June 2006 Jatropha Conf at RB Hyderabad

JATROPHA CONFERENCE

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brahm.singh@rb.nic.in	5/6/06
dn.tiwari, bkkikani, ag.comm, secyrd, hazracr, director, secyagri.krishi, vc-bhu, panjabsingh03, leenameh, मुझे, sampathvs, sankar, sankartl, gmpillai, director, paramathmam, rama_d, vkgour, tulidk, parveen.mithra, shakeel52, jayasinghm, jayasingh, cooannadata

Sir,

As you are aware, “Bio-diesel Conference towards Energy Independence”
focus on Jatropha is scheduled on 9 & 10th June 2006 at Rashtrapati
Nilayam, Bolaram, Secundarabad, Andhra Pradesh.

You are requested to participate as per the program attached and perform
assigned task to make the event a success.

Your itinerary may please be intimated (if not already communicated) to
Shri N.V. Ramana Reddy, Addl Secy (Protocol), Room No. 205, 2nd Floor, C
Block, A.P. Sectt., Hyderabad-500022. Tel. No. (O) 040-23453151, Fax No.
040-23451233, Cell No. 09849343415, Res. No. 040-23417606 & e-mail
addlsecy_proto_gad@ap.gov.in to make arrangement for your accommodation,
transport and reception.

You are requested to reach the venue (Rashtrapati Nilayam) well before
time to go through the security check and be seated latest by 0845 hrs.

With regards
Yours Sincerely,


(Dr. Brahma Singh)
OSD (Hort.)
President’s Secretariat
Tel No. 011-23010543, 23013249 (Fax)
brahm.singh@nic.in

Attachment : Program of the Workshop

Copy to :

Shri N.V. Ramana Reddy,
Addl Secy (Protocol),
Room No. 205, 2nd Floor, C Block,
A.P. Sectt., Hyderabad-500022

You are requested to ensure arrangements accordingly facilitating arrival
of the participants on time to Rashtrapati Nilayam

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PROGRAMME

Bio-diesel Conference towards Energy Independence

Focus : Jatropha

Date : 9 th and 10 th June 2006

Venue : Rashtrapati Nilayam, Hyderabad

09 th June 2006

Time Programme

0900 Inaugural Function

0900 to 0910 Purpose of the Conference

0910 to 0925 Energy Independence Address by

The President

0925 Session : 1 Jatropha Experiences

Chairman : Dr D.N. Tiwari, Vice Chairman,

State Planning Board, Chhattisgarh

Speakers : Shri Vinayak Patil, Nasik, (Maharashtra)

Shri G M Pillai, DG, WISE, Pune 

Discussion : Farmers from different States

Participants Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,

Uttranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu &

Others.

1025 to 1045 TEA BREAK

1045 Session: 2 Status of Jatropha

Chairman : Dr. B K Kikani, VC, JAU Gujarat

Co-Chairperson : Smt Leena Mahendale (IAS)

Principal Secretary & Special

Officer (I), Mumbai

Page 2/4

Speaker : Dr. R.S. Kureel, Director, NOVOD

Board

Discussion : Shri Shakeel Ahmed, DRM,

Participants South-Eastern Railway, Kharagpur

Shri M. Jayasingh,

Chief Mechanical Eng. (Retd.)

Southern Railway, Chennai

Dr. V Ranga Rao,

Etv Annadata, Ramoji Film City, Hyd.

