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Biogas to light up Light House beach

By Our Staff Reporter

KOVALAM, FEB. 1. The famed Light House beach would be lit up with the gas produced from the biogas plant set up under the ambitious Rs.71-lakh Zero Waste Kovalam Project.

The 25 cubic metres of biogas produced in the plant located near Hotel Peacock and behind the Light House beach would generate electricity to glow 85 lights installed along the walkway. A generator with a 2.5 KW capacity has been installed for generating electricity and laying of cables by the SIDCO has been completed.

"It is green electricity and an eco-tourism product. It is a novel product and, perhaps, first of its kind in South Asia," according to C. Jayakumar of Thanal Conservation Action and Information Network, the NGO implementing the zero waste project.

The trial run has shown that the lamps can glow up to 8 to 9 hours at a stretch now. A switchover to the KSEB line or a break after five hours can enable the glowing of 100 Compact Fluorescent Lamps installed along the walkway, he said.

The Rs.6. 5-lakh Igloo shaped biogas plant, which can handle 600 kg of waste daily, has been set up in eight cents of land donated by the local unit of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association. Kerala Tourism provided the financial support and the technical support came from Thanal. The 15 small and medium hotels in the southern side of the beach have been benefited with the commissioning of the biogas plant.

The waste generated is segregated into dry, wet and biodegradable at the hotels and restaurants. The biodegradable waste is being fed into the plant and the dry waste sold to scrap dealers. A compost pit has been set up to handle wet wastes such as wet newspaper and other materials which cannot be fed into the biogas plant.

The suggestions mooted by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board such as a store room, closing the inlet of the feeding tanks of the plant, boundary wall and sound proofing of the generators in view of adjoining houses have already been incorporated.

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