‘Polycrack Technology’

Indian Railways has commissioned the country's first governmental waste to energy plant in Mancheswar Carriage Repair workshop at Bhubaneswar in East Coast Railway. 

About the Waste-To-Energy Plant:

• This Waste to Energy Plant, a patented technology called POLYCRACK, is first-of-its-kind in Indian Railways in India.
• While this is the first such plant over railways, it is the fourth in the country. The first plant is a small one with capacity of 50 kg/day set up by Infosys at Bangalore in 2011.
• The second one is at Moti Bagh, Delhi in 2014 with a capacity of 50 kg per day. The third one set up at Hindalco in 2019 with 50 kg capacity per batch.
• It is world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feed stocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water.
• Important features: Polycrack has the following advantages over the conventional approach of treating solid waste:
  • Pre-segregation of waste is not required to reform the waste. Waste as collected can be directly fed into Polycrack.
  • It has high tolerance to moisture hence drying of waste is not required.
  • Waste is processed and reformed within 24 hours.
  • It is an enclosed unit hence the working environment is dust free.
  • Excellent air quality surrounding the plant.
  • Biological decomposition is not allowed as the Waste is treated as it is received.
  • The foot print of the plant is small hence the area required for installing the plant is less when compared with conventional method of processing.
  • All constituents are converted into valuable energy thereby making it Zero Discharge Process.
  • Gas generated in the process is re-used to provide energy to the system thereby making it self-reliant 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.
  • Operates around 450 degrees, making it a low temperature process when compared with other options.
  • Safe and efficient system with built-in safety features enables even an unskilled user to operate the machine with ease.
  • Low capital cost and low operating cost.
  • Fully automated system requires minimum man power.

How the waste will be processed?

• Polycrack Plant can be fed with all types of Plastic, Petroleum sludge, Un-segregated MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) with moisture up to 50%, E–Waste, Automobile fluff, Organic waste including bamboo, garden waste etc., and Jatropha fruit and palm bunch.
• Waste generated from Mancheswar Carriage Repair Workshop, Coaching Depot and Bhubaneswar Railway Station will be feeder material for this plant.
• 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.