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DESI Power
Orchha
Experience of Power Generation with Biomass
Gasification
- by Keshav Kumar, NETPRO Renewable Energy
Ltd
- Shiv Kumar, DESI Power (Decentralised Energy System India
Pvt. Ltd.) Bangalore.
Presented at IIT Delhi,
November 1999.
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Electrical power is the most essential input for economic development.
In post-independence India, however, the centralised power has not been
able to provide adequate amounts of electricity required for the economic
growth of the rural areas where the majority of Indian live.
The possibilities of decentralised generation systems in Indian villages
have been assessed in the light of this situation and concept of
Independent Rural power producers (IRPP) has been evolved to take advantage
of the changed government policies and legal framework for the power
sectors. IRPPs can be used as a social market instrument to provide power
and energy services to rural areas. Similar in its structure to the IPPs in
the centralised power sector, IRPPs based on local sources of renewable
energy, can under today's conditions, be competitive with power supplied
from conventional fossil fuel power plants at point end-use.
In the global context, no energy planning exercise today should ignore
the potential of renewable energy technologies in reducing the Green House
Gas (GHG) emissions. Since decentralised energy systems are the ideal
vehicles for the large scale commercialisation of renewable energy and the
simultaneous promotion of sustainable development of villages, the IRPP
solution presents an ideal win-win situation.
is a private, no profit-to-the-promoters company whose mission is to build
decentralised energy systems in rural areas on large scale and on a
commercial basis for meeting local energy needs and promoting the creation
of substantial local livelihoods.
DESI power is registered in New Delhi and was formed jointly by
Development Alternatives, India's largest International sustainable
development NGO, through its commercial wing, Technology and Action for
Rural Advancement (TARA), and DASAG, a Swiss engineering company
internationally active in renewable energy field for the last two decades.
DESI's first cluster company was formed as DESI power Orchha in 1996 at TARAgram
Orchha.
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TARAgram is a training-cum-production centre set up by Development
Alternatives (DA), New Delhi in Tikamgarh district of Madhya Pradesh, about
7 km from Orchha town. The centre is only 6 km away from Jhansi. The main
objective behind starting this centre was to initiate various activities
for sustainable development of the region.
When TARAgram was being set up, no grid connection was available for the
centre. At that time, DA decided to try out the new and upcoming technology
of gasification for power generation. Based on a renewable energy, the
technology was certainly attractive. So, at the planning stage itself, a
100 kW plant based on this technology to run two diesel engine of 62.5 kVA
capacity was considered to be the main source of supply of power for
TARAgram. The gasifier based power plant was commissioned on April 19,
1996, while TARAgram was formally inaugurated on April 22, 1996.
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The major activities in TARAgram are production of hand made paper and
low cost building materials. These units are a part of TARA, the commercial
wing of DA. These units are thus profit centres. On similar lines, it was
decided to run the gasifier based power plant as well on a commercial basis
to test the commercial viability of such a venture. In August '96 DESI
power Orchha Pvt. Ltd. was set up. This company henceforth referred to as
DPO, was to sell the power from the gasifier based power plant to various
users of power in TARAgram. The main users of this power at TARAgram are
hand made paper unit, low cost building materials production unit,
workshop, pumping water and for illumination in the complex. It is also
proposed to use the waste heat from two dual-fuel diesel engines to supply
hot air for drying the paper during monsoon months.
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Sl. No.
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Name of the
machine
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Rating (in kW)
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1.
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Big beater
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22
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2.
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Small beater
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16
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3.
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Agitator-1
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2.2
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4.
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Agitator -2
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2.2
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5.
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Agitator -3
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3.7
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6.
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Calendering machine
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7.5
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Total
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53.6
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Sl. No.
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Name of the
machine
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Rating (in kW)
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1.
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Cylinder mould
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19.9
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2.
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Paper cutting machine
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7.3
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3.
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MCR
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2
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4.
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Mixer
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2.5
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5.
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F/C machine
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1.4
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6.
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Crane
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2.5
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Total
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35.6
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Parasitic loads of the power plant
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Sl. No.
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Name of the
machine
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Load (in kWe)
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Total connected load to the power plant: 94.8 kWe
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1.
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Water pump
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2.23
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2.
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Blower
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0.735
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3.
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Wood cutter
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2.23
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4.
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Illumination to the power plant
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0.5
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Total
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5.69
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After the plant was set up, the most crucial part was to have a
sustained supply of biomass. The biomass used for the plant is a locally
available weed ipomea, which grows in marshy areas. On direct combustion,
this gives a very pungent odor and hence is not used as fuel wood for
cooking purpose. This biomass is totally unused in the region. For the
purpose of gasification, ipomea needs to be harvested from the marshy
areas and near water body. It further needs to be chopped in to small
pieces of about 2-3 inches. The chopping is done in the green condition.
It is then dried from an original moisture content of about 65% to
12-15%, before it can be fed in to the gasifier.
Since TARAgram was set up essentially to assist in the development of
the local region, the above activities of biomass harvesting, chopping
and transport were considered as a source of income for the local people.
Staff members of TARAgram who were already interacting with the villagers
for different development programmes, put a lot of effort to mobilise
local people to undertake the above activities for the supply of Ipomea.
While the social interest had to be taken care of, It was also required
to keep the cost of Ipomea with in reasonable limits for this would have
had a direct bearing on the cost of power supplied.
Many arrangements were tried out like -
to contract to certain villagers for
supply of chopped biomass
harvesting on daily wages and chopping on
weight basis
Different alternative arrangement suits for a particular season based
on the availability of labours.
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Performance of
DesiPower's Power Plant at Orchha from 1996 - 2002
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kWh
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Performance of
DesiPower's Power Plant at Orchha from 1996 - 2002
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Plant
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Gasifier
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The cooling water required for the gasifier is taken from the
wastewater coming out from the paper unit.
The water coming out from the paper unit carries some of the waste
materials. This water is filtered using a mesh and then used for cooling
in gasifier.
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The stem of the Ipomea is of cylindrical cross section with
cylindrical annuls space at the centre. Ipomea sucks salts from the earth
and stores it in this annular space. When this is used for the
gasification purposes, the cooling water has a lot of effluents. After a
sustained research, a method has been found to treat this water to remove
the effluents after coming out from the power plant at a very reasonable
cost.
The water coming out from the power plant is allowed to pass through
filter beds. The design ensures adequate residence times and flow rates to
bring down the levels of contaminants to acceptable values. The treated
water can be safely discharged or be re-circulated.
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