Year: 2014 | Month: December | Volume 59 | Issue 4
Crop biomass production and its utilization in Punjab: Some energy considerations
DOI:10.5958/0976-4666.2014.00022.9
Abstract:
The present study was carried out to estimate the production and utilization of biomass along with the energy potential from surplus biomass in Punjab. It was found that paddy crop was harvested mechanically; cotton was harvested manually while basmati and wheat are harvested by using both mechanical and manual harvesting methods. Average yield of biomass was estimated to be 2.51, 7.59, 6.78, 1.96 and 6.20 tonnes per hectare in the case of wheat, basmati, paddy, paddy husk and cotton sticks respectively. It was estimated that 100, 93.86 and 43.18% of the area was put on fire to burn the stubble in the case of paddy, wheat and basmati respectively. The total production of the biomass was estimated to be 48.26 million tonnes in 2009-10 in Punjab. After meeting the farming consumption needs, the surplus biomass was estimated to be 35.96 million tonnes. Assuming the combustion efficiency being 30%, the energy equivalent of surplus biomass has a potential to run as many as 904 power plants of 5 MW capacities for 365 days 20 hours a day. The findings of the study showed that there exists a vast scope for using biomass in the electricity production and other useful purposes.
© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Print This Article Email This Article to Your Friend