Shri A.K. Lohia, Secretary, UBFDB

1145 Session: 3 Quality Planting Material and Seed Standards

Chairman : Dr. N.B. Singh, Agri. Commissioner DAC

Co-Chairman : Dr. Brahma Singh, OSD (Hort),

Rashtrapati Bhavan

Speaker : Dr. M. Paramathma, TNAU

Discussion : Dr. Renu Swarup, Director, DBT

Participants

Dr. S.B. Lal, Dean, CF AAI

Shri R.K. Patnaik, Prof. & Head Deptt. Of

Forestry, OUA&T, Orissa

Dr. Naresh Kaushik, CCS, HAU, Bawal

1245 Session : 4 Land Availability

Chairman : Dr. Renuka Viswanathan, Secy, M/o RD

Co-Chairman : Shri V.S. Sampath, DG, NIRD, Hyderabad

Speaker : Dr. D. Ramakrishnaiah, Dir., M/o RD

Discussion : Shri V. Venkatesan, Consultant, M/o RD

Participants

Shri K Raju, PS, RD, AP Sectt. Hyderabad

Shri Rajgopal, Secy Planning, Govt of TN

Page 3/4

Shri C.S. Joshi, Dir, SF, Pune

Shri R. P. Agarwalla, CCF, Guwahati

Shri P C Mishra, Spl. Secy, RD,

Govt of Chhattishgarh

Smt. Veena Sekhri, Chairperson, BFDB,

Uttaranchal

1345 to 1430 LUNCH BREAK

1430 Session: 5 Production practices including Post-harvest

management

Chairman : Dr.C.R. Hazra, VC, IGAU, Raipur

Speaker : Dr. V.K. Gour, JNKVV, Jabalpur

Discussion : Dr. S.N. Naik, IIT, Delhi

Participants

Shri Shirish, Dhopeshwarkar, Hyd.

Dr. Arvind Shukla, GBPUAI, Pant Nagar

Dr Lalji Singh, IGAU, Raipur

1530 Session : 6 Extraction and Trans-Esterification

Chairman : Dr.V. Prakash, Director, CFTRI, Mysore

Speaker : Dr. D.K. Tuli, Indian Oil

Technologies Ltd., Faridabad

Discussion : Shri C.S. Bhaskar,

Participants Naturol Bio Energy Ltd, Hyderabad

Shri O.P. Goenka, Spl. Adviser,

COOIT, Hyderabad

Shri Raju Mansinghka, Sr. Vice President

& Member of NOBOD Board, Kolkata

Dr. R. Mandal, Executive Director, SREI

Page 4/4

1630 to 1650 TEA BREAK

1650 Session : 7 Linkages

Chairman : Smt Radha Singh, Secy, M/o. Agriculture

Co-Chairman : Shri TL Sankar, Adviser Energy,

ASCI, Hyderabad

Speaker : Shri Parveen Mithra, Vice President

Advisory Services, SREI

Discussion : Dr. S.D. Singh,Vice-Chairman, BFDB, UA

Participants

Dr. L.K. Vaswani, Director, IRM, Anand

Dr. Pradeep Ghosh, Secretary M/o E&F

Dr. Soumitra Biswas, Advisor, TIFAC

Shri A.K. Goel, Director, PCRA, Delhi

1800 Drafting Policy Frame Work

Chairman : Dr. Panjab Singh, VC, BHU, Varanasi

Members : Sessions Chairmen / Co-Chairmen

Lead Speakers

10.06.06

0900 Session: 8 Plenary

Presentation by Dr. Panjab Singh

Discussion

Recommendation

Biodiesel, an emerging renewable source.

Biodiesel, an emerging renewable source.

-- -- -- -- Leena Mehendale

Principle Secretary, GAD,

Maharashtra

Twentieth Century saw an extensive use of fossil fuels

all over the world, the innovations of hundreds and

thousands of different uses for petroleum & natural gas has

led to a significant increase in the need for fossil fuel in the

world. A growing number of scientific researchers and

political leaders have urged prompt conservation of fossil

fuels by investing immediately in energy-efficient vehicles,

machinery, and structures and by gradually shifting to

alternative sources of energy. The reason most commonly

given in support of fossil fuel conservation is that

“Petroleum Resources are finite” and “the need to prevent

future global climate change”. Most of these arguments

say, “fossil fuels provide about 95 percent of the

commercial energy used in the world economy”.....

“Combustion of those fuels constitutes the largest source of

emissions of climate-altering greenhouse gases”. Most

scientists agree that such emissions cannot be continued

indefinitely at current or increasing levels without causing

devastating effects on ecosystems and on people.

Electricity generated from fossil fuels such as coal and

crude oil has led to high concentrations of harmful gases in

the atmosphere. This has in turn led to many problems

being faced today such as ozone depletion global warming

and Tsunami.

The consumption of non-renewable sources of energy,

thus, has caused more environmental damage than any

other human activity. Therefore, alternative sources of

energy have become very important and relevant to today’s

world. These sources, such as the sun and wind, can never

be exhausted and therefore are renewable. They cause less

emission and are available locally. Their use can, to a large

extent, reduce chemical, radioactive, and thermal

pollution. They stand out as a viable source of clean and

limitless energy, as a source of non-conventional energy.

