Biomass Briquettes

Posted by Deepi on October 11th, 2013

Discover of Bio Fuel

Despite the rapid growth of commercial energy, biomass remains a principle energy source in rural and traditional sectors and contributes a third of India's energy. Although biomass has been burning for centuries in rural area or villages, the fuel has not seen any optimum use in large scale industry until now. Biomass Briquettes or White Coal in the local language has brought biomass burning to the classiest of manufacturing industries around the country.

The Use of Biomass Briquettes

Biomass briquettes are used for power generation include bagasse, rice husk, straw, , soya husk, de-oiled cakes, coffee waste, jute wastes, groundnut shells, saw dust, cotton stalk etc. In Tamil Nadu, many Tea Factories are now using biomass briquettes in their boilers to generate steam for various applications. Steam is generated in boilers, by heating water. This was earlier done through, burning coal or Furnace oil to generate the heat to boil water. Through delicate modifications to the boiler, it is convenient to start burning biomass briquettes. There are now multiple agencies that help industries convert their boilers to burn briquettes. A Yajna bio fuel is one such company which has helped large industries convert their boilers.

Advantages

- Biomass briquettes for renewable energy can replace wood as a fuel. To say that wood is a renewable energy source is elongate the truth a bit. Of course, wood will renew itself faster than coal or petroleum.
-Biomass briquettes are made of grass, husks, hulls, leaves, food, and animal wastes. These are materials that usually fall to the ground and go back into the earth. When they are formed into biomass briquettes for renewable energy source, they can be used to cook with, or to heat a home 
- It can make Environment clean and healthy.

Current Status and Availability

The current availability of biomass in India is estimated at about 500 millions metric tones per year.    Studies sponsored by the Ministry has estimated surplus biomass availability at about 120 – 150 million metric tones per annum covering agricultural and forestry residues corresponding to a potential of about 18,000 MW.  This apart, about  5000 MW additional power could be generated through bagasse based cogeneration in the country’s 550 Sugar mills, if these sugar mills were to adopt technically and economically optimal levels of cogeneration for extracting power from the bagasse produced by them

The government says that “more than 60% of Briquetting plant is located in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. Potential users can easily build their own briquetting plant out of their state. Briquette manufacturing capacity has grown in the last few years.  Due to cost factor, we will see more users switching from fossil fuels to biomass briquettes.