Karachi: The buses operating in the Karachi Breeze Red Line project will be powered by biogas – with dung collected from Karachi’s Cattle Colony, according to a news source. This line, which will bring much-needed public transport facility to the port city, will be built over the next few years, and its buses will be powered by the biogas generated from the cattle excrement collected in this colony.
For this purpose, a biogas plant is already under construction, and this facility expected to be completed by the time the Karachi Breeze Red Line becomes operational. In this plant, cow manure will be put into a digester, where it will react with bacteria and produce different gases such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, methane, and carbon dioxide.
Then, methane, which is a liquefied natural gas, will be separated and decanted into CNG canisters at two designated bus depots. The buses operating along this line will be specially designed and will have cylinders to carry the gas on their roofs. Similar systems are currently being used in buses in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Turkey. Biomethane is being lauded by experts as a much cheaper alternative to CNG, and there will be a substantial supply of it due to the number of cattle in the city.
Residents of the Cattle Colony and representatives of the
Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association appreciated these efforts and stated that
biogas production would also help clear the waste from their areas,
particularly in the rainy seasons.
