Indian Railways to Get its First Waste-to-Energy Conversion Unit – Polycracker Plant

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) plans to set ‘Waste to Energy Plant’ at the Carriage Repair Workshop at Mancheswar area.

According to the statement released by ECoR,foundation stone of the plant was laid by the general manager of ECoR Vidya Bhushan on Monday.

There is huge amount of non-ferrous scrap being generated in the Carriage Repair Workshop in Bhubaneswar which does not have any efficient method of disposal. This leads to environmental problem as these wastes find way to landfills.

Thus, Carriage Repair Workshop Mancheswar has found a method for tackling this problem in a patented technology called ‘POLYCRACK’.

“It is world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feedstocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water,” the release said.

Polycrack Plant can be fed with all types of plastic, petroleum sludge, unsegregated MSW with moisture up to 50 per cent, ewaste, automobile fluff, organic waste including bamboos, garden waste and Jathropa fruit and palm bunch.

Pre-segregation of the waste is not required to reform the waste which is advantage of this method from the conventional approach. Waste as collected can be directly fed into Polycrack.

There is high tolerance to moisture therefore drying of waste is not required and waste is processed and reformed within 24 hours. It is an enclosed unit hence the working environment is dust free.

All the constituents are converted into valuable energy thus making it zero discharge process. The gas generated in the process is also reused to provide energy to the system thereby making it self-reliant of its energy requirement and also bring down the operating cost.

There is no atmospheric emission during the process unlike other conventional methods except for combustion gases which have pollutants less than the prescribed norms the world over. It operates around 450 degrees, making it a low temperature process when compared with other options.

Vidya Bhushan, General Manager, East Coast Railway said, “A Polycracker Plant of 500kg per day capacity at Mancheswar Workshop will process every type of waste material except metal and glass to produce Low Speed Diesel, organic carbon for industry and bio-gas. There will be no residue.”

He added, “The initial operating cost will be approximately Rs 9 per day. The plant will consume the generated diesel oil and biogas to meet its energy inputs. Such a plant of 5kg per day is working at New Motibagh Colony, New Delhi and Infosys, Bengaluru. However, many such plants are working abroad. The plant is slated to be commissioned on January 10, 2020.”

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Source:IBEF

Image Courtes: Polycrack

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