The country’s first solid waste-to-hydrogen plant will be set up in Pune at more than Rs 430 crore, an official said on Tuesday.

The plant will be built by sustainable solutions provider TheGreenBillions Ltd (TGBL), which has signed a 30-year agreement with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

TGBL chairman and founder Prateek Kanakia told PTI that by next year, it would process 350 tonnes of solid waste per day.

“We plan to produce 10 tons of hydrogen daily from 350 tons of solid waste. We are setting up the plant at Hadapsar Industrial Estate in Pune. This is the first attempt in India to extract hydrogen from waste,” he added.

Kanakia said the company would invest Rs 350 crore in setting up the factory and another Rs 82 crore to build storage facilities and logistics support.

He added that PMC would pay TGBL Rs 347 per tonne as a dumping charge for the waste to be disposed of.

“The first 10-ton reactor will be installed in November 2023, and the entire plant is targeted for completion in November 2024,” Kanakia said.

For the Pune plant, PSU company Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL) will provide project management consultancy and TGBL’s wholly-owned subsidiary Variate Pune Waste to Energy Pvt Ltd will implement the project.

“The refuse-derived fuel from waste will be used to generate hydrogen using plasma gasification technology. We have received technical support from the Bhabha Institute of Atomic Research and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,” Kanakia said.

He added that the project aims to demonstrate the technical and financial viability of hydrogen production from waste.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, recently said that hydrogen is the future fuel and can be obtained from municipal waste.

Kanakia said TGBL is in discussions with municipalities in other states to implement and set up similar plants in the future.

“We are looking at partnering with any cash-rich municipal corporation anywhere in India. We want to go hand in hand with Guwahati Municipal Corporation under a public-private partnership model,” he added.