Food Waste Turns Biofuel for Preparing Noon Meal in Coimbatore School
by R Aishwaryaa (The Hindu) Students of the Government High School in Gandhinagar, here, turn food waste to bio-gas to prepare noon meal. The school inaugurated the bio-gas kit, which was set up by the Rotary Club of Coimbatore Town for ₹30,000 on September 30.
“There are 400 students between Classes VI-X here, of which 250 avail of the noon meal scheme. After examination and puja holidays, we began the process early this week,” said K. Vijayalakshmi, headmistress.
“We first add cow dung into the 1000-litre tank and let it set for a week. After that, we add leftover food and vegetable scrappings. The next day, this generates methane that is accumulated in a large sealed leather bag. This gas is used as fuel in stoves to prepare noon meal. Since this is a preliminary kit, the fuel lasts for an hour a day,” she said.
“The student parliament ministers for safety, food and environment, along with the faculty, monitor waste disposal and operation of the kit,” she added. READ MORE
Coimbatore: Biogas from food waste to power school kitchen (Times of India)
This Coimbatore School Is A Step Ahead, Turns Food Waste To Bio-Gas To Power The School Kitchen (Curly Tales)
Biogas At School (BioCycle Magazine)
Turkish fruit juice firm utilises food waste for biogas (Bioenergy Insight)
Excerpt from BioCycle Magazine: In 200 schools in Brazil, Israel, Fiji and additional countries around the world, students are learning about — and experiencing — anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste. HomeBiogas, an Israel-based company that sells small-scale AD systems for homes, refugee camps, institutions and businesses, offers an educational kit that includes a curriculum, a HomeBiogas system with its biogas stove, a protective structure for the system, and a cabinet where educators can lock the stove when not in use for educational purposes. The kits placed in schools and educational centers demonstrate how food waste is fed to the system and within hours it creates biogas which is used for cooking or heating, on-site. Students put food scraps from the cafeteria into the system and the biofertilizer (liquid digestate) is used on the school trees. The curriculum covers climate change, methane, landfills, renewable energy, biogas, organic waste, global warming, circular economy, biofertilizer and more.
In Israel, the kit has been approved by the Education Ministry and is being used schools across the country. HomeBiogas will launch the educational kit in the U.S. by the end of 2022. READ MORE
