Sri Lanka’s National Engineering Research and Development (NERD) Centre is in the process of developing a bio gas unit suitable for converting city refuse, weeds and water hyacinth into bio gas. This project will be located in the Muthurajawella swampland, just outside Colombo, and will involve the revival of the city’s canal network.
The canals have not been used for decades, and are currently choked with silt and factory waste. The plan is to use the bio gas plant to dispose of the refuse in the canal. Once this has been achieved, the canals will be used to reduce congestion on the city’s roads, and will enable municipal waste from the nearby municipalities for disposal, simultaneously generating power. The digested material left after disposal makes an excellent organic fertiliser.