58 | Science Reporter | May 2019

A 34-year-old engineer and conservationist P r i y a d a r s h a n

Sahasrabuddhe, from Pune, is asking his neighbours to leave their garbage at his doorstep. He needs their trash in his kitchen. Priyadarshan feeds the trash into a biogas plant he has created. Called Vaayu, the plant converts carbohydrates from organic

waste into methane gas.

Vaayu has a balloon structure attached to it from where the biogas produced is funnelled into containers. The balloon is connected to the pipeline (stove pipe). Vaayu is mainly fuelled by the waste generated in his and his neighbour’s kitchens. About 700 litres of gas is produced — more than 70% of what his house needs.

The liquid slurry which comes out from food waste is an excellent manure for plants and can be used in adequate proportion.

Every six months Priyadarshan services the system and clears away solid undigested material which is fibrous in nature, this goes back to the garden. There is no need to

INNOVATIVE MINDS

Priyadarshan Sahasrabuddhe

Turning Trash into Biofuel

Biofuel plant Vaayu (Source: betterindia.com)

crush the food, it can be put it as it is. There is no need for energy also to operate Vaayu as it runs on its own.

Priyadarshan emphasises the usefulness of segregat-ing waste. Approximately 11 kg of waste is given to him every day, which contains remains of raw vegetables and even stale food; he has four containers with a capacity of 2 kg each. People from the building deposit their garbage in the collection bin, and his four friends — whom he lives with — keep on adding to the containers.

Priyadarshan is also working with Swaccha, a voluntary group of ragpickers, which collects waste. He is training them to operate biogas plants so that most of them become energy suppliers rather than waste pickers.

In biogas plants, the bacterial activity gets restricted in the winters. However, Priyadarshan’s biofuel plant manages to produce approximately 600-700 litres of the 1000 litres the house needs. As compared to winters, summers are bet-ter though, and the conservationist plans on repositioning the plant in the terrace such that it gets enough heat even in the cold months.

Contributed by Ms Shivani, Research Intern, CSIR-NISCAIR, New Delhi

58 | Science Reporter | May 2019

Ms Shivani