At the recent Global Climate Summit, Indian PM Mr Narendra Modi pledged to his fellow global leaders. The pledge is a promise from India to the world that by 2030 the country will generate 50% of its energy from renewable resources.
And since 2006, Urja Bio System Pvt. Ltd is already helping India keep its promise by turning biodegradable waste into renewable energy. Today, they are among the leading, trusted, and reliable sources of waste-to-energy transformers.
Backed up by a strong team of qualified and well-trained engineers, a visionary leader, Mr. Gajanan Patil, Managing Director of Urja Bio System, is guiding the organization in furthering its mission of future sustainability through providing an abundant and continuous source of renewable energy.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mr. Patil has decided to make his career in something that will be beneficial for the nation and, ultimately, the environment. He completed a master’s degree with merit in Clean Technology from New Castle Upon Tyne University in the UK. He served London Municipal Corporation for two years as Environmental Engineer and then came back to India in 2006 to start Urja Bio System Pvt. Ltd.
At that time, the term ‘solid waste management’ was rarely heard; people were not so aware of the significance of scientific disposal or recycling of waste. People here could not even believe that biogas could be a reliable source of electricity and an excellent pathway toward organic farming.
Despite all these obstacles, Mr. Patil convinced people that biogas plants are beneficial and can also serve as a side business for those in the dairy farming business and then there was no looking back.
In an interview with Insights Success for its edition of Best of 5 Biotechnology Companies in India, Mr Patil told us about his exceptional journey, his commitment to the cause of future sustainability, and how he is driving Urja Bio System Pvt. Ltd to fulfil the pledge.
Please, give us a brief overview of your journey.
We have been associated with the Ministry of New and Renewable energy in New Delhi for the last Fifteen years. From time to time, give our suggestions and recommendations to frame the policies. We are also an authorized company for different state nodal agencies to promote waste to energy projects with financial aid.
We are also working with different state government departments like the rural development and agriculture departments. We are operating in 18 states of India and the countries like Zambia, Tanzania, Gambia and going to expand in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well.
Our focus of work is mainly on the rural part of the country, where there is a huge quantity of waste like cattle dung and poultry litter available, and there is a scarcity of clean fuel for cooking and power.
By converting wet biodegradable waste into biogas and then using it, we are helping our nation reduce the emission of Green House gasses and produce organic manure to improve the fertility of the soil.
So far installed more than 10,000 family size biogas plants on cattle dung to replace firewood throughout Maharashtra, more than 160 projects on biogas to power for dairy, poultry, slaughterhouse, residential complex, and ETP, Fifteen projects for community biogas plants where biogas is distributed through the pipeline to 15 to 130 Households under “GOBARDHAN” in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Done four Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) projects for converting poultry and organic kitchen waste into CBG.
We are a technically competent company with strong footprints all over India in the waste treatment sector. We have demonstrated our technical competency in various sectors like MSW, dairy and gaushala, poultry, slaughterhouse, STP and ETP of milk and textile processing industries.
We are converting all wet organic waste into biogas and then biogas to power and CBG. The bio digested coming out from the biogas plant is further processed to convert into value-added solid and liquid fertilizers.
We are offering technology for decentralized waste management where we are converting waste into power at the source for townships, big restaurants, APMC and prominent residential societies.
We have also developed 10kW to 100 kW biogas Gensets in collaboration with Kirloskar Oil Engine, Pune. These are one of the best biogas gensets available in India at an affordable cost and reliable service support from KOEL. It has helped many farmers to generate captive power in rural India.
Before entering this industry, KVIC was doing a maximum of 140 Cum single digester. They did not have a more extensive size design and drawing. If someone wanted to go for 500 cum biogas, then they used to go in multiple digesters.
We have modified their existing water jacket type biogas plants, developed 200 cum, 300 cum, 500 cum, and 700 cum single digester, and constructed more than 75 digesters of 200 cum capacity and above. We got them approved by MNRE and BTDC and made them available for others.
We have demonstrated successful piped supply for 130 households at village Khairkhunt, CG, where the total pipeline is four kilometers, and all are getting constant supply at constant pressure. Just like this, we had done 15 projects for the community.
Tell us more about Urja Bio System, its vision, and the critical aspects of its stronghold in the global Biotechnology space.
