Recently
the Prime Minister made a statement that large scale planting of trees would be
started for making firewood easily and cheaply available all over the country. A
proper nation wide agro-forestry project should considerably reduce the demand
for cooking gas from the villages.
But
modern kitchens cannot use firewood. They have to depend on gas or electricity.
Both are costly. Cooking gas supplies are not consistent in several places.
Power cuts often interfere with household functions. There is an effective
alternative for these fuels. It has been around for some time but did not catch
on because of the switchover to gas and electricity in urban areas, and cheap
availability of firewood in villages.
I
am talking about bio briquettes and pellets. Almost all solid wastes can be
used to make these either separately or in combination. It seems that in Thailand even
water hyacinth is used for green fuel briquettes. But here I am talking mainly
of coconut pith.
When
coconut husk is thrashed to extract the coir fibre, the pith falls off or is
removed. This is also called coconut dust or cocopeat. It is estimated that India is left
with about one million tons of this material every year. Some of it is used by
nurseries and in agriculture for soil conditioning and moisture retention. A
small quantity is exported.
Coconut
pith has good BTU. The heat it produces when burned is high. A couple of
decades back Sri Lanka
started producing briquettes by compressing the pith using lime as the binder.
These were actually disc shaped. I think the project was partly financed by
Swedfund. But it failed because there was no demand. People were switching over
to gas cooking. Now the wheel has turned a full circle in India and the search is for
cheaper cooking fuels.
The
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has financed some briquette
projects. It is doubtful whether any of them has really succeeded. The
technology and machinery used by them seem to be inefficient. This is an area which can
be improved without much difficulty. IREDA should undertake technology up
gradation projects in collaboration with competent organizations.
The
final product that is required is clean, easy to handle briquettes which can be
neatly packed. It could be sold by a pushcart men and in supermarkets. The
briquette should be easy to ignite, smokeless and give good flame. The stove
should be able to control the temperature and blend with the rest of a modern
kitchen. I believe that low cost stoves that meet the requirements have been
developed by the Appropriate Technology Center
of the Central Philippine University in Iloilo City.
It
is possible to design also portable equipments for making briquettes or pellets or
have area wise fixed facilities. These machines would also be able to process
unwanted materials like groundnut shells, rice husk, sawdust, wood chips, waste
paper, dry leaves and Municipal solid waste. How to make them usable for
cooking is to be studied. At least they can be utilized for bonfires in winter.
Making quality coconut pith briquettes can be good
business now. The capital outlay is low. Financing would be available
from IREDA and other organizations. The Coir Board, I am sure, would be happy
to help. It would be a great national service as well. There are two clear
advantages – provide cheap cooking facility and prevent or reduce the
accumulation of waste materials.
Let India move into
the briquette burning era.
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2 comments:
Instead of asking us to use fire wood wish our PM had suggested this. He could have even talked about bio-gas. I wish your blog gets noticed and a few enterprising fellows would start this business. But then in the business of energy none wants it cheap and renewable... there is not much profit is there?
Thank you for the comment, Happy Kitten.
This post has received good readership in my Silicon India blog in which it was included later. As you said, let us hope somebody picks up the idea.
There certainly should be reasonably good profit in this business.
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