There is now a community kitchen with three stoves in the Perungalathur Town Panchayat, which is getting its fuel from food and vegetable wastes collected from door to door. The biogas facility, which contains an egg-shaped capacitor and four containers, 10 cubic metres each, has the capacity for producing 40 kilograms of clean and safe methane gas at one go.

For producing 40 kilograms of gas, the unit requires 200 kilograms of vegetable, fruit and food waste. The kitchen with its manufacturing shed was established a month ago at a cost of Rs. 8 lakh and a trial run was started a couple of days ago.

The kitchen unit has four gas stoves with sufficient space for cooking.

“Food, vegetable and fruit waste are collected from eateries and houses for producing 16 kg of liquefied gas, which is sufficient to meet the demand of 30 families. The scheme is handled by the town panchayat jointly by Hand in Hand, an NGO,” says M. Kesavan, executive officer, Perungalathur Town Panchayat.

“After production of gas, the waste material come out as a watery substance, which is being used as a substitute for cow dung in the compost yard.

Depending on the success of this project, more biogas units would be established to meet the fuel demands of the poor in the nearby areas,” Mr. Kesavan added.

“It is used by 10 families every day and is open between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. The gas is clean, and there are no adverse effects. Cooking is free of cost,” said V. Kamali, assistant project coordinator, Hand in Hand, which oversees garbage collection in the town.