Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has visited an exhibition of a research project to produce fuel oil from human waste and farm residues, and promised all the support needed to carry it out.
The exhibition was held on Saturday morning at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tejgaon, Dhaka. Prof Dr Md Khalekuzzaman of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KUET), a researcher on the project, briefed the prime minister on the technology for making fuel oil from human waste, sewage treatment plant waste, kitchen waste and farm residues.
The KUET team has worked on the research for about 10 years, using a process called hydrothermal liquefaction to turn waste into bio-crude. They told the prime minister that laboratory tests had yielded 50% to 55% bio-crude and that they had also succeeded in producing diesel-rich bio-crude.
The next step they plan is a pilot plant able to process one to three tonnes of waste a day, to test how well the technology works, what production costs and whether it is commercially viable. They put the cost of the proposed project at about Tk 100 crore to Tk 120 crore.
The researchers said that if the technology can be scaled up commercially it could in future replace about 10% to 15% of imported crude oil, saving an estimated Tk 6,500 crore to Tk 13,000 crore a year in foreign exchange. They said its effectiveness and economics at large scale still have to be tested.
Power and Energy Minister Iqbal Mahmud Tuku, State Minister Anindya Islam Amit, University Grants Commission member Prof Abdullah Al Mamun, KUET vice-chancellor Prof Mohammad Masud and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation chairman Dr Mohammad Rafiqul Islam were present.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report