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Alternative Energy
Purpose
The activities of the community in GEV require energy resources. Located in the rural stronghold of the Thane district, energy is hard to come by. Let us consider two factors here -
Solution
To implement a sustainable and cost-effective method, to reduce the dependency on conventional sources of energy.
The Alternative
A) Bio Gas Energy Biomass is a renewable energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities. Biomass does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as it absorbs the same amount of carbon in growing as it releases when consumed as a fuel. B) Solar Energy GEV has exposure to sunlight for most part of the year and management identified certain unusable open areas to install panels to harness solar energy. C) Animal Driven Prime Mover Bulls not only contribute in ploughing the farmland, but also help substitute power requirement for couple of processes, which we shall study further
Benefits
a. Ample availability of Food Waste: Apart from our own kitchen waste, we have two free mid-day meal projects within a radius of about 30 km. Together they cater to lunch requirements of about 80,000 children a day. They have a potential of providing about 1.5 tons/day of vegetable waste and left over food. The bio
degradable waste, when allowed to decompose naturally, would lead to release of methane, which is a much more damaging greenhouse gas as compared to carbon di-oxide. Hence a dual benefit of generating energy and curtailing green-house effect is achieved. b. Organic Manure: The left over slurry, after the removal of biogas, acts as excellent organic manure in a very easily dispensable form. Since in GEV we have a zero chemical agricultural policy, this slurry is fulfilling the role of other expensive organic manures.
The Process
Food Waste
The Chemistry
Biogas is produced from bio degradable wastes through a process called anaerobic digestion, a naturally occurring process through which organic matter such as manure, food waste, and crop residues are stabilized by microorganisms strictly in the absence of air. During this process, some organic compounds are converted to methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gases. This mixture of gases is known as biogas. The composition of biogas is 50 to 75 per cent CH4 and 25 to 45 per cent CO2. Like natural gas, biogas can also be used as a fuel in power generators, engines, boilers and burners.
Storage
In practice, specially designed and insulated tanks are used to facilitate the anaerobic digestion process under a controlled atmosphere. These tanks are known as anaerobic digesters or bio digesters. The effluent coming out from the digester after the completion of the digestion process is known as digestate. Digestate has nutrient value and can be applied on land like manure. Digestate also has much less odour compared to stored manure.
Plant setup
Plant Floating dome type Fixed dome Source of biomass Cow dung from Cow Shed Food waste from FFL 30 cu.m 6 cu.m Capacity
Solar Energy
Feature Capacity of our Solar Plant during daytime (9am-5pm) Value 30 KW during Day. All the energy requirements of the farm are met through Solar Power 7.2KAH 3KW, 8 hours
Battery Backup Capacity of our Solar Plant at night Output of Solar Water Heaters
scheme. Annamrita serves meals reducing their waste management burden and costs by
Innovation in method
Initially our Bio-gas plant was designed for functioning on Cow dung but later with some modifications we have been able to operate it on food wastes as well which are available in abundance. In order to process the food waste, we made necessary modifications to the existing biogas plant so that it could generate about 60-70 cu.m of biogas with the existing set up. The following innovative changes were made in the existing setup to attain the goal: 1. A 5 HP pulverizer to crush the food waste before feeding 2. A 30 cu.m biogas balloon to store the additional gas 3. A 2 HP biogas blower to supply gas to kitchen at a high pressure 4. A ramp was constructed for the vehicle to climb and dispose the waste.