Most of the renewable sources of energy are fairly non-

polluting and considered clean.

In Indian context, “Bio-diesel”, as a source of

alternative and renewable source of energy has started

gaining momentum in a big way. Biodiesel (fatty acid alkyl

esters) is a cleaner burning diesel replacement, made from

natural, renewable sources such as Tree Borne Oilseed and

Animal Fats. Just like petroleum diesel, bio-diesel also

operates in compression-ignition engines, in fact the first

ever such engine invented by the German scientist Diesel

used peanut oil for fuel. Blends of up to 20% bio-diesel

(mixed with petroleum diesel) can be used in nearly all

diesel equipments and are compatible with most storage

and distribution equipments. These low-level blends (20%

and less) generally do not require any engine

modifications. Bio-diesel can provide the same payload

capacity as diesel.

Jatropha Curcas has been identified for India as the most

suitable Tree Borne Oilseed (TBO) for production of bio-

diesel both in view of the non-edible oil available from it

and its presence all throughout the country. The capacity of

Jatropha Curcas to rehabilitate degraded or dry lands,

from which the poor derive their sustenance, by improving

land’s water retention capacity, makes it additionally

suitable for up-gradation of land resources. Presently, in

some Indian villages, farmers are extracting oil from

Jatropha and after settling and decanting it, they are

mixing the filtered oil with diesel fuel. Although, so far the

farmers have not observed any damage to their machinery,

yet this remains to be tested and PCRA-like institutes

alongwith agro-mechanical divisions of various agricultural

universities must start working on it.

The fact remains that for use in modern machinery as well

as for mixing and storage this oil needs to be converted to

bio-diesel though a chemical reaction, called “Trans-

Esterification”. This reaction is relatively simple and does

not require any exotic material. The R&D Division of IOCL

has been using a laboratory scale plant of 100 kg/day

capacity for trans-esterification and designing of larger

capacity plants is being worked out in Anand Univ. Gujrat,

Delhi Univ and IIP, Dehradun. PCRA has developed

institutional linkages for research & development with

these R&D Institutes. With this initiative, suitable

technology & equipments for esterification of bio-diesel on

small & medium scales have also been developed. A few

industries have done experimental production even at 50

tonnes a day. These larger plants are useful for centralized

production of bio-diesel though it can be continued in

smaller capacity plants of .5 to 20kg/day at decentralized

level in villages till the optimum levels are not worked out.

These kind of small plants can be a way out to provide

energy security to our remote and rural areas, while it

would also contribute towards employment generation.

As such, all kinds of Tree Borne Oilseeds, be it edible or no-

edible can be used as a raw material for production of bio-

diesel. But from the Indian point of view we are yet to meet

our current demand of edible oils, hence the option left out

for India is non-edible oilseeds.

With sky rocketing crude oil prices, what is required now is

to spread the knowledge of this system and debug some

crucial fiscal issues like taxation policy, tax holidays and

subsidies, import concessions to palm crude oil. In

addition more attention is needed on developing agro-

economic practices and CDM mechanism, so that this

source of alternative energy can be exploited to its fullest

extent in our country.

Role of Biogas in Energy Security and Energy efficiency

Role of Biogas in Energy Security and Energy efficiency
-- Leena Mehendale

The question of energy security has become a major

important agenda of the Government. With far higher

cry for rural power, and high fluctuations in the

international crude prices, the search for alternative

fuels has become more urgent.

A real boost to the solution for energy security however,

lies in efficiency, rather than in higher supply.

This aspect struck me greatly when recently I had a

chance to look at the Integrated Energy Policy - a

document prepared some two years back by Planning

Commission of India. Let us look at some of the

numbers mentioned therein.

Our annual consumption of energy is nearly 450 Million

Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (Mtoe). Out of this 110 Mtoe,

that is, nearly one fourth, comes from non-commercial

resources and only 340 Mtoe is commercial, in the form

of electric power, Petroleum and Coal. The non-

commercial sources are wood, biomass and cowdung

cakes.

