Leading the Smart way for Waste Management

October 3, 2016

Mr. Suhas Dixit, CMD, Pyrocrat Systems LLP

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is an area that needs attention, especially considering the Smart Cities Program. Meet Suhas Dixit, CMD, Pyrocrat Systems LLP, whose work at Navi Mumbai is surely a case study for all to emulate. Among the few companies in India that offer the patented pyrolysis technology that converts waste into energy, Pyrocrat is helping the city of Navi Mumbai to recycle 300 metric tonnes (about 50 truckloads) of waste. This is segregated and converted into compost, recyclables (plastic, metal, etc.), refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and inert gases. Dixit provides some insights.

What is the scope of your work in India?

We are a company that manages 300,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day. Unlike in developed countries where people segregate their wet waste from dry waste, in India, we put it all together. If you separate this waste, it can be recycled. Therefore, the first step required is segregation and we are a specialist at this since it is not segregated at the source. We then convert this into energy. We convert waste plastic and waste tyres into diesel. We are present in two sectors of waste management, namely, recycling and energy recovery. We see huge gaps in these areas as the energy recovery segment doesn’t even exist in India right now. What people do is, in case they cannot recycle the waste, they put it in landfills.

However, for a waste management project to be sustainable, it is not enough to think of the social aspects. Since not enough importance is given to economic viability, most waste management projects end up as failures. When you want to come up with a sustainable project for waste management, you have to think about three things – social appeal, environment compliance and economic viability. This is where organisations like us are specialized.

How big is the problem?

In developed countries, they recycle 80 per cent of the waste and not a great deal of wasteland gets generated. If you consider developing economies like India, South Africa and China, huge quantities of wastelands are created like ulcer patches on the earth. These patches release methane gas which is 10 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It is also the cause of the foul odour you associate with dumping yards. Around 5-10 per cent of global warming is happening because of methane coming out from dumping yards.

Specific to India, just for instance, in 2012, across the country, the number of oil barrels that went to landfills is 57 million barrels of oil, 9 million tonne of compost and 6 million tonne of recycled material. In India, around 1.3 per cent of its land is getting converted into wasteland every year. Around four-five years ago, we didn’t have the problem of finding space for landfills. Now, there is a shortage. What people are doing now is they have started stacking up the waste above each other. The height of landfill has now gone up to a height equivalent to the fourth and fifth floors of buildings.

What are the technologies to deal with this?

The key technologies for managing waste include composting where you convert a major part of the waste into compost. This compost can further be converted into fertilizers or can be used as compost, as it is. The second technology is refuse-derived fuel (RDF). We have this technology operational in Chandigarh. In Navi Mumbai, we use composting technology and in Chandigarh we use RDF. The third technology available is bio-methanation but this technology is risky.

How many companies are there in the country that does what you do?

We are the leaders for this in Asia. In the world, we rank about third or fourth. Nobody is near us. For instance, in the first technology, we are the only ones who have established a plant as an engineering company, and which is operational. Nobody does segregation and nobody does composting. Waste management up till now, was a huge model of corruption. However, with the new government in place and the Smart Cities mission, a lot of these tenders are beginning to come up for re-tendering. This shows that the focus is on actually finding the right companies for the job and the focus clearly seems to be on implementation.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Default

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Pyrocrat Systems in News – About Suhas Dixit on November 16th, 2016 4:57 pm

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