Experts from Tide Technocrats Private Limited, a Bangalore-based company which has pioneered thermal-based faecal sludge treatment plant in India, visited Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG) office at Karzoo on June 6. Dr Norden Otzer, executive director of LEDeG, gave a brief overview of the organisation and the Liveable Leh Project 2030. Arun Kumar RS and Amresh, the officials from Tide Technocrats, shared information on the thermal FSTP and said that they were assessing and studying all the FSTPs in India. They also visited the FSTP at Bomb Guard.

The company, established in 1995, work for solid waste management, renewable energy and sanitation, and they have to their credit the first thermal-based FSTP in India. “Unlike other FSTP plants which are based on biotechnology, this particular plant is based on thermal technology. This one is much better than bio-based FSTPs as it does not emit any bad smell and the bio waste could be utilised as fertiliser,” shared the officials.

Arun, who is the head of the sanitation department at Tide Technocrats, informed that community-scale faecal sludge and septage processor is one of their key projects.

Meanwhile, Amresh gave a description of the working of the thermal-based FSTP. He said that the faecal waste is discharged with high moisture levels of up to 95% and pyrolyzing the faecal waste with a limited supply of oxygen helps in destroying all the pathogens present in human waste thereby providing fast volume and mass reduction. It also gives an end product called biochar, which is an excellent soil enrichment when used with the compost.

Almost one-and-a-half years back, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with Tide Technocrats Private Limited and Biomass Controls LLC started work on development ofproducts and commercialising the planning of the community-scale faecal sludge treatment unit

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