TERI installs 650 gasifiers to generate clean energy for MSMEs
Updated: Feb 01, 2014 03:02:42pm
![image](https://www.knnindia.co.in/uploads/newsfiles/biomass-gasifier.png)
Biomass is an important source of renewable energy in India. It has been estimated that about 500 million tonnes of biomass, including woody biomass as well as agro-residues, is produced annually in the country, of which more than 150 million tonnes is estimated to be surplus. This, if used effectively in a cleaner energy form (such as biomass thermal gasifiers), biomass can contribute significantly in meeting the overall energy needs of the country in a sustainable manner.
Since 1994, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has been working in partnership with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to develop biomass gasification based clean energy technologies.
Essentially, TERI-SDC partnership focused on awareness creation and technology-seeding in selected industrial clusters besides cooking. So far TERI has installed around 650 gasifiers throughout the country with a cumulative capacity of about 65 MWth.
TERI has been doing pioneering work in realizing this potential in many micro, small and medium industries such as silk reeling, dyeing, food processing (sweets and namkeen units), plaster of paris, institutional cooking and non-ferrous melting furnace applications, its background paper for a consultation workshop: ‘Accelerated dissemination of thermal biomass gasifiers in MSME’s: Essential market conditions and policy requirements,’ scheduled to be held here on February-4 said.
MSMEs are in a position to realize economic and environmental benefit for themselves through the adoption of thermal biomass gasifier solutions, said The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
“Energy is one of the critical inputs in a large number of small and micro enterprises. Energy use is also closely linked with the environmental pollution. In this context, application of new resource efficient technologies becomes important,” it said.
The consultation workshop aims to provide a platform for various stakeholders - policy makers, regulators, consumers, gasifier manufacturers, system integrators and financial institutions - to come together and discuss possible interventions to address the challenges faced by MSMEs in the adoption of biomass gasifiers.
It is hoped that the event will help obtain inputs and insights from decision makers in government, financial institutions and end-user associations to address the policy and institutional barriers and facilitate further dissemination of the technology.
TERI has successfully licensed this technology to ten licensees across India for the manufacture and dissemination of TERI’s thermal biomass gasifier.
These gasifiers burn locally available low-grade biomass fuels as twigs, husk, shells of coconut and cashew, and mustard stalks and other crop residues in briquette form but offer the convenience associated with high-grade fuels such as gas and electricity.
This technology has been successfully implemented in many industries located across the country such as kilns (construction, polymer production); drying, frying (food products, rubber processing, chemicals production); hot water generator/boilers (institutional cooking, textiles – silk production, dyeing, food processing); Process heat (textiles, footwear, leather, polymer production, food products, chemical production, resins, moulding, paints, paper and packaging); Furnaces (electronics, metal forging and machinery fabrication).
Further, with support from MNRE, TERI organized series of awareness programmes on biomass gasification in selected clusters in Jodhpur, Bikaner, Chandigarh and Deharadun for potential users, state renewable nodal agencies, DRDA (District Rural Development Agencies), DICs, industries associations, entrepreneurs, and NGOs.
The key learnings from these field experiences include:
(a) The thermal gasifier systems are becoming economically very attractive in applications where fossil fuels are being replaced (due to their continued price rise).
(b) There is need to develop sustainable fuel supply linkages and continued strengthening of local delivery mechanism for large-scale adoption of these systems in various MSME clusters.
TERI has been receiving support from Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) from last 20 years for the development and accelerated dissemination of biomass gasifier technology. Initially, the focus of the TERI-SDC partnership was to develop the biomass gasifier technology and help in standardization of biomass gasifier set-up for replication in diverse fields. Currently, the technology has reached a stage where it is ready to be commercialized and now, the focus of the program is to promote accelerated dissemination of the technology. TERI-SDC partnership has been instrumental in providing clean gasifier-based solutions in the MSME sector for thermal applications such as silk reeling, textile dying, magnesium chloride production, brick drying, spices drying, wax melting, aluminium billet heating, poha making, sand drying, cardamom curing, natural rubber processing, chemical extraction, metal smelting, and mineral processing.
In order to engage with key stakeholders and promote the technology, TERI has conducted stakeholder workshops and technology demonstration events in Bangalore and Ahmedabad.
The events saw wide participation from stakeholders such as State Nodal Agencies, State Pollution Control Board, Government Agencies, SIDBI, MSME-DI, NABARD, State Bank of India etc as well as end-users of the technology. (KNN/ES)