Rajkot firm to produce biogas from potato waste

Gujarat's Balaji Wafers is setting up a plant to produce biogas from potato waste. Balaji Wafers, a Rajkot-based company, which enjoys a 70 per cent market share in potato wafers in Gujarat, is setting up the processing unit over 35 acres in Valsad with an investment of Rs 100 crore.

The biogas plant will have a capacity to produce 300 cubic mt biogas, said Keyurbhai Virani, director (R&D), Balaji Wafers.

Virani claimed that Balaji was the first company in the country to start biogas production from potato waste. "We are investing Rs 1.5 crore to set up the biogas plant," he said.

Balaji produces around 100 cubic meter gas out of waste water at its Rajkot plant. After Valsad, a similar technology to produce biogas out of potato waste will be installed at Rajkot unit.

The company's present unit in Rajkot has a capacity of 1,200 kg wafers an hour.

The upcoming Valsad plant will have a capacity of 2,200 kg wafers an hour.