For the urban elite, it is rather difficult to comprehened

that the highest use for domestic fuel is still wood &

cowdung cakes. Out of our 135 Mtoe domestic fuel, only

5% is clean fuel, namely, LPG and a miniscule of

electricity. Another 15% comes as Kerosene and coal.

About 20% is cowdung cake and nearly 60% is wood.

We use annually, 80 Mtoe of wood and 30 Mtoe of

cowdung cake, while Kerosene is nearly 10 Mtoe.

Programs like India Shining or Bharat Nirman are

creating rosy pictures of India becoming world super

power by 2030. This is not possible without energy

security. Our growth rate of economy which is 8% for

last 3 years and which we want to take to double digit

will require tremendous amount of energy inputs by

2030. Our electricity demand will rise from 1.2 L

Megawatts to 4 L Megawatts, However out of our

indigenous coal stock of 100000 crore tonnes, only

50,000 crore tonnes is extractable and at an increasing

cost. This whole coal will also be sufficient for only 30%

of our need for electricity generation.

It is therefore high time that we relook at these fuels

and also at our methods of burning them. Much higher

burning efficiency can be brought in our methods by

spreading proper education and providing services to

the rural areas.

Let us start with gobar. We use 133 Million tonnes of

gobar in rural areas and 8 Mt. in urban areas totaling

to 141 Mt (which is Equivalent to 30 Mt of oil). The

standard method is to make dry cowdung cakes which

are then easy to store or transport if need be and use

them in traditioned Chulhas for daily cooking.

Efficiency of these Chulhas is very low - only 8%. This

means that most of our precious fuel is wasted - not to

speak of resulting smoke, pollution and innumerable

diseases suffered by women folk. Asthama, bronchitis

and eye problems are the most common.

Improving chullha efficiency can give good dividend.

The burning efficiency can go upto 22%. However

converting gobar in usable gobar gas can increase fuel

efficiency upto 50%. Thus the same fuel can perform 6-

7 times better job.

Cost of putting up a domestic size gobar gas plant of 2

meter cube size comes to nearly Rs.20,000. In last 40

years programs for subsidized gobar gas plants were

taken in surges when agencies pushed for targets but

without any program for maintenance of the assets

which have been created. Sufficient emphasis was on

constructing gobar gas plants - but the equally

important emphasis on creating trained manpower who

could repairs or make improvements was completely

missing. When the plants went into disuse for lack of

even minor maintenance, no attention could be paid to

them. The farmer whose family women were the real

beneficiaries was himself not too concerned. Rather he

was reluctant for paying money for repairs and the

women had practically no voice. The food could always

be cooked one way or other.

Today can we learn from these lessons when we are so

concerned for energy sources and alternatives? Let us

re-draft our gobar gas strategies in such a way where

these gaps are taken care of.

Over last 40 years, many plants were built. Many new

techniques have been invented and the program can be

given a push once again. This requires first and

foremost a change in the attitude and priorities of our

policy makers. Our priority cannot be to construct

more and more plants - with or without subsidy - small

or big, commercial or non-commercial. Our priority has

to be to create trained manpower - equipped to work as

a service provider at a cheap cost, when the local gas

plant goes into disuse for want of minor repairs. We

need to ensure the ready availability of such a person

who can get for himself an annual maintenance

contract. Alongwith this it is worthwhile to invest once

again in major repairs of some of the revivable plants

and a few thosand totally new plants.

Very early in my service I was associated with scheme

for gobar gas. In the years 81-83 when I was CEO in ZP

of Aurangabad & Sangli, the GoI had launched a

massive program for construction of gobar gas. Since

then I have watched the development of various

techniques, the good and not so good aspects of

program implementation

On the technical side, the very early KVIC models used

to have floating domes - later the fixed dome technology

came and today we can use both for domestic sizes. To

parry the problem of bad smell, water jacket technology

was used. There were many experiments about dome

material. As some complaints arose that the cement

domes developed cracks, people experimented with

fiber – glass and other material and this issue now

stands successfully trackled. Some companies

experimented with pre-fabricated ferrocement plants

too. All these designs have their own success stories for

show-casing.

