CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation on Tuesday commissioned a gasifier-based crematorium at Besant Nagar replacing the electrical facility there.

Civic officials say the new technology for the crematoria comply with the Union government's guidelines for incinerators for biomedical wastes and would drastically cut down pollution in the locality. It has already been used for revamping the civic agency's crematoria at Moolakotlam and Kannamapet and will be extended to other crematoria in the city by this year-end.

Over the years, residents of colonies around the crematorium at Besant Nagar have complained of high pollution caused by the facility, particularly the black carbon soot formation on their houses because of incomplete combustion.

Corporation officials admit that maintaining the furnance at high temperatures was a problem and hence the difficulty in controlling emission of heavy particulates. Even the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had issued notices to the Corporation.

The Besant Nagar facility has two cremation units. One has now been replaced, while the other has been shut down and will be subsequently converted to a gasifier-based unit.

The new gasifier-based crematorium has two combustion chambers — the primary chamber maintained at around 800 degree Celsius and the secondary chamber maintained at over 1,000 degree Celsius — to ensure that all particulate matter is completely combusted.

To further reduce the presence of the soot-forming particulates in the exhaust gas, a treatment system using wet scrubbers would ensure that fly ash and heavy particles are mixed with water. This water will be treated and used for gardening purposes.

Madurai-based Jwala Equipments and Consultants, which executed the work at Besant Nagar, has restructured more than 25 crematoria in various districts of Tamil Nadu in the last eight years.

The organisation is backed by two Madurai-based non-governmental organizations, Indian Society for Environmental Health and Centre for Environmental Sciences.

G. Thirumurugan, consultant for the project, said through the dual combustion chambers and wet scrubber treatment for exhaust, they expected to cut down emission of heavy particulates by more than 90 per cent of what is prevalent now. The private company has been handed the operation and maintenance of the crematorium for the next three years.

Cost-effective too

Apart from controlling pollution levels, the gasifier technology is also easy on the civic agency's purse by cutting back nearly 70 per cent of the energy bill. The gasifier-based crematorium uses solid fuel, including firewood and agricultural refuse, for combustion.

The ideal fuel should have a calorific value around 1,100 kilo calories per metre cube of gas produced.

Corporation officials hope to commence work on setting up gasifiers in at least six more crematoria in the next few months. "By the end of the year, at least 13 city crematoria will be using the environment-friendly technology," an official said.

The civic agency's pitch for gasifier technology comes nearly four years after it shelved plans for additional electrical crematoria.

It was then criticised for dropping the plans. In hindsight, officials believe that it was a blessing in disguise.

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