Collected by the Sintex driver in the morning, I accompanied Vishad to the home of one of the company’s clients. Mahesh A Maheshwari is the CMD of Aster Silicates Ltd. Had we had breakfast? Yes, thank you. So we were treated to a snack instead; something delicious involving yellow rice. We sat in the cool of his lounge, his servant bringing us water and tea, and he began to tell me about his company. For a minute I panicked; words like blast furnace, industrial grade sodium silicate and the German power giant RWE struck my ears. He must be mistaking me for someone else. He then told me of his plans for growing biomass and of his gas plants and I relaxed – back on home territory.
A brief pause for something else delicious involving ice cream and mangoes, and on with business. His company intends to use impoverished land or areas where there is high salinity for growing the crops. During the cultivations, the land would still remain the property of the farmer, and where possible would be returned to fertility and back to the care of the farmer. The biomass would be formed into briquettes for sale to use in household digesters of around 2 m³. Aster has plans to utilize municipal organic waste in biogas units, and use the gas to operate small power plants. Finally, they are planning a number of battery-charging stations around Narol (Ahmedabad) for the use of battery powered vehicles. At last I’m talking to somebody of some standing who doesn’t buy into the ‘clean, green’ electric car propaganda. Clean electricity coming out of your nice clean socket indoors, has mostly been generated miles away in a dirty power station. The Aster model uses bio-waste not fossil fuel. Excellent.
Mr. Maheshwari informed me he has solved the problem of operating a digester in a cool climate, and has developed microbial cultures to speed up the operation. He is a man with vision. Up on the roof of his home, he practices what he preaches. In the corner of the rooftop garden is a Sintex biogas digester. All his food waste, mixed 1:1 with water, goes in the funnel, the gas produced has cooked our snack, and the liquid comes from the bottom and feeds and waters all the potted shrubs and plants in the
garden. For the second time I was honestly surprised by the lack of odour. Impressive. There is a wonderful view from the garden across the city. All we can see are fine apartments and trees. The whole scene is glorious and exotic, and such a far cry from the dust, rubble and people strewn streets below.
This is all part of a social initiative on the part of the Indian Government. They had an attempt to finance green schemes a few years ago, but it all became mired in corrupt officialdom. The new green way is to get the industrialists involved - the high energy consumers - offer them the incentives like carbon credits, and the opportunities to be leaders in the green revolution, plus of course the kudos of a social programme, and you get results like this.
The next two visits were more environmental than biogas orientated. India is building. The urban sprawl into farmland in the shape of new apartment blocks is, in the state of Gujarat, under a certain degree of control. No permission for new builds is given unless they employ a system of water harvesting. At Iscon Green, a bungalow development of 145 units; two septic tanks, with a combined capacity of 100,000 litres, collect all the grey water from the bungalows, clean it through a process of microbial activity and aeration, and store it in tanks for use in the gardens. This was true of the second site, a learning institution designed for 800 students.
Lunch was at a typical Guajarati restaurant in town. There is no menu here, everyone eats the same food. We were supplied with a metal tray and several bowls and a couple of spoons, and then the waiters came round and filled the bowls with different dishes, fill the tray with what I can only (rather rudely) describe as other bits. Small samosa-like food, and different baked breads, and a small batter pudding. Yes, of course I asked what they were, but please don’t expect me to remember for more than a few minutes. It is a whole new language. There was also water and buttermilk. The waiters keep returning to the tables, and will top up your bowls or replenish bread, rice etc. until you pop. Anyway – all totally delicious; spicy but not savage, and well within my heat tolerance. Today’s faux pas; was eating the batter with the savoury and pouring the mango on the same. They were actually part of my pudding. Ho hum.
I also have a sore left sole. I had to remove my shoes at one stage during the day, and stepped backwards off the shoe mat onto the paving. Paving which had been in the sun for 8 hours. My Homer Simpson moment.
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