Jamshedpur: A senior corporate executive here has become arguably the first man in the steel city to set up a small biogas plant at his flat's balcony, which he hopes will slash his LPG cost by half and make his small garden bloom while using up his kitchen wastes.

Gaurav Anand, chief manager (environment and sustainability) in Jusco, Tata Steel's civic utilities subsidiary company, is doing something rather revolutionary in his company apartment at Professional Flats, Kadma. A week ago, with the help of a friend who owns a small-scale industry in Adityapur, he created and assembled a portable biogas plant in his balcony.

Anand's plant comprises a re-informed fibre plastic (RFP) cylinder and dome. The cylinder has an inlet to put kitchen and organic waste inside the cylinder, and two outlets, one for the biogas and the other for the fertiliser slurry. Affixed to the biogas outlet is a 10 metre pipe that goes all the way to his kitchen and is attached to a cooking stove. A tray is fixed below the slurry outlet to collect it.

It's a neat arrangement. The entire structure cost him less than Rs 10,000 and a few hours to assemble.

To get the plant working, Anand poured 80kg cow dung and water in 50:50 composition inside the cylinder and placed the dome. Then he poured up to 500 grams of kitchen waste and a glass of water through the inlet at a time. Daily, up to 500 grams of kitchen waste can be pushed inside the cylinder to decompose and form biogas and fertiliser.

Biogas started coming out in 24 hours, Anand told this reporter. "We are using the gas to cook," he said.

Fertiliser slurry will come out anyday now, he said. "The first cycle for slurry generation takes a week to 10 days," he said.

Quite the talk of his neighbourhood now, Anand disclaims all praise for the unique initiative. "I got this idea for a balcony biogas plant from friends down south who are using it. One of them said his LPG cylinder used to get exhausted in a month, but now, supplemented by biogas, run for more than two months," Anand said. "I am hoping I get the same results. After I assembled my biogas unit, at least five of my neighbours want similar facilities in their balconies. I hope I can inspire many more people."

Asked, Jusco spokesperson Rajesh Rajan said they would promote the concept of individual biogas units in apartments and housing complexes managed by them in the city.

"If people set up biogas units at home, much of the organic waste generation in the city can be tackled on its own. Jusco is ready to provide its expertise in setting up similar facilities anywhere in the city. Since 2015, we have installed bigger biogas plants at guest houses and institutions managed by Tata Steel that generate kitchen waste in bulk," Rajan said.

According to conservative Jusco estimates, areas under its command generate municipal waste between 250-300 tonnes a day and kitchen/food waste up to 20 tonnes a day.