Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Science and technology
Why in news?
- Indian Railways has commissioned the country’s first governmental waste to energy plant in Mancheswar Carriage Repair workshop at Bhubaneswar under the East Coast Railway zone.
- The Waste to Energy Plant, having a capacity of 500 kilogram waste per day has been constructed in three months.
Key facts:
- This Waste to Energy Plant, a patented technology called POLYCRACK, is first-of-its-kind in Indian Railways and fourth in India.
- It is the world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feedstocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water.
- Polycrack plant can be fed with all types of plastic, petroleum sludge, un-segregated MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) with moisture up to 50 per cent, e-waste, automobile fluff, organic waste including bamboo, garden waste, etc., and jatropha fruit and palm bunch.
How the system can work?
- The process is a closed-loop system and does not emit any hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere.
- The combustible, non-condensed gases are re-used for providing energy to the entire system and thus, the only emission comes from the combustion of gaseous fuels.
- The emissions from the combustion are found to be much less than prescribed environmental norms.
- This process will produce energy in the form of Light Diesel Oil which is used to light furnaces.