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2-day meet on biomass

Our Bureau

COIMBATORE, March 30

IN a move to popularise the use of biomass as a source of energy, the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) is holding a two-day conference in Coimbatore on March 31 and April 1 on `Biomass gasification for thermal and power applications'.

According to Dr. P. Radhakrishna, Principal Scientific Officer, MNES Regional Office, Chennai, biomass was available in various forms like rice husk, saw dust, agricultural wastes like cotton stalk and cereal stalk and agro industrial wastes like groundn ut shells, cashew nut shells, etc.

These biomass products were subjected to gasification process which yielded a mixture of gaseous products containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide, etc. This gas could be burnt directly for thermal applications as in hotels, metal-melting industry, ceramic i ndustry, etc, he said.

Dr. Radhakrishna said the gas could also be cleaned completely to run duel-fuel mode diesel engines to produce both captive power and grid interactive power ranging from 50 KW to 3 MW. Projects with capacity upwards of 200 KW were economically viable.

He said for various biomass projects, subsidy was available from MNES and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency also extended financial assistance.

He said the conference would be attended by scientists from reputed institutions and representatives from related organisations and various aspects like technology, consultancy, operation and maintenance, cost benefit and fiscal issues, etc would be disc ussed at the meet.