nuisance, which has led to environmental damage in Gorai and areas adjoining Gorai. Therefore as per the court orders it was supposed to be closed by the end of the year 2007 .

Source: TCE

The site is presently under the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and it has contracted out the closure of the dumping site. MCGM has also contracted the construction of landfill gas recovery system.

Waste Characteristics

The project aims to recover landfill gas at the site in order to reduce methane emissions. This will significantly help to reduce the uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This is the first project of landfill gas to energy conversion in operation in India . TCE Consulting Engineers Ltd – along with their US partner, URS, is developing this landfill project in Maharashtra under the M2M partnership. The landfill is estimated to accommodate a total of around 6 million tonnes of waste. The expected methane recovery would range from 1840 m 3 / hr. to 710m3/hr from year 2008 to 2027 respectively. The expected project cost is in the range of Rs.25-30 Crores ($ 5-6 million); assuming saving due to grid power purchase and considering present tariff of Rs.2.80/kwh and 10% cost escalation per year, the payback period is about 2 years.

The project has potential to reduce 415 million m3 of methane emission to atmosphere during 20 years of plant operation.

Source: TCE

It has been proposed that the gas obtained from the landfill would be used for power generation as there is no direct user of gas in the nearby area. The amount of power generated has been estimated from 2MW to 6MW on continuous basis from 2008-2028

Case Study: Biogas Production in the Indian Dairy Sector

In Uttar Pradesh, USAID is working with community-run 'Gaushalas' (old-age homes for non-productive, scrub cattle) to construct biogas plants for the conversion of cattle waste to thermal and electrical energy. This energy will be provided to the community on a user-fee basis to run micro-enterprises such as a milk-chilling plant and flour mill and to power irrigation systems and the delivery of drinking water. The waste slurry will be used as high quality organic compost.

Three Gaushalas have been selected, beneficiary groups identified for energy off-take, blueprints for the plants developed through a multi-stakeholder participatory process, and an application made to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India for a subsidy. Challenges remain though, including the development of a larger market for organic compost, leveraging additional funds to support energy-utilizing entrepreneurial activities, and handling the seasonal demand for energy. The programme also targets the dairy industry for the capture and use of methane gas. Three dairies located in the state of Maharashtra, with diverse management structures, have been identified for piloting anaerobic digestion. They are the Warana Milk Cooperative near Kolhapur, Bharat Agro Industries Federation near Pune and Chitale Dairy near Sangli. They represent the cooperative, research and development, and private sector dairies, respectively. In addition to electricity generation, the project will help address a cattle waste problem and reduce pollution levels in dairy wastewater.

A unique aspect of this activity is the planned development of a large-scale standardization/dissemination initiative such as the EPA AgStar. Similar to the EPA AgStar initiative, the Indian program will develop a process of standardization and benchmarking of the dairy wastewater treatment (through anaerobic digestion and solids separation) and productive use of methane (direct-fire in boilers and/or installation of micro-turbine/internal combustion engine for electricity generation) in participating dairies. The standardization process will be moderated through a network of research and development institutes in the Indian dairy sector.

MNRE Assisted Projects

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India implemented a project entitled "Development of High Rate Biomethanation Processes as means of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission" with partial assistance from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF). This section presents as case studies, details of few of the biomethanation plants related to the agriculture and livestock sector. This information has been drawn from a booklet entitled "Green Energy from Wastes" prepared by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Sources, Government of India in April 2006.