Food Waste to Biogas Startups of India

Most of the Indian cities suffer from crisis of garbage and waste disposal. Municipal bodies around the country are struggling with the increase in the waste generated and the costs of collecting and transporting it. A significant portion of this waste is organic waste, that ends up in landfills, produces methane which is a big contributor to greenhouse gases. Organic waste among other things also has kitchen waste which includes left-over food, fruit-vegetables peelings etc. India, today, creates 67 million metric tonnes of food waste per annum which is valued at INR 92,000 crore, growing at 8-10% year on year. This post examines a number of startups that are working towards solving the problem of food waste by converting food waste to biogas. Lets look at the various food waste to Biogas startups of India:

1. Yellow Haze Energy

Yellow Haze Sustainable Technologies was founded in 2018 in Udaipur, Rajasthan, with an aim to catalyse switch to sustainable technologies through innovation in technology, finance & delivery models. The company primary provides assistance to large industries & corporates in minimising the carbon footprint by incorporating various sustainable technologies like solar power, zero liquid discharge, solar thermal for process heat etc. On same lines Yellow Haze provides food-waste to biogas solutions for institutions that typically have large food-mess and in-housing dining for 500 people or more.

2. Carbon Loops

In 2017, Kern Agarwal and Ranjani Prabakaran, set up Carbon Loops that worked towards tying up with corporates and educational institutions to segregate waste and create compost that was sent to farmers in rural areas to increase soil fertility. They began by creating compost that was sent to farmers in and around Chennai. They then progressed to creating biogas to power the canteen kitchen at Loyola.  In the last two years, the company has had a turnover of ₹2 crores.

3. Carbonlites by Carbon Masters

Carbon Masters is a startup that’s trying to reduce the amount of waste heading out of Bangalore to overflowing landfills. They’ve joined up with local authorities and residents to collect and convert kitchen waste into biogas. The fuel is sold to local restaurants, IT parks and corporate campuses. That’s helping to displace conventional fossil fuels used in cooking and reduce methane emissions from landfills, as well as to keep the city cleaner.

4. Quantum Green

Quantum Green is an integrated technology company engaged in Design, Supply and Installation of Biogas plants for varying applications ranging from Household Cooking to Industrial Cogeneration purposes including Power Generation and Bio-CNG Bottling plants. The company also provides portable biogas plants suitable for individual households, industrial canteens, hotels which generates waste to a tune of 40 to 60 Kg per day.

5. Vaayu-Mitra

Launched by IIT B alumni, Priyadarshan Sahasrabuddhe, Vaayu-mitra is startup from Pune, India, which is pioneering the idea of making your own green fuel. Their product – Vaayu, is a biofuel plant that can be easily installed at homes to convert carbohydrates from organic waste into methane gas which can be used for cooking and heating purposes. With the help of ‘Vaayu’, he is able to produce about 800 litre of biogas every day which is enough to meet more than 70 per cent of the fuel need of his house saving him about six LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) cylinders every year.

6. Jsamey Biotech

Jsamey Biotech Pvt. Ltd, the brainchild of Amey Marathe, was formed with the intention to curb the food waste generated from the restaurants in India. They collect the food waste from various hotels and restaurants in Hyderabad and convert it into biogas & nutritious organic fertiliser through the fermentation process. The Compressed Bio Gas will be sold at subsidized 48 INR per kg and organic manure at 8 INR per kg.

7. GPS Renewables

GPS Renewables was founded by Mainak Chakraborty and Sreekrishna Sankar, alumni of IIM – B, in the year 2012. The Bangaluru based company is radically transforming decentralised waste management model leveraging its 2-stage Anaerobic Digestion System – BioUrja. GPS has a proprietary cloud based plant health monitoring system ensures <1% plant downtime at minimal operational expenditure, without the need for any operations and maintenance staff onsite. GPS Renewables have completely reinvented traditional biogas plants, producing efficiencies in the range of 70 kg of LPG-equivalent per tonne of waste, with water footprints that are 1/10th of the traditional plants.