S & T for Rural Development – Synergy needed between NGOs and BARC

( Invited talk given at BARC, Mumbai on 8 September 2003)

 

Anil K. Rajvanshi

Director

Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI),

P.O. Box 44, PHALTAN-415523, Maharashtra, INDIA

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 Assam about 90-95% rural households use only kerosene for lighting [1].

·        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.

·        India is one of the major producers of food in the world and yet the value addition in food products is only 7%.  This results in tremendous monetary loss to the marginal farmers and to the nation Mostly it is the result of lack of energy to power appropriate food processing industries in 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.

 

Lighting Energy

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 India the grid electricity will not be available for a long time to come, it is safe to assume that the lighting will remain dependent mostly on liquid fuels or at most on decentralized electricity sources.  Therefore there is a need for R&D in these areas to make such devices affordable and efficient.

 

Liquid fuel based lighting

            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 India were developed in Europe in early 1920s and have been copied all over the world.  In India they are available in hundreds of “avatars” with varying quality.  Their manufacturing is in the unorganized sector and hence the quality of majority of them is quite poor.  Recently, because of frequent blackouts and brownouts there has been an upsurge of LPG-powered mantle lamps. However, small LPG gas cylinders to power these lamps are not readily available in rural areas.

            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 Germany in late 1880’s.  They are basically a mixture of 99% Thorium Oxide and 1% Cerium Oxide (called Thoria mixture).  However with the present level of materials technology and use of nanotechnology it should be possible to develop new materials for T/L mantles which will use less of radioactive Thoria mixture and also increase the efficacy.  Research is also needed in developing better substrate for mantles.  Presently the mantles are made of silk cloth and after firing them a very thin ash substrate remains which is very fragile. Consequently the mantles have to be replaced frequently which increases the running cost of such lanterns.  There is thus a need to develop stronger and more durable materials such as those based on ceramics and carbon-carbon composites. With such mantles the liquid based lighting can become very rugged besides being efficient.

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 India. Pyrolysis oil has been used in 5 MW diesel gensets as a replacement for diesel.  Small units producing 1000-5000 kg/day pyrolysis oil can revolutionize the liquid fuel production and will also generate wealth in rural areas.

Another brand new technology, which is coming up in U.S., is that of thermal depolymerization of any type of agricultural and animal waste.  In this process any wet material like municipal, kitchen or process industry waste can be converted under high pressure (40 atmospheres) and medium temperatures (500-9000C) into light crude oil.  This is a revolutionary technology and can transform the waste material in rural areas into value added oil thereby generating wealth and useful energy.  Nevertheless development of process from the information available in open literature is needed.  Presently there is only one plant in the world in U.S. but if the technology succeeds then it may spread rapidly.

 

Distributed electricity based lighting

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 India. However it is produced very inefficiently in fixed and floating dome systems and requires considerable amount of cowdung and other nitrogenous material.  It is not suitable for a household with less than 3-4 cattle. Besides there are problems of gas production during winter and improper mixing of mixed inputs like biomass, night soil, cowdung etc. The biogas which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide cannot be liquefied and requires very high pressure (> 100 atmospheres) to compress it so that it can be used over extended periods.  Thus R&D is necessary in two areas.  One is in the development of extremely efficient biogas reactors so that the production/unit of biomass inputs could be maximized.  The second area is to develop appropriate storage materials which could store biogas at low pressures. R&D is being done world over in methane storage and recently experiments have been conducted in storing it at medium pressures (< 40 atmospheres) in hydrates, porous carbon and other organic structures.   There is thus a need to develop low cost storage materials so that biogas could be stored in them for usage in households.  Thus a scenario can be thought of whereby a micro-utility company can be set up in rural areas which will buy locally available raw materials like cowdung, biomass, etc.  and will use them in a very high tech biogas reactor to efficiently generate biogas.  This gas can then be stored in small cylinders lined with gas absorbent structures and can be transported to households like the present LPG cylinders.  This will revolutionize the cooking system in rural India.  Optimization of biogas production from a reactor requires sophisticated electronic based controls and bio-chemical engineering technology.  A small utility can afford to do it whereas for a household it might be too costly.  Tinkering around with existing biogas reactors will not solve the problem.  A very sophisticated science and technology input has to be brought to bear on the problem for optimizing the biogas production in rural areas.              

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 N. Nimbkar,  Ethanol from Sweet Sorghum”,  Publication No. NARI-ALC-1 (1989).

4.      Anil K. Rajvanshi, " Talukas can provide critical mass for India's sustainable development",  CURRENT SCIENCE, Vol. 82, No. 6, 25 march, 2002.

 

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With Dr. Anil Kakodkar and Dr. R.C. Chidambaram on stage

 

    

Dr. R.C.Chidambaram giving memento to Anil Rajvanshi