Integrated waste management facility at IIT Bombay campus
PI: Prof. Sanjay Mahajani, Chemical Engineering, Prof. Anurag Garg, Centre for Environmental Science & Engineering, Prof Gajananrao Jadhav, Earth Sciences, Prof Milind V Rane, Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Srinivas Seethamraju, Department of Energy Science and Engineering
Tata Fellows under each PI and a team of 40 students from IIT Bombay
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage, are the toxic and infectious solid wastes generated, if not treated effectively. The uncontrolled and improper dumping of such wastes have adversely affected human health and environment. Realising the need for bringing in efficient and scientific ways of managing the waste, a group of faculty associated with Tata Centre and the students have been actively working on a number of projects, addressing various challenges in MSW considering IITB campus as the test bed. The set up for different processes depending on the type of waste would be commissioned at the integrated facility where the entire waste from the campus would be transported. The advantage of such a facility is to provide flexibility in handling the waste that may vary in characteristics and also to generate energy from waste. The facility will enable energy generation in the form of biogas from biomethanation unit, producer gas from pellet gasification, fuel oil from plastic pyrolysis, and good quality compost for gardens. The bioreactor landfill will be used to address non-recyclable waste or to treat the waste in case of an unexpected circumstances such as breakdown of one of the equipment. Once demonstrated as a successful model this can be replicated in other similar campuses, upcoming smart cities, tier I and tier II cities in India. The facility plans to house the following technological solutions, supported by the Centre:
- Conversion of plastic into fuel oil through pyrolysis
- Development of household or community composting system for food waste recycling
- Gasifier based cook-stoves to manage garden waste
- Assessment of municipal solid waste based biogas plants in India