Our mission is to convert all organic wet biodegradable waste into energy and value-added organic fertilizer called Phosphate Rich Organic Manure (PROM); this sector has enormous potential for growth as waste generation is directly proportional to population.
This sector can help our nation to address three significant issues unemployment, import of fossil fuel and chemical fertilizer and reduction of carbon footprints by converting waste into resources.
From a business leadership perspective, what is your opinion on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Biotechnology industry?
The containment of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and limitations on commercial activities, mobility and the manufacturing sector has significantly affected waste management.
Waste management is critical to human development and health outcomes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The invaluable service provided by the waste management sector ensures that the unusual heaps of waste that pose health risks and escalate the spread of COVID-19 are avoided.
Due to low oil prices and demand, the competitiveness of recycled plastics has declined, hence affecting the price of virgin plastics. A temporary ban on cross-border movements affects developing countries dependent on foreign technology for waste recycling activities. Therefore, most of the waste generated during the pandemic is disposed of rather than recycled.
What efforts did you take during the pandemic to sustain operations and ensure the safety of your team at the same time?
We ensure that the facility is spotless, disinfected and equipped with a blueprint for maintaining safe conditions. Setting up a support system for employees as they return to work and adjust to new realities and emotional challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are creating a plan for a safe work environment that protects employees and customers alike from risks connected to COVID-19, including exposure and transmission.
- Proper segregation, packaging, and storage of potentially contaminated materials (double bag)
- Proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling healthcare waste, hand hygiene, and other precautionary practices.
- Setting up a support system for employees as they return to work and adjust to new realities and emotional challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Creating a safe work environment plan that protects employees and customers alike from risks connected to COVID-19, including exposure and transmission.
What is your opinion on the necessity for biotech companies to align their offerings with technologies like AI and ML, primarily when catering to the ever-evolving healthcare needs?
Waste management is essential for maintaining a city’s hygiene and health. Developed countries now have adequate resources and equipment to sustain these favorable conditions, such as up-to-date and even real-time waste generation statistics, qualified personnel, and current fleets of collection trucks equipped with the most cutting-edge technical breakthroughs or instruments, such as geographical information systems.
Waste collection and management are often discerning as a low-tech undertaking. However, IoT- and ML-based solutions have the power to transform individual waste containers into a web of smart, connected objects. A dumper truck database has been generated in the given system so that data and details of dumper truck ID, meeting date, meeting time of garbage collection, and so on are collected.
This technique keeps track of all the truck driver’s activities and the waste gathering system of waste management. The system allows on-time waste gathering and allows automobile trace through a database using Global Positioning System (GPS) automation.
All of these activities contribute to the solution of the waste disposal problem in a single zone where immediate solutions are required to advance toward sustainable development.
We would aim to improve the system in the future for diverse types of garbage, such as solid and liquid wastes. Smart garbage bins are monitored in real-time by the IoT based garbage collection system. It also identifies which garbage containers should be emptied at the end of each collection cycle. In addition, the navigation system suggests the best driving routes for collecting rubbish from the designated containers.
How do you envision strengthening Urja Bio System’s stronghold in 2022 and beyond?
As per the current scenario, due to war conditions between Russia and Ukraine, fuel prices are hiking, so demands for biofuel like CBG, CNG will increase as the price of fuel (LPG/Petrol/Diesel) currently gone up to Rs.107 per kg, so to meet the supply of CNG, the fuel, we need to use other sources, like the source of bio CNG project based on MSW/wet waste product.
To set up these plants government of India has launched a scheme of SATAT in 2018 through Oil companies like Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL ONGC etc.
Also, the sector of organic fertilizers has a massive market in the coming days as we are importing almost 70% chemical fertilizer from various countries, which has an adverse effect on soil conditions. Here, we are generating BIO PROM (Phosphate Rich Organic Manure), we are doing the value addition in the solid obtained from biogas slurry.
We have recently started working on integrating biogas power into Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations in 10kW to 100kW EV charging stations. Hence, we aim to have grid free-EV charging stations in urban areas. We are also working on nappier grass, energy crop, and super nappier grass, which will help farmers generate sustainable income from its cultivation. We can convert that grass into power for EV charging stations across India.
