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| Bio-Digestor at IITH |
A Resource Recovery Park (RRP) and the bio-digestor are steps toward sustainable waste management, said Prof B S Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad.
Hyderabad, July 29, 2021: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad is a premier technical institute with a strong commitment to a green campus and enriching environment. The institute is making every possible move to convert campus greener & cleaner. From banning the usage of paper cups, single-use plastic water bottles, replacing RO water purifiers with UV water purifiers, door to door waste collection, bio-digestor to growing more than 15000 trees in last 2 years has significantly reduced IIT Hyderabad carbon footprint and made the campus a better place to live for the students, faculty & staff.“It is a sheer pleasure to see the campus becoming greener. IIT Hyderabad always has a keen interest to serve society in the best possible way and it starts from the campus where we spend our 24 hours. The culture of a clean campus will not only make IIT Hyderabad a better place to live, but when students leave the campus, this culture will develop wherever they go. As a human race, it is our duty towards nature, to keep it intact for the future generation. RRP is one such small step in this direction”, said Prof B S Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad on the facility being commissioned recently.
IIT Hyderabad has set up a comprehensive waste management system. The campus already has a functional sewage treatment plant based on Membrane Bioreactor Technology. In the last two years, efforts have been made to set up a comprehensive solid waste management system. The solid waste generated on the campus is broadly separated into dry and wet categories. Wet waste (food waste, vegetable peelings, etc. which are readily biodegradable) generated in hostel mess, is shredded and fed into a biogas digester. The generated biogas is used in the student's dining facility. This reduces the consumption of fossil fuels. The wet waste from the residential areas is sent to the vermicompost facility at the RRP. The compost is used for gardening purposes.
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| Director Prof B S Murty during inauguration event of RRP |
The campus has a door-to-door waste collection mechanism with a clear segregation at the residences into wet and dry waste. The waste is brought to the RRP using a battery-operated collection vehicle. At RRP, the dry fraction is further segregated into individual components, while the wet waste is sent to the compost facility. The dry waste is segregated at the RRP facility into individual components. The compacted waste is temporarily stored in RRP and disposed of by external agencies.
Vermicomposting shed houses pre-digestion bins, composting bins, and a sieving and storage room. The recyclable waste segregation and storage room have a segregation area with bins for different types of waste and a storage area.
All biodegradable wastes are moved to the pits/windrow platform for composting. The biodegradable wastes are processed using microbial and vermi-composting techniques. Once processed, the compost is passed through a sieving machine to remove foreign particles and bigger chunks of waste. The compost is then stored in the compost storage room and later used as fertilizer. The RRP at IIT Hyderabad is operational.
About IIT Hyderabad
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is one of the eight new IITs established by the Government of India in 2008. In a short span of 12 years, the institute has become a top ranker and currently has ~240 full-time faculty, ~3,400 students (20% female), and nearly 200 state-of-the-art laboratories and five research and entrepreneurship centers. The institute has a strong research focus with more than Rs 435 crore of sanctioned research funding with PhD scholars accounting for about 30% of total student strength. IITH has to its credit more than 5500 research publications, ~190 patent disclosures, 1440 sponsored/consultancy projects, and 50 industry and academic collaborations and 70 startups.
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