The Punjab Energy Development Agency has released a draft green hydrogen policy aiming to achieve a green hydrogen and ammonia production capacity of 100 kilo tonnes per annum by 2030. The policy proposes extending incentives under the existing “Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2022” to new green hydrogen and …
when the search is on for effective and sustainable supplies of renewable energy, it is surprising that bamboo, noted for their fast growth and high production, have not been considered as a potential source of what is also referred to as "green gasoline'. The energy generated from sunlight per hectare …
THE Kyoto Protocol, forged in December 1997, appears only to advocate planting and conserving forests (afforestation and reforestation) in order to create carbon sinks in trees and also in soils. Little is said about using trees and other forms of biomass as an energy source to substitute the use of …
aids prevention: The government of India plans to launch the second phase of its nationwide AIDS control and prevention programme. The government has received Rs 750 crore from the World Bank for this programme. For the first phase (1992-99), the government had allocated around Rs 320 crore. Half of the …
The firewood crisis has not resulted in a forest crisis. For years, energy experts and foresters have believed that the poor will eat away the forests of the developing world like locusts in order to meet their ever-growing firewood demand. But how much do we really know about the poor …
Given this background, the results of the latest survey on firewood consumption pattern in India's rural areas published by Natarajan in 1995 are quite stunning. This survey generated data for the year 1992-93 whereas the last comprehensive energy consumption survey conducted by the ncaer had presented data for 1978-79. No …
The question today, therefore, is: Is the rosy picture presented by the ncaer survey of 1992-93 equally applicable to these areas? The 1991 census also shows that states with large tracts of hills and mountains like the Northeastern states and those with dry regions like Rajasthan are still heavily dependent …
One factor that no study has been able to analyse is to what extent the farmers of India have reacted to the firewood crisis and started to grow trees on their farmlands and private fallow lands or protect their forests. Surely, one would expect a rational economic response from farmers …
The moist tropical forests of the Western Ghats of India are pockmarked with savanna-grasslands created and managed by local agricultural communities. A sample of such savanna-grasslands with differing growing conditions was studied in terms of peak above-ground biomass, monthly growth and cumulative production under different clipping treatments.
TECHNOLOGY and Action for Rural Advancement, tara , which is a part of Development Alternatives, an ngo in New Delhi, is manufacturing products using biomass and other local raw materials like paper and building materials ( Development Alternatives , Vol 7, No 3). The power plant converts renewable biomass fuels …
ANIL K RAJVANSHI can India's dependence on imported fuels to meet her energy needs be reduced? The answer seems to lie in the creation of energy self-sufficient talukas (administrative blocks comprising about 100 villages) through biomass-based systems of energy generation, as suggested by a recent study by the Nimbkar Agricultural …
biomass has moved a key step towards competitiveness with fossil fuels. The McNeil generating station, a biomass power plant in Burlington, us, when completed, will house the world's first gasifier capable of burning biomass for electric power generation. Biomass gasification has the potential to marry the environmental advantages of biomass …
on the face of it, fire is damaging. But as far as ecology goes, it may prove to be constructive. One of the products of fire, charcoal, is an inert addition to soil that has more of physical rather than chemical effects. Yet it is well known that charcoal can …
DONELLA H MEADOWS at a meeting of the Forestry Market Transformation Initiative, in Underwood, us, held in August this year, everyone was enthusing about fibre that does not come from forests. Proud entrepreneurs were handing around kenaf paper, boards made from wheat straw and cardboard made from hemp. These products, …
HEAVEN is where home istheysay. Factshowevertell adifferent tale. Of coursetheystop short of categoricallydeclaring that the humblehomestead is a veritablehell-holebut results of the limitedresearches into the problem ofindoor air pollution do giveample cause for concern. They allpoint to one single truth:biomass fuels (woodcropresiduesand animal dung)burnt indoorsfor daily cooking and spaceheating in …
Evidence from temperate regions have often suggested a link between lung cancer deaths and radon exposure. A tasteless, odourless gas about eight times heavier than air, radon seeps out of the earth all over the world, but levels in the air outdoors vary significantly from place to place; exposure to …
Rising concerns today about global warming owing to the build-up of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane etc) in the atmosphere, has drawn the world's attention to global biomass combustion. Whatever little research has been undertaken on combustion generated by house-hold stoves in developing countries paints a distinctly grim picture. Studies …
Have you been undergoing bouts of lethargy at work or at home lately? Do you feel your memory has started playing tricks with you? Are you getting constant headaches, nausea, eye-throat-nose irritation or breathing troubles? If your answer is 'yes', chances are that you may be suffering from what is …
FOR an urban Indian centre of the mid '90s, the chief interest of the film The Village Republic lies in the excitement at the variety of experiments by villagers to control their resources. The film focuses on collective rural initiatives to stem biomass degradation in places like the Siwalik, Deccan …
