S &
T for Rural Development – Synergy needed between NGOs and BARC
( Invited talk given at BARC,
Mumbai on 8 September 2003)
Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute
(NARI),
E-mail:nariphaltan@gmail.com
Good afternoon
ladies and gentlemen.
I must thank Dr.
R. Chidambaram and BARCOA for inviting me to give a small talk on rural
development. It is because of the vision
of Dr. Chidambaram that the core advisory group in rural technology has been
set up in his office and this seminar is a part of the series of steps he has
taken to sensitize the R & D establishments regarding rural
technology.
Rural
development is a very vast subject and hence I cannot do justice to it in 30
minutes but will try to give you some flavor of the type of R&D that can be
done to improve the lives of rural population.
Consider the following facts.
·
Around 60-65% of rural population does not have
electricity. Even after 56 years of
independence they are still using 100 years’ old hurricane kerosene lamps for
lighting. In some states like Bihar and
·
Around 90% of rural areas use about 180 million tons of
biomass for cooking through extremely inefficient (10-15%) and smoky
stoves. Besides poor quality of end
result, use of smoky stoves is also detrimental to the health of rural women
[1].
·
Cooking and lighting energy constitute 75% of total energy
used in rural areas [1].
·
30% of our population, most of whom live in rural areas,
earn less than Rs. 50/day.
·
There is no safe drinking water in any rural areas.
·
Rural
population has the same aspirations as those in urban areas and hence want
clean cooking energy like LPG and good light source. What should be done to
generate wealth so as to raise the income levels of rural population and to
provide them with amenities so that their lives are made productive and comfortable?
I
feel that both these things can be taken care by production of energy in rural
areas from renewable resources through advanced technologies and hence my talk
today will be on technology development for these areas and how BARC and other
advanced science and technological
centers can take part in this process.
I
will talk today about lighting and cooking since it consumes the maximum energy
in rural areas and will try to show how very sophisticated science and
technology from emerging areas like nanotechnology and biotechnology can be
used to provide solutions. And finally I
would like to talk about how S&T NGO’s like us and BARC can work together
for rural upliftment.
It can safely be
said that the history of present civilization is the history of lighting. Without the increase in waking hours for
mankind all the major developments of this world might not have taken
place. Adequate lighting during evening
and night helped increase the productivity of people and enterprises. Adequate lighting should therefore be a part
of minimum needs program of any government for its people.
Presently mankind
knows two methods to produce light. One
is via thermal route where the fuel (like kerosene or oil) is used to produce
an incandescent flame so that yellow light results from heating the soot
particles. This type of light is
produced from open flame, candles and hurricane lanterns. Another example of thermal light is that
produced by the use of thermoluminescent mantles made of rare earth oxides
which are heated by high temperature flame.
Most of the pressurized mantle lanterns (generically called Petromax)
fall in the category.
All the remaining
lighting is affected by electricity.
This includes incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes, high-pressure
discharge lamps, etc. Since in rural areas of
The quality of light obtained from
flame type devices (hurricane lanterns, candles etc.) is very poor [< 100
lumens (lm)]. Besides it is based upon
incomplete combustion principle. Hence
the yellow flame produces soot, CO and CO2. In the confined space of
rural households the use of such lanterns can be injurious to health. However, the light from pressurized mantle
lamps (Petromax type) is comparable to that from light bulbs or fluorescent
lamps and hence these offer the best place for improvement. The good lanterns in this genre have
efficient and complete combustion of fuel.
Presently available “Petromax” lamps in
A major research program of mantle
type lantern improvement was therefore initiated at the Nimbkar Agricultural
Research Institute (NARI) in mid 1980s which resulted in the development of “Noorie”
pressurized lantern [2]. It is
lightweight (1.5 kg), easy to light and doubles up as a cooking device. It also has self-cleaning characteristics.
The light output from Noorie is ~ 1300 lm and is equivalent to that from a 100
W electric light bulb. It is a multifuel
lantern and can run on kerosene, diesel and ethanol (with slight
modifications). Noorie lantern is very
fuel-efficient and consumes 40% less kerosene than the “Petromax” for the same
light output. However, development of Noorie lantern revealed that the
bottleneck in light output is the low efficiency of rare earth oxide
thermoluminescent (T/L) mantles.
Presently the efficacy (efficiency of light production is called
efficacy) of these mantles is ~ 2-3 lm/W [2], whereas the efficacy of light
bulbs is ~ 10-15 lm/W and that of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) is 50-70 lm/W
[1].
