H'bad sewage treatment plant uses waste to generate power

By Sandhya Ravishankar, CNBC-TV18

Hyderabad is going green. The city's Amberpet sewage treatment plant, which is Asia's largest, is using waste to generate power.

It's green, hi-tech and ready to earn carbon credits from the international community. The Amberpet sewage treatment plant in Hyderabad, a one-of-a-kind facility spread over 170 acres, can turn close to 350 million litres of sewage a day into water fit for irrigation. It also generates electrical power.

“With 0.7 megawatt of power, which can be generated in this plant, we can light up a small village,” said B Mukesh,

Deputy GM, Amberpet STP.

Gas generated from this sewage treatment plant is collected through these pipelines and stored for power generation.

Now, this gas consists mainly of methane, which is a biofuel. This methane is used to generate close to 1 megawatt of power.

So, the Hyderabad Water and Sewage Board has applied for carbon credits, which function like points for being environment-friendly and can be traded for cash at a later date.

At present, a rapidly expanding Hyderabad requires a clean up of close to 155 million litres of sewage a day. The plant would also hopefully help clean up the city's sewerage-filled lakes, rivers and overflowing drains.