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DMRC becomes India’s 1st project to receive Power from Waste-to-Energy.

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• Delhi Metro has started receiving 2 MW power from a 12 MW capacity waste-to-energy plant set up in Ghazipur and the plant will mitigate over 8 million tons of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) over the life of the project.
• DMRC will take approximately 17.5 million units per annum from this plant, however, the energy off-take will depend upon the actual generation of the plant.
• The waste-to-energy plant set up by East Delhi Waste Processing Company Limited (EDWPCL) is based on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving the Delhi government and East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), besides the EDWPCL.
• The plant is India's first Euro norms compliant waste-to-energy facility and the state of the art facility is set up to process above 1,500 tonnes per day (TPD) of waste and generate 12 MW of green power.
• The Delhi Metro has been working continuously towards the conservation of the environment since the inception of the organization and is the first ever rail based organisation in the world to claim carbon credits.
• The DMRC has also commissioned a facility at Rohini (Delhi) on PPP model with IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services Ltd (IEISL) for recycling of Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste with a capacity of 150 tons per day.
• Currently, DMRC is producing 28 MW of solar power from the various rooftop solar power plants, which have been set up in its stations, depots and residential premises.
• The mass transit operator has also started to receive solar power from the off-site solar power plant at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh.
• In construction also, DMRC plants 10 trees for each tree that is cut. Close to 4 lakh vehicles are being removed from the streets because of the Delhi Metro.

Waste-to-Energy

• Waste-to-Energy (WtE) or Energy-from-Waste (EfW) is a form of energy recovery and the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source.
• Most WtE processes generate electricity and/or heat directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels.
• Incineration, the combustion of organic material such as waste with energy recovery, is the most common WtE implementation method.
• All new WtE plants in OECD countries incinerating waste (residual MSW, commercial, industrial or RDF) must meet strict emission standards, including those on nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), heavy metals and dioxins. Modern incinerators reduce the volume of the original waste by 95-96 percent, depending upon composition and degree of recovery of materials such as metals from the ash for recycling.
• Incinerators may emit fine particulate, heavy metals, trace dioxin and acid gas, even though these emissions are relatively low from modern incinerators. Other concerns include proper management of residues: toxic fly ash, which must be handled in hazardous waste disposal installation as well as incinerator bottom ash (IBA).

Other WtE methods which convert the energy into liquid or gaseous fuels Thermal technologies: Gasification: Produces combustible gas, hydrogen, synthetic fuels Thermal depolymerization: Produces synthetic crude oil, which can be further refined Pyrolysis: produces combustible tar/biooil and chars Plasma arc gasification or plasma gasification process (PGP): Produces rich syngas including hydrogen and carbon monoxide usable for fuel cells or generating electricity to drive the plasma arch, usable vitrified silicate and metal ingots, salt and sulphur. Landfill Gas Collection  Non-thermal technologies: Anaerobic digestion: Biogas rich in methane Fermentation production: Examples are ethanol, lactic acid, hydrogen Mechanical biological treatment (MBT)  §  MBT + Anaerobic digestion  §  MBT to Refuse derived fuel.