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 …
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, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
INDIAN scientists, in collaboration with Dutch researchers, have developed the technology to convert agricultural residues -- like rice husk and groundnut shell -- into briquettes for use as an efficient, economical and a non-polluting fuel. The screw press technology for briquetting biomass compacts low-density agricultural residues into cylinders with a …
A recent study conducted by scientists from the Regional Engineering College (REC), Kurukshetra, reveals that all energy needs of a village can be met locally from the available biomass, using fluidised bed technology -- an industrial technique for efficient combustion. The technology involves suspending the material to be burnt by …
PLANTS support human life. Period. Today, a majority of people in the developing countries depend on fuelwood, dung, charcoal and agro-wastes for their cooking, heating and other energy requirements. A flicker of electricity is also produced from agricultural and other wastes. Subsequent to the oil shock in the '70s, and …
Renewable energy sources and technologies have been researched and promoted in varying degrees in different countries over the past 2 decades. Do energy experts have a clearer idea now as to which renewable sources and technologies should play a greater role in meeting rural energy needs? I don't think that …
FAR from the shrill cut-and-splice medley of liberalisation, reform and the free market highway to economic growth, some experts have been advocating an alternative approach to alleviating poverty and dealing with energy scarcity in India. They banded together in Bangalore recently to suggest a bioresources strategy for India. Bioresources, essentially …
The international conference, BioResources "94, held in Bangalore from October 3-7, aimed to forge a new strategy to use biomass resources for sustainable development. However, at the end of the conference -- organised by the International Energy Initiative, the Biomass Users Network, the Commonwealth Science Council, and the Stockholm Environment …
Does rural fuelwood use and more generally rural biomass use cause forest degradation? This question has been debated in scientific and policy circles. The author presents a framework for defining degradation and sustainable use of forests that might help clarify some of the confusion.
Socialist economist Ignacy Sachs of the Centre de Recherches Sur le Bresil Contemporain ***(translation) in Paris has severely criticised current Indian development policies. Addressing scientists at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) in Delhi on November 25, he said, "The present policies seek to cater to …
MAHATMA Gandhi dreamt of an India where villages would be independent entities, supporting themselves by harmonising human needs with local resources. Today, driven by the bogey of over-exploitation and the steady depletion of natural resources, researchers are frantically trying to find ways to realise the Mahatma's vision by making the …
IT ALL began in the early 1980s, when the village of Seed near Udaipur in Rajasthan registered itself under the Rajasthan Gamdhan Act of 1971 that gave the gram sabha full control over all the land within the village boundary, including erstwhile government land. The sabha, consisting of all adults …
