Convert “throw away”of Today into green fuel of Tomorrow; CM Sangma on inauguration of Pilot Project

On Sunday, the Pilot Project between the Government of Meghalaya, Tura Municipal Board, and Chamhana GK, South Korea was finalised in a meeting between the Chief Minister of Meghalaya and his team, as well as senior officials from Chamhana Institute of Technology, South Korea, led by Mr. Dongmin Choi, Chairman, on March 13, 2019 in Shillong. After a detailed presentation, the Chief Minister and team agreed in principle to a PPP mode approach to set up a small scale plant on pilot project mode, at NO COST to the Government of Meghalaya.

It may be noted that Tura's Refuse Derived Fuel or Waste to Fuel Plant is finally going to be built. Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Sangma, and the project's main proponent, will inaugurate the project on May 17, 2022, in the presence of H.E. Chang Jae-Bok, the South Korean Ambassador to India.

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. 

According to the report, an agreement was reached to establish a small 35 MT installed capacity plant at Tura, in the existing dump yard site, including management and maintenance of the plant as well as training of local resources by Chamhana, which will have the rights to market the fuel briquettes generated from waste conversion to recoup its capital investment. The project was supposed to start in 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

In February of this year, the plant and equipment were finally shipped to India and then driven to Tura. This current project in Tura is intended to serve as a working model demonstration project (Proof of Concept) for managing the city of Tura's daily municipal garbage.

The statement stated, “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”.

Conrad Sangma, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, has expressed his optimism for the project, believing that if the technology works, it will go a long way toward resolving the rising challenge of waste management in Shillong, Jowai, and other major towns in the state.