National Institute of Technology

Oct 06, 2023

Minister M. B. Rajesh visits Plastic to Power Plant at NITC

Initial discussions on a collaboration with NITC for a sustainable plastic waste management held

Minister for Local Self Government, Rural Development and Excise Shri. M B Rajesh; Mrs. Sarada Muraleedharan, Additional Chief Secretary; Shri. K T Balabhaskaran, Executive Director Suchitwa Mission; Mr. Jyothish Chandran G, Solid Waste Management Director and a team of officials from the Department of Local Self-government and Kozhikode corporation visited the Plastics to Power (P2P) plant of National Institute of Technology Calicut to discuss about the feasibility of collaboration in the patented technology of NITC for plastic conversions.

“We have a waste treatment facility to recycle plastic but the major issue we face is the huge quantity of reject waste,” said Mr. M B Rajesh during the discussion with Prof. Prasad Krishna, Director of NITC and experts.

NIT Calicut commissioned the Plastics to Power (P2P) plant under the Swachhta Action Plan project of MoE, GoI in 2021. The 20 kg plant use assorted plastic wastes ranging from toffee wrappers to the deadly poisonous PVC including the rejects and converts them to power. NITC is in the process of scaling up the plant to 100 kg/day (3 tons/month) to process the total plastic wastes of the campus in the initial stages and then to commercialise the same.

The visit of the minister has initiated a discussion between the Solid Waste Management Division, Suchitwa Mission and NITC for a collaboration for plastic waste management. The collaboration will help setting up of similar scaled-up plants for plastic waste management .

Dr. Lisa Sreejith, Professor of the Department of Chemistry and Chairperson of the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, who had secured a patent for ‘An Eco-friendly Method for Total Conversion of Plastic Waste to Power Generation’ presented the working of the P2P plant to the esteemed officials.

As much as 89% conversion is made possible and the residue generated is utilised for manufacturing paving bricks, garden pots etc.

Sarada Muraleedharan IAS, Additional Chief Secretary of LSGD urged NIT Calicut to collaborate with the local self-government to find a permanent solution for the waste issues persistent in local bodies in Kerala.

Mr. P. S. Shino, Joint Director (Kozhikode) of LSGD; Mr. K Gauthaman, Coordinator of Suchitwa Mission Kozhikode Corporation; Dr. M. S. Shamasundara, Registrar NITC; Dr. S. M. Sameer, Dean (Academic); Dr. Panneerselvam Ranganathan, Vice Chairperson, CST; Mr. K Vinod Kumar & Mr. Sudheesh, Additional Private Secretaries to the Minister; Mr. Sreeram V.K. and Mr. Ramesh K. Asst. Registrars of NITC; Mr. Praveen Babu, Mr. Jayan V.S. and Mr. KC Suresh, members of CST also attended the discussion.

P2P Plant

An area developed using the residue from the P2P plant

Media Reports