Thus R & D is required in
developing better T/L mantles so that their efficacies can match those of the
light bulb. With such efficacies, liquid fuel lighting will be superior to electric
lighting in terms of overall power
plant-to-light efficiency. Presently the
overall power plant-to-light efficiency for fluorescent lamps is ~ 14 lm/W.
This includes power plant efficiency of 30%, T&D losses of 20% and
fluorescent lamp efficacy of 60 lm/W.
For small distributed electricity system the efficacy can further reduce
to 10-12 lm/W since the efficiency of electricity production from diesel or
petrol in the 10-20 kW range is much lower than that of power plants.
The presently used T/L mantles in
pressurized kerosene and gas lanterns have not changed since Aurbach developed
them in
For
liquid fuel based lighting to progress it is necessary that alternative to
kerosene is developed. Thus the liquid
fuel should be produced from locally available biomass resources and made
available at affordable rates in rural areas. Liquid fuels that can be
manufactured from biomass sources are ethanol, pyrolysis oil and non-edible
oils from tree borne seeds. Ethanol and
non-edible oils have been used for cooking and lighting for quite some time
[1]. However extensive R&D is
required in pyrolysis oil. This medium
calorific value (CV) fuel can be produced by fast pyrolysis of biomass at ~
500-6000C. The biomass has to
be dry with moisture content of less than 15%.
The ensuing ensuring liquid has CV of 17 MJ/Kg and is equivalent to No.
6 heating oil. With some modifications
it can be used for cooking and lighting energy.
There are only 3 pilot plants producing pyrolysis oil in the world and
there is a need to develop and upgrade the technology for
Another
brand new technology, which is coming up in
Simultaneously
there is a need to work on distributed electricity based lighting. Energy
production in rural areas through natural resources like biomass, solar and
wind can provide large-scale employment and wealth to these areas. A study done by NARI showed that Taluka level
energy production from available agricultural residues could take care of all
its electricity and liquid fuel requirements.
Thus the agricultural residues available in the country can
theoretically produce about 55,000 MW power via the 10-20 MW Rankine cycle
based power plants. Besides our Taluka
study also showed that it could provide additional 30,000 jobs every year to
Taluka inhabitants and in the process produce Rs. 100 crores wealth annually
[4]. The study became the basis of
national policy on energy self sufficient Talukas and was run by MNES from the
middle to late 1990’s. However this was
before the 2003 Electricity Act and hence could not be sustained because
distribution and transmission of power were still with SEBs. Nevertheless it started the national program of
biomass based power projects and till today about 40 stand-alone biomass based
projects of 6 MW capacity each have been financed in various talukas of the
country. With the 2003 Electricity Act
coming in force I feel that decentralized energy production and distribution
via renewable energy will proliferate and will bring in tremendous wealth to
rural areas.
In
addition to the 5-10 MW biomass based power plants there is nevertheless a need
to develop very efficient power producing technologies in the range of 20 kWe
to 1 MWe. These can be
based on biomass gasifiers, space age steam engines or new types of liquid fuel
engines running on renewable fuels like ethanol, pyrolysis oil or
biodiesel. Even small scale (10-30 KWe)
nuclear powered thermoelectric generators as used in space program could
provide compact, decentralized long duration power in rural areas.
However, two
electricity-producing technologies for lighting need mentioning here for
further R&D. One is the development
of human muscle powered lighting system and the other is thermoelectric devices
for light. Recent advances in
lightweight and highly efficient permanent magnet D.C. (PMDC) motors have made
it possible to produce small amount of electric power via human muscles (range
of 40-60 W). This electricity together with rechargeable batteries can power a
light emitting diodes (LED) system for lighting. Among all light producing devices, LEDs are
one of the most efficient and long lasting.
Presently these systems are very expensive (US $ 50 for a handheld
flashlight). Hence R&D is required
in essentially three areas namely: development of very efficient and
lightweight PMDC motor (40-50 W), development of efficient capacitors with
suitable electronics as a substitute for batteries, and development of cheap
LED units. A cycle powered unit in
which the members of a household can take turns to charge the battery and which
will give 3-4 hours of light will be a great boon for rural areas. This may be akin to Mahatma Gandhi’s charkha
except it will produce electricity instead of spinning cotton and in Gandhian analogy
may help in sustainable development. Use
of LEDs with efficient batteries will also be helpful in using photovoltaic
(PV) units for lighting. Presently,
because of poor efficiency of batteries and light sources, a relatively bigger area
of PV panels is required. This increases
the cost of the system since PV panels are the biggest component in the cost of
these units.