The common digester sizes started from 2 meter cube

for domestic purpose. A farmer having 4 cattle would

get sufficient cowdung for meeting the daily

requirement of gas in his kitchen, for a family of 6-8

members. In 1986 I visited a farmer who used 20%

diesel and 80 % biogas in his diesel pump for pumping

water in the farm. In 1992, I visited the Anandwan

Justitute of Shri Baba Amte where he ran a Leprosy

rehab centre. It had around 500 inmates and 3 gobar

gas plants of 35 meter cube each which ran on nightsoil

and cowdung and daily supplied enough gas for the

entire kitchen activities.

These are some examples of successful plants. However

a large percentage of gobar gas plants then constructed

through Government subsides have gone into disorder.

Some years back TERI conducted a survey which

showed that about 80% of plants went into disorder and

disuse.

Today, when the need to reassess the situation and once

again build up the stock of our assets for renewable

resources and revitalize the program, I think we should

focus on those 20% plants which are still being used

successfully.

The action plan can begin with an experience sharing

seminar of those households where gobar gas plants are

still working, and those where the plant failed, those

technical experts who are constructing biogas plants

and those who are in the job of framing policies. Such

experience sharing will tell us about the do’s and dont’s

of the new program. Another point of action is to start

training rural youth in gas plant maintenance. Yet

another action is to undertake a survey of gobar gas

plants built over last few years and the reasons of their

failure or success. Then, a repairs program needs to be

taken up in right unrest.

The question of fire wood is also of crucial importance.

The estimates of IEP state that we burn 180 million

tonnes of wood for domestic fuel. Another estimate

states that for all uses put together, we burn nearly 220

million tonnes of wood and 130 million tonnes of bio

waste thus taking the total to 350 million tonnes.

(Nearly half for domestic and half for other purpose -

mostly industrial).

The efficiency of our traditional chullhas is very low -

nearly 8%. It means when we burn 100 kg of wood, we

get the real value of only 8 kg. The rest - nearly 12 times

of what is burned - goes as waste. Hence improving our

chullhas and small units of traditional bhattis eg. gur

bhatti, is very essential.

Two such experiments are worth quoting. In Udaypur

the KVIC developed a new model of chulhas in which a

pre-tested iron mould is used as a base material. The

dimensions of the mould have been finalized after lot of

trial - errors and improvements. The mud plus cement

chullhas are constructed around this mould and the

mould is taken out. It can be used over and over again

upto nearly 15000 chullhas. The chullha so made has

two compartments connected with a pipe and a chimney

is also fitted, which takes the smoke up and away. With

this chullha, the burning efficiency is found to increase

upto 22% which means straight saving of at least 25%

of our today’s wood consumption and consequential

environment pollution. The cost of mould is around Rs.

500 while that of chulha is around Rs. 1500. I was then

Executive director of PCRA (Petroleum Conservation

Research Association) and we decided to sponser this

chulha through an Action Research project. Under this

we funded the training of 5 masons, giving them moulds

and paying them 50% of wages for the chulhas so

constructed. In first phase we sponsored 2000 such

chulhas in Rajasthan. In the 2nd phase some more have

been sponsored. In yet another Action Research project

we sponsored a lab-to- field trials of fuel efficient Gud-

bhattis developed by Indian Institute of Petroleum.

PCRA has very good technical video films made on

these two subjects (and many more films relating to

energy efficincy). These can be used seminars and to

educate the end user.

In yet another experiment, I visited a small village

Odenthorai near Coimbtore. Here, with the leadership

of DRDA officials and the village sarpanch, power

generation is done from wood. First the firewood is

dried and chopped to small pieces. They are burned

with low oxygen supply in a small scale gassifier.

Carbon monoxide so produced is filtered with water

and taken to burn alongwith diesel in a diesel motor

where it produces electricity. All the village water

pumping is done by using this electricity. This is a far

efficient way of burning wood. This experiment has

been repeated in some neighboring villages who are

using excess electricity for street lights upto 10 pm in

the night. Thus the villages which used to be in the grip

of darkness after sunset are now active and bubbling till

10 pm. With power cuts having become so common in

rural areas, this locally generated electricity opens up

new dimensions of enterprise. A video films on this is

also made by PCRA and is available in our clip-bank.

Sources like solar energy, wind, bio-diesel are being

talked about a lot. It is high time we also pay attention

to the aspect of fuel saving and efficient burning of

biomass - be it cowdung or wood or farm waste.

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