The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is taking up academia-industry collaboration for technology development in thermal power generation using paddy straw as fuel. This will be a major boost to tackle ‘stubble burning’, considering that Punjab and Haryana alone produce 35 million tons of paddy straw per year.
Paddy straw is not fit for cattle feed and are being burnt in the fields. But the same straw has the useful heating value of around 3200 to 3500 K Cal/kg, which is closer to the coal used for power generation in thermal power plants.
Why is stubble burning harmful?
Stubble burning causes soil erosion, kills beneficial soil organisms, and emits harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and methane along with particulate matter.
SAEL is commissioning two 100% paddy straw-based thermal power plants
SAEL (Sukhbir Agro Energy Ltd), which is operating two biomass-based power plants, one in the state of Uttar Pradesh and another one in Punjab, has gained sufficient experience in collection, transportation and storage of paddy straw.
SAEL is in the process of commissioning two 100 per cent paddy straw-based power plants in Punjab, besides implementing two more power plants based on the same fuel in the state of Haryana.
How IIT Madras is using technology provided by Danish companies
These paddy straw-based power plants are based on the technology provided by Danish companies to the Indian OEMs.
Taking this as a threshold, the technology needs to be indigenously adapted to the Indian conditions, which also requires further improvements to achieve better efficiency and reliability.
With this aim, SAEL approached the NCCRD (National Center for Combustion Research and Development) at IIT Madras, Chennai, to enter into collaboration for conducting research and developmental activities.
This would require certain facilities to be constructed at IIT Madras to closely look into the combustion of paddy straw, with funding from SAEL.
The results would be put to test for further development in a boiler environment with a facility created, as suggested by IITM, at a centre at one of the power plants of SAEL.
The faculties of IIT Madras and NCCRD, as part of this consortium, will provide the expertise to create the facility and carry out the core research.
Objectives of the industry-academic collaboration to tackle stubble burning
With the above background NCCRD at IIT Madras has entered into a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with SAEL with the following objectives:
Proposing solution to the fouling problem faced in the operating plant, Detailed research on establishing optimal operation of the power plant with 100% paddy straw through systematic analysis, Exploring possibilities of using paddy straw to produce useful fuels and/or chemicals, and Exploring possibilities of mixing/co-firing the paddy straw with other biomass fuels and / or municipal solid waste.
Speaking about this collaboration, Dr. R. Vinu, Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “Apart from the development and optimization of combustion technology for the power plant, the JDA has got the objectives of directly extracting valuable chemicals and fuels like bio-char and bio-crude from the paddy straw via pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction techniques.”
Prof Ravindra Gettu (centre left), Dean (ICSR), IIT Madras, and Jasbir Singh Awla, (center right), Managing Director, Sukhbir Agro Energy, displaying the MoU for the joint research project on reducing stubble burning by using paddy straw to power thermal power plants.
How will these objectives be achieved?
Speaking about the targeted outcomes of this collaboration, Prof. Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, Professor In-charge, NCCRD, said, “These objectives will be achieved by conducting trials in a laboratory scale combustor to be constructed at IIT Madras and a prototype boiler constructed at the Technology Development Centre in Punjab.”
“While IIT Madras will meet the technical requirements such as design of prototype boiler, conducting trials and providing solution to the existing boilers and providing criteria for the design of new power plant boilers, the whole project will be funded by SAEL,” he said.
“Further SAEL’s technical team will provide technical data from the operating boilers, conduct trials on the prototype boiler as directed by IITM to achieve the objectives,” he added.
Highlighting the technical contributions being planned under this JDA, Prof. V Raghavan of Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “Starting from systematic fuel characterization, mathematical models to simulate and understand the salient aspects of paddy straw combustion will be developed, and the operating parameters of the boilers will be optimized. This will enable emission reduction and long-running of boilers fuelled by paddy straw”.
Benefits of this collaboration
Highlighting the benefits of this initiative, Jasbir Singh Awla, Managing Director, Sukhbir Agro Energy Ltd (SAEL), said, “This collaboration is poised to indigenize the paddy straw firing technology and avoid imports, thus contributing to the Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ campaign.”
“Further around 4000 MW is possible with the straw available in each year in Punjab and Haryana. This 4000 MW can be generated without greenhouse gases besides saving the land from stubble burning,” he said.
“The Technology Development Centre in addition to the above R&D activities will also serve as a skill development centre by conducting training programmes and courses on power plant operation with provision of direct exposure to the operation and maintenance of the power plant,” he added.
Challenges with paddy straw-based thermal power plants
Owing to its seasonal availability, power generation using paddy straw (one of the biomass fuels) is not popular in India, even though this fuel is available in abundance in Punjab and Haryana. This is due to two reasons, explained Prof Vinu from IIT Madras.
Firstly, the straw required for the entire year will be available in a span of two weeks, and within this time the straw need to be procured, transported and stored even with its voluminous nature.
Secondly, due to the presence of some inorganic chemicals in the paddy straw ash, the ash fouls the heat transfer surfaces while firing in the thermal power plant boiler.
Sukhbir Agro Energy Ltd (SAEL) that is owning, operating and adding power plants in north India based on this fuel, has successfully developed the supply chain for procurement of straw from various farmers and storing to cater to the power plant operation over the entire year.
However, challenges in combustion still persist and the operating plant of SAEL needs to be stopped almost once a fortnight to remove the fouling, which reduces the PLF (Plant Load Factor) drastically.
This is expected to be resolved by the R&D efforts under this consortium.
Source: IT
Image Courtesy: Alternative Energies
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