started studying biogas plants/anaerobic digestion process

No knowledge or success stories in the country regarding biogas plants; Mian Arif Ali started studying biogas plants/anaerobic digestion process and decided to install an experimental digester at his home. In November 2009 the 5 Cubic Meter digester lit the first biogas flame. With the successful flame of biogas the journey began.

The experiment continued now the goal was to operate a gas generator using biogas. This was also done with the same setup but by adding 2 gas purification filters using chemicals (NaOH). Later water based biogas scrubbers columns were experimented and gas was cleaned.

Small success was shared with friends

In his group and circle of friends the small success was shared but no one believed that any kind of energy can be produced just utilizing the waste. But one of his friend who is facing issues in cooking 3 meals for large group of 50 people on daily basis using wood as was fuel got convinced that this can save a lot of cost as he had 15-20 cows in his native village near Samundari. The plant was a floating drum 20 Cubic Meter plant provided enough gas using available cow manure and other organic wastes. This reduced the cost of wood fuel and gave him added benefit of liquid fermented manure for his fields.

Formally incorporated as Pakistan’s First Biogas company

In 2011 company was formally incorporated as Pakistan’s First biogas company. Though this was the first step and still with no expertise available he kept on improving his knowledge and the installed plants.
During this year the company got 2 more projects; one was a 150 Meter Cube plant at Kasur and another one of 300 Meter Cube plant at Manga Mandi in a dairy farm.
The 300 Meter Cube plant successfully used biogas in a 40 KW Generator.

700 Meter Cube Biogas plant was installed

This year a 700 Meter Cube Biogas plant was installed as a pilot project in a textile unit that ran a 90 KVA generator. Grass was used as feedstock to produce biogas and Water Scrubbers were used to purify the biogas.
Another project of 1,200 Meter Cube was also awarded to the company to run a 150 KVA generator in a factory near Sheikhupura. This was the first project that was fully operated by the company. A team of 3 people hired were including a Chemical Engineer & a Generator Operator. The company also bought its first CHP unit for production of electricity.

People started showing faith the expertise of the company

Slowly the people started showing faith the expertise of the company and a project for a housing scheme was referred by one of the clients. The Housing Scheme was facing issues in providing basic utilities like Gas & Electricity to its customers as Loadshading of both Electricity & Gas was at its peak. New connections to the housing schemes were banned due to non-availability of natural gas. Revgreen considered this challenge as an opportunity and diverted its efforts to install a 400 Meter biogas digester.

Revgreen was awarded with a 3,000 Meter Cube plant

The supply of Natural Gas from the gas company to the industry is normally shut off during 4 months of winter and industries have to look for alternative options like solid biomass (wood, corn cob etc.) and LPG. These options are expensive which increases the cost of production. This year Revgreen was awarded with a 3,000 Meter Cube plant by an industry owner who was facing shortage of gas every year. He decided to go for biogas as alternative option for the continuous supply of gas for his operations. Construction on the project started in end of 2014 and took 4 months to complete the project.

Now company have experience of designing, construction and operations

Now company have experience of designing, construction and operations and this led to small but continuous sources of revenue. The construction of 3,000 Meter Cube project was completed in May 2015 and it started supplying gas regularly by end of July 2015 when all the 5 digesters became fully functional. Operational contract was also awarded to the company for the operation of this project. This not just included operations & maintenance but also to manage the supply chain of the feedstock all year round.

Another project in South Punjab was also in pipeline and by end of 3rd quarter of 2015 the project was awarded to the company. The company was supposed to design the project and to supply the equipment. The construction was taken by the owners themselves as they had resources and manpower to do so. This was a 4,000 meter cube project and it was supposed to run a gas generator for the supply of electricity for a paper mill.

Expansion of the housing scheme

With the expansion of the housing scheme the 400 Meter Cube digester was insufficient for the continuous supply of biogas to the community. The management decided to extend the capacity of the project. A 2nd 1,000 Meter cube digester was installed to fulfill the growing needs of ever increasing customer base. Another digester of 3rd 1,000 Meter Cube digester to fulfill the growing needs of. The biogas plant is also providing around 125 KWs of electricity during the loadshading hours instead of using Diesel generators

500 Meter Cube plant for another housing scheme

3 more projects were awarded to the company which included a 500 Meter Cube plant for another housing scheme near Lahore, a 200 Meter Cube Plant for dairy farm & Operations of 3,200 Meter Cube unfinished biogas plant of an educational institute in Lahore. The plant is supposed to provide 1 Megawatt of electricity to the institution.