BIO-GAS PLANT: SUBSTITUTE TO LPG COOKING GAS 5th February 2012

Objective:
Waste is a material that no longer serves a purpose and so is thrown away. In some cases what one person discards may be re-used by somebody else. All wastes is particularly hazardous. If not carefully disposed of, it will have an impact on the environment, whether it be unsightly litter in urban streets or contaminated air, soil or water. But what is equally important about waste is that it is recyclable.

For example, if all human, animal and organic wastes are recycled, we can save energy and fossil fuels and can keep the river, sea and ocean free from dumping wastes. Therefore, time has come when we have to look at the waste not merely as an environment polluter but a recyclable material of great potential and energy saver.

Benefits:
In cities, a majority of the people use LPG or kerosene for cooking. The immediate benefit from owning a compact biogas system is the savings in cost as compared to the use of kerosene or LPG for cooking. The up-front cost of a biogas system is higher than for LPG, since an LPG bottle plus a two burner stove costs only INR 5,000 (approx. USD 100) whereas the compact biogas plan plus a biogas stove costs about INR 10,000 (approx. USD 200). However, the operational cost for biogas is only about INR 2 per day if waste flour is used as feedstock, and can be zero if the plant uses only food wastes. This is much cheaper than LPG, which costs about INR 30 per day, even with the current subsidy of 50%. Biogas can easily replace 50% of the LPG used by a family.
Methane burns with a blue flame, without producing any smoke or soot. It is therefore an environmentally friendly cooking system. Further reductions in pollution and energy use arise from not having to transport LPG cylinders to be re-filled. For a typical urban household, biogas saves 100 kg of LPG or 250 litres of kerosene per year. A rural family could save about 3 tones of wood per year.

Saving Overview: Plant Size | Estimated Cost | Gross Annual Savings | 1m3 | 12,000 | 5,672 | 2m3 | 16,000 | 10,005 | 3m3 | 20,000 | 14,315 | 4m3 | 24,000 | 18,487 |

Conclusion:
With the increase number of biogas plant installations, we can reduce the burden or dependence on kerosene and LPG gas. It will help to minimize the emission of greenhouse gases which will ultimately maintain the ecological balance.

Name : Pravin Dhandre
Institute : FOST-IIMA Business School
Class : MBA-Finance
Contact : 8976453099
E-mail : pdhandre@gmail.com