Similarly
majority of rural households use biomass cookstoves for cooking no matter what
their economic strata are. The stoves are
very inefficient and smoky with about 10-15% cooking efficiency. An extremely efficient thermoelectric device
attached to the stove can produce 50-60 W of D.C. power. This power can be stored in suitable high
efficiency batteries for lighting. At
the same time part of the power can also be used to run a small fan for the
cookstoves. Recent biomass cookstove
designs have shown that air draft powered by a 5-10 W fan can double the
efficiencies of these stoves. A small
fan may also be useful in creating gasification in the stove, which can further
help the combustion process. Recent
developments in nanotechnology and new materials has also shown that very
efficient thermoelectric elements and
thermionic devices can be developed [1].
Some of these thermoelectric elements have been able to break the ZT
barrier of 1 and have reached a figure of 2.4.
ZT is a figure of merit which shows how good the device is in converting
heat to electricity. The higher the ZT,
the more efficient is the device. Materials experts think this is only the
beginning and predict that in 5-10 years these materials will form the basis of
solid state refrigerators (via Peltier effect) and small scale power generators
(via Seebeck effect). Similarly
nanotechnology has been used in making an efficient thermionic device for power
generation. R&D is therefore necessary in developing these devices
economically for cookstoves so that high temperature and soot loading can be
tolerated by them.
Finally one of the most efficient lighting
systems in the world is bioluminescence of firefly where chemical energy is
converted directly into light. Estimates are that its lighting efficiency is
around 85-90% compared to that of a light bulb, which is 7-10%. R&D should be done in trying to duplicate
this mechanism. Ultimate lighting system
can be thought of as a solar powered unit producing luciferase enzyme and
luciferin (the two chemicals used in bioluminescence of firefly) from a biomass
resource and then using them at night to produce light. It is an utopian dream but will be the
ultimate in a distributed light source.
Cooking
Energy Technologies
I feel the only way in which a
clean, safe and convenient cooking system can be provided to rural areas, is by
the use of liquid and gaseous fuels produced from locally available
sources. Production of suitable liquid
fuels has been described earlier. The
cooking stoves to run on 85% (v/v) and higher ethanol concentrations are
adequately developed. NARI has successfully modified existing kerosene
pressurized stove to run on 85% (v/v) ethanol. [3]. The flame burns with bluish
white color and the efficiency of this stove is 40-50%. NARI's work has also shown that it is
possible to run a stove with 45-50% (v/v) ethanol concentration. The stove is open combustion flame type. Such low percentage ethanol solution can
easily be distilled in any rural setting and is presently distilled as illicit
liquor for drinking purposes. Use of
this ethanol for cooking energy may also help rural women in two ways. Firstly, the illicit liquor distilled can be
taken away from the men and then used in cookstoves. Secondly, women will not have to travel long
distances and suffer hardships in collecting firewood.
The gaseous fuel can be produced
either as biogas or producer gas from the existing biomass sources. Biogas has been used extensively in rural
areas of
These few R&D examples can be
multiplied in other areas like food processing, rainwater harvesting and
breeding programs of crops and animals.
I feel that rural development can take place at rapid pace when very
sophisticated R&D is brought to bear on it. This type of R&D will have
to be developed by us and cannot be imported.
We can however use technologies developed for other areas and modify
them for rural applications. Ultimately, I feel we will follow nature where all
the processes are carried out extremely efficiently with few materials, in
minimum number of steps and at room temperatures.
However no amount of R&D will
help the rural areas unless and until the technologies are readily available at
affordable prices. It is therefore
necessary that S&T NGOs, BARC and corporate sector should work together to
create a workable framework to spread these technologies.
Finally I would like to suggest
that we will be delighted to work with BARC on developing some of these
technologies. I would therefore like to
offer the services of my NGO to BARC so that we can take one or two R&D
projects and see how they grow and spread.
I would again like to thank Dr.
Chidambaram for inviting me and having the vision of using excellent science
and high technology for rural development.
Thank you.
REFERENCES
1.
Anil K. Rajvanshi, “R & D strategy for
lighting and cooking energy for rural households”, CURRENT SCIENCE,
Vol. 85, No. 4, 25 August 2003.
2.
Anil K. Rajvanshi and Sudhir Kumar, “Development of Improved Lanterns for Rural
Areas”, http://nariphaltan.org/lantern.htm
3.
Anil K. Rajvanshi, R. M. Jorapur and
4.
Anil K. Rajvanshi, " Talukas can provide
critical mass for India's sustainable development", CURRENT SCIENCE, Vol. 82, No. 6, 25 march,
2002.
©NARI.
2003
With Dr.
Anil Kakodkar and Dr. R.C. Chidambaram on stage
Dr.
R.C.Chidambaram giving memento to Anil Rajvanshi