Assessment of agricultural biomass for pellet production in Uttar Pradesh, India

Availability of biomass is critical for further development and growth of biomass-based energy systems. Plant biomass is renewable organic matter derived from vegetation like trees, shrubs and agricultural crops or agro-industrial wastes. India annually produces about 667 million tons of varieties of biomass resources, which is comparable with coal production in the country. One of the major limitations for effective utilization of biomass resource is its low density and seasonal availability typically ranging from 60-100 kg/m3of agricultural residues. Low densities of this biomass often make the material difficult to store, transport, and utilize. To overcome this limitation, the density of biomass needs to be increased. To overcome feeding, storing, handling and transportation problems, commercially, densification of biomass could be done with the help of pellet mills and other extrusion or briquetting processes. However continuous availability of biomass at reasonable price is another challenge for proper functioning of pelletizing industries. Although, variety of biomass residues such as bagasse, rice straw, cotton stalk, groundnut shells, etc., are available for pelletizing but economics and logistics of collection, transportation and storage of these residues could be a tricky affair. In India, present contribution of biomass pellet fuel in comparison to total fuel mix is insignificant because pelletizing industry is still at a nascent stage. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to promote the biomass fuels, establishing commercially viable pelletizing units at appropriate site from the point of resource availability, alternate feedstock, market demand of densified fuels in industries, institutions and at households (HHs) level to make the enterprise commercially viable and sustainable. This paper, presents an insight on demand and supply of agricultural biomass and its availability analyzed on the basis of extensive research conducted in twodistricts namely Basti and Jaunpur of Uttar Pradesh, in India. The paper highlights the critical barriers to increase the share of biomass fuels for replacing coal and polluting fuels in institutions and industries. The results presented in this paper are based on the research study “Preliminary assessment of agricultural biomass for setting-up decentralized pellet production plants in Uttar Pradesh, in India" commissioned with funding support from Deutsche Gesellschaftfuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).