Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Well, it is not easy for anyone during the winters around Delhi, to ignore the smog. Noticing the same is easier, as it becomes difficult to breathe in toxic air.

We, Indians, wait for it to appear every year like a festival or a season to visit us.

This does not happen all of a sudden and is a chaos built of ground action by multiple factors like spiraling-in western disturbances, air pollution through bursting crackers, burning crop residue (parali) etc. in tandem.

Consequently, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) touches beyond 400, becoming worse than ever, posing a severe category threat to anyone who takes in the toxic air.

An analysis made by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has stated city’s vehicular emissions to contribute significantly in NCR’s PM 2.5 levels under domestic reasons.

However, paddy burning from the neighboring states and nearly 500 million tonnes burnt in the entire country every year, still remains a major reason for the capital’s air soaked in poison.

If we are to believe the data from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) aided System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR-India), farm fires in the region reached its peak.

On a certain day in November, there were 5,430 instances of willful fires which is higher than even the last year’s peak i.e., 4,500.

Stubble Burning: The best of all ways?

One can never consider a farmer to hurt the very surroundings he/she works in unless he/she is ignorant, which can definitely not be a reason now because of regressive awareness measures.

Or they willingly turn negligent and insensitive towards the environmental issues.

Farmers are supposed to prepare their lands for upcoming crop in November, which is generally wheat, after harvesting rice in late October.

Due to lesser time gap to prepare the lands to yield another staple crop and pressured availability of mechanistic harvesters, burning is ostensibly the most economical, easy and fast method to achieve the above.

This high cost and time involved with the straw management in paddy fields, provide enough room for unsustainable methods to creep in.

India’s traditional dependence on Biomass and a way out:

This country has a history of deriving its energy needs from biomass like wood, gobar dung cakes, straws etc. Can that benefit be appreciated now?

As per an Energy expert: “Biomass has a good scope considering India has a target of net-zero emissions by 2070.”

While the traditional stoves could yield some calorific value when provided with these abundantly unused inputs, the modern compact biomass power plants achieve the same though in a controlled environment.

Here the steam turbines are run to offer power in return but with utmost care and this becomes one of its limitations for greater adoption.

The storage and operation is difficult because of the inputs’ high silica content and alkaline nature that without check, may culminate in incomplete combustion and thereby, damage the equipment.

Alongside providing the energy security, this spurs local employment and the real trickle-down effect of technology within grassroots but the sector is battling with its own challenges.

These include the high running costs, incessant feed requirement, inadequate investment and promotion that it loses to solar and wind which have become comparatively cheaper to produce.

And consequently, it shares barely 10 per cent (10.1 gigawatts) of the total renewable capacity in India, as per the government’s data, while solar and wind occupies a staggering 85 per cent of the same.

“Currently, most of biomass energy production is captive which means industries are using biomass to run their own units to save on electricity bills especially in states where the industrial tariff is very high.”

Another fight is for the comparable and considerable tariff.

Currently the biomass power plants get operated based on older power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed offering variable tariff rates, ranging up to Rs 8.36 per unit of energy while it has been worked upon and lowered in case of Solar to around Rs 2.50 per unit.

“Sugar mills are the first movers in this space as they already have bagasse as a by-product of sugar-making process, which can be reused as a raw material for producing power.”

Punjab and management of its messy affair: Two problems, one solution

Production of an entity always depends on the availability of its raw materials, which is straw in case of Biomass.

It will not be difficult to name the state that has most of the potential to utilize biomass for energy but the installed capacity remains miserable.

As per an Interview by Mongabay in this regard: “Primary challenge for biomass power generation is feed and the land required to grow and store this feed.”

“Its cost depends on the local situation, distance from which procurement is happening and there is no formal regulation on this aspect. The everyday management is thus challenging.”

“Unlike a solar energy park, which is a one-time investment, we have to deal with day-to-day issues like procurement and storage”.

Restricting moisture content in straw and its lower weight, is another challenge to overcome.

Punjab can acquire the highest energy potential from biomass in the country i.e., 3,172 megawatts (MW) subsuming more than 20 million tonnes of paddy straw.

Every mechanism seems to have its own set of pros and cons. While the biomass energy module appears difficult, there are experts hopeful of its endurance.

An assistant Professor from the Department of Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, explains how:

“Biogas is the cleanest way to deal with paddy straw because not only there is no combustion involved, you also get the slurry which is rich in micronutrients and can be used as a bio-fertilizer”.

“In all other power generation methods, there will be emissions from boilers, creation of ash, and the nutrients of the straw, which should have gone back to the soil, are lost.”

Once we are sure, we can look forward to its exploitation, we ask is someone working for eliminating its perils?

To curb this menace, Punjab has provided the much-needed impetus to Biomass and Biogas power plant as well as a bio-CNG plant, all of these consuming the paddy straw.

Under the efforts to utilize around 200,000 tonnes of paddy straw every year, an 18 MW biomass plant has been set up near Ferozepur, Punjab.

The Punjab’s cabinet approved an incentive of Rs 25 crores (Rs 250 million) for the first 50 industries to install paddy straw-based boilers.

They aim to even allot panchayat land for storage of paddy straw with a 33 years lease agreement.

A different plan in order?

To be used as an alternative affordable fuel in industries, the paddy straw can be compressed into briquettes and pellets, thereby increasing its bulk density and calorific value.

Way to produce Biomass pellets

We are able to make briquettes which can be used to fire industrial boilers and brick kilns by overcoming challenges through technological innovations”, explains an energy expert.

“These briquettes could replace fossil fuel in conventional brick kilns and now trials are on to establish combustion behavior in industrial boilers.”

Besides, these pellets can also serve the pharmaceutical, food as well as dyeing industry.

However, it is to note that the quantity of paddy residue that is consumed using these alternatives is still only a fraction of what gets generated. The approach to strengthen paddy management will need a lot more.

A complete understanding of supply chains (beginning from collection to storage, transportation to pre-processing, conversion to usage) and relevant business models can help bring revolution.

Also, to overcome the problem in another regard, shorter duration varieties of paddy developed by several research organizations along with lesser needs of water in its cultivation, can thus be adopted in concerned areas.

The available varieties take approximately 160 days to mature while the developed varieties prosper in between 135-145.

In this way, the contribution of emission through burning of stubble can therefore lessen at the time when every condition complements and accelerates into a bigger tragedy.

Undertaking crop diversification and discouraging monoculture in agriculture, depending on the field, region, agro-climatic zone, water availability etc., too can reduce its impacts.

Nevertheless, be it the crop diversification or adoption of shorter duration paddy varieties, it remains vital that knowledge should be shared and worked upon by multiple stakeholders.

Humans have evolved so far, to adapt his/her environment as per the need but I guess, we have become wise enough to adapt our needs for a better environment.

By Alaina Ali Beg

I am a lover of all arts and therefore can dream myself in all places where the World takes me. I am an avid animal lover and firmly believes that Nature is the true sorcerer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *