Bioenergy – Page 5 – Renewable Watch

Flexible Fuel: Bamboo fires up gasifiers

December 23, 2019

Bamboo, a renewable lignocellulosic material and non-food biomass, has immense potential as a renewable fuel. It can be used as an energy source by converting into solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. India is one of […]

Greening the Tracks: Growing uptake of solar and biodiesel in Indian Railways

September 26, 2019

Indian Railways (IR) plans to be a net-zero carbon emitter by 2030. To this end, it intends to increase the use of renewable energy in its operations. This presents a huge potential for renewable energy […]

Fuel from Forests: Using pine needles and other biomass to generate electricity in Uttarakhand

September 20, 2019

By Anita Khuller With an area spanning about 7.62 million hectares, the Himalayan subtropical pine forests are the largest in the Indo-Pacific region. In India, these pine forests are widely found in the state of […]

Green Fuel: Compressed biogas offers a feasible alternative to CNG

April 20, 2019

By Anita Khuller Biogas is produced naturally through a process of anaerobic decomposition from waste/biomass sources such as agricultural residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste and distillery spent […]

Cleaning Up Landfills: Biogas production could help reduce urban waste

January 17, 2019

Anita Khuller The rising heap of waste is creating a public health hazard in the country. In this scenario, biogas has emerged as a promising solution. Anaerobic bacteria break down food waste, which is disposed […]

Paddy Power: Making use of rice crop residue to produce bio-CNG

December 25, 2018

By Anita Khuller Due to the limited domestic production of petroleum products, India is compelled to import over 80 per cent of its fuel requirement. The country’s energy security cannot improve until alternative fuels are […]

Rewind 2018: Need for a step change

November 20, 2018

By Dolly Khattar The year 2018 has proved to be an eventful one for the country’s renewable energy sector. India has moved up three spots to occupy the second position on the world renewable energy […]

A Way Out: WtE deployment necessary to tackle India’s waste crisis

October 25, 2018

Anukriti Despite the slow growth in the waste-to-energy (WtE) segment, there has been an overall increase in the grid-interactive as well as the off-grid WtE capacities in the country. In fact, the capacity addition (16 […]

Utilising Waste: MNRE gives a fresh impetus to the WtE segment

October 24, 2018

By Khushboo Goyal The total installed capacity of bioenergy in India stood at 9.8 GW as of July 2018. Of this, biomass and cogeneration projects contribute 9.5 GW and waste-to-energy (WtE) contributes the rest. In […]

Dumpyard to Power Plant: Narela-Bawana WtE facility eases the load of landfills in Delhi

October 23, 2018

Delhi generates over 9,600 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day and this continues to grow with the increasing population and the rise of consumerism in the city. Further, the waste is not segregated […]

Making Use of Bagasse: Ugar and Jewargi plants use waste to produce power and ethanol

October 22, 2018

By Anita Khuller Ugar Sugar Works Limited (USW), the flagship organisation of the Shirgaokar Group of companies, has been involved in the manufacture of white crystal sugar for over 75 years. Its Ugar and Jewargi […]

Green Blends

September 26, 2018

In order to reduce the dependency on crude oil import and save its foreign exchange reserves, the government announced the Ethanol-Blending Programme (EBP) on September 4, 2002. Initially, the programme mandated the blending of 5 […]

From Biogas to Bio-CNG: Growing interest in new environment-friendly fuel alternative

August 19, 2018

By Khushboo Goyal Biogas is a mixture of different gases produced by the breakdown of agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, or food waste, in the absence of oxygen. When this […]

Waste Value: Promoting refuse-derived fuels to channelise municipal solid waste

July 22, 2018

Out of the 62 million tonnes of waste generated annually in the country, over 80 per cent is disposed at dumpsites in an unhygienic manner. With the growing urban population, environmental concerns and stressed resources, […]

Promoting Biofuels: New policy focuses on reducing oil imports

June 23, 2018

In May 2018, the union cabinet approved a national policy on biofuels that seeks to not only help farmers dispose of their surplus stock in an economical manner, but also reduce India’s dependence on oil […]

Lukewarm Response: Union budget leaves key sector issues unaddressed

February 27, 2018

With the deadline for the renewable energy capacity addition target drawing closer, the industry as well as the government need to ensure that the roadmap for planned capacity addition is followed and implemented in a […]

Interview with Husk Power’s Ratnesh Yadav: “I do not see microgrids scaling up in India”

December 31, 2017

Renewable energy-based microgrids have proved to be a viable business model in the off-grid space. However, only a few players have created a success story on the back of this model. One of these is […]

Reusing Residue: Finding clean ways to end crop stubble burning

December 31, 2017

Air pollution has risen to acute levels in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas. This spike is being attributed in large part to the burning of crop residue by farmers in Punjab and […]

Untapped Potential: Lack of a clear policy framework stymies bioenergy expansion

November 14, 2017

While redefining India’s renewable energy targets to meet the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, the government had set an ambitious target of 10 GW of installed capacity for bioenergy by 2022. Despite the high potential […]

Green Fuel: Exploring the potential of biogas for vehicles

May 7, 2017

Renewable gases can be produced by anaerobic digestion of wet biomass, gasification of woody solid biomass, or the power-to-gas process, in which renewable power is used for hydrogen (H2) production through electrolysis in order to […]