The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) will soon receive 5 crore from the United Nations for reducing carbon dioxide emissions in four of its sewage treatment plants. Metrowater officials said SGS India, a consultant, had registered with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to obtain emission reduction certificate for the plants.
Metrowater managing director K Gopal said the UN had expressed satisfaction with Metrowater's efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. "We submitted a proposal to the UN and expect to receive 5 crore in three months. Instead of letting out gases into the atmosphere, we are using them to meet our needs. So we are going to receive carbon credits for it," he said.
Officials said SGS India had prepared an assessment certificate after evaluating the level of greenhouse gas emissions and the efforts of generating power from sewage. About 70% of sewage generated is methane . However, methane has high energy content which is purified and imported to gas engines.
The CMWSSB has nine sewage treatment plants (STPs) where about 400 million litres a day (MLD) of sewage are treated. Four of these plants have the capacity to produce bio-gas energy. An official said they fed raw sewage sludge into equipment making bio-gas. It is then run into a gas engine to generate electricity.
About 32MW of electricity is generated from 264 million litres of sewage received in the STPs daily, meeting 85% of the plants' power requirement. Every year, about 61,200 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are said to be reduced through this initiative. Metrowater saved electricity worth 25.61 crore since December 2011, officials said.
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