India’s Green Revolution succeeded because there was enough organic carbon in our soils then (2%) to respond effectively to the application of urea. Today our soils are carbon-deficient (only 0.1 to 0.4%) and unable to respond as before to increasing applications of urea, which in fact makes soils less productive over time. The Planning Commission has estimated that India has a shortfall of 6 million tons a year of organic manures.
Lucknow WTE calculations
600 tpd mixed waste gives 15% dry organic waste/ton = 90 tpd dry organics
1 ton dry organics gives 25cu m /day of gas, of 5200-5500 kilocalories per cubic meter of gas.
Municipal Waste To Energy: Failures & Opportunities
India’s one million tonnes a day of urban solid waste, especially its 100,000 tonnes a day in our 50 largest cities, are a magnet for promoters of Municipal Waste-To-energy (MWTE) solutions to the problem of waste disposal.
ENERGY FROM MUNICIPAL WASTE : MYTH vs REALITY
There is a curious reluctance in Government and our bureaucracy to let failures die a natural death and to “back the winners”. The Municipal-Waste-To-Energy (WTE) program of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) is a glaring example of damaging persistence with a proven failure which is seriously interfering with urban waste management policy today.
Waste-To-Energy is an excellent idea in principle
Urban bio-degradable (compostable) food waste is too precious to burn or bury. It must and should be recycled for India’s food security. Its NPK nutrients, micronutrients and rich microbial content ensure full absorption of the synthetic fertiliser with which they are applied. Otherwise 22-60% of chemical fertilisers is unabsorbed by plants, and runs off to pollute surface and underground waters. This alone is good and sufficient reason to rule out other disposal methods.
Waste to Energy (WTE) ~ Is it the solution to India’s waste problem?
First ambitious program to encourage WTE launched in 1995.
Municipal Waste-To-Energy
Municipal Solid Waste Rules 2000 require BIOLOGICAL STABILISATION of
organic wastes, by Composting, Vermi-composting, Biomethanation, etc, to
restore India’s degraded & depleted soils.
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