Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research

Vol. 62, January-February 2003, pp 106-123

Biofuels of India
V V N Kishore

and S N Srinivas

Tata Energy Research Institute, Darbari Seth Block, Habitat Place, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003

Biofuels play an important role in meeting energy requirements in the world and its position in the context of
developing countries like India is rather vital. The present paper attempts to provide an overview of the resource base,
conversion technologies, and emerging end uses and research needs in the overall context in India. Authors also observe that the
efforts made in India in modern biomass utilization in the last two decades have not succeeded with the desired level of
achievements. Though several alternative techniques/technologies for efficient use of biofuels have been developed, however,
they are yet to transform into acceptable package of product with the mechanisms to disseminate them through manufacturer and
market network to the end users.

Author for communication.

E-mail: vvnk@teri.res.in
1.0 Introduction
Biomass was the chief source of fuel in the
pre-industrial revolution world and is still quite
important in any developing countries, such as India.
Worldwide, photosynthetic activity is estimated to
result in energy amounting to approximately 3000
billion GJ annually in the form of biomass of which
about 10 per cent of it is used for animal feed,
fertilizer, fuel or feedstock (Alexandrov et al. 1999).
The remainder serves the essential purpose of
moderating climate, recycling water and essential
nutrients, and performs a host of other ecosystem
functions, which are vital to human well being.
Although biofuels account for only 12 per cent
of the global energy requirements in terms of total
energy content, they cater to the largest section of
energy users. It is estimated that about two-thirds of
households in the developing countries are still
dependent on biofuels for cooking and heating, and
many of these households use open fires or poor
quality stoves (Capsule Report Jan 1999).
The 1973, oil crisis and the more recent global
climate change concerns brought into focus sharply the
post-industrial revolution conflict between economic
development and energy sustainability. It has been
shown again and again that the best way of resolving
this conflict is by promoting energy conservation and
renewable energy utilization. The importance of
biomass as a renewable energy resource, especially in
its prevalent form of stored chemical energy, as opposed
to solar and wind energy which fluctuate widely, has
increased in recent years. This can be observed not only
in developing countries like India, but also in industrially
developed countries, such as Netherlands, Germany,
Finland and Sweden. The focus on biofuels has
increased since it is net zero contributor to carbon
dioxide. In addition, the global obligations to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions have renewed interest in the
biofuels. The present paper attempts to provide an
overview of the resource base, conversion technologies,
and emerging end uses and research needs in the overall
context of modern biomass utilization in India.
2.0 Biomass in India: Resource Base, End Use
Efficiency and Emission Characteristics
Most of the developing countries depend heavily
on biomass for their energy needs and India is no
exception. An estimated 220 mt of firewood is used for
cooking in rural areas and about 160 mt of non-fodder
agricultural residues every year in the country. In
general, firewood consumption would show a steady
increasing trend (Ravindranath and Hall, 1995).
Questions of sustainability of such high consumption
levels had been raised in the past, but it appears that
most firewood comes from a variety of local trees and
shrubs, chiefly Prosopis juliflora (locally known as
Jali), grown on private land, community lands,
roadsides and wastelands. Though deforestation due to
high dependency on firewood for cooking is of concern
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


107
in select areas in the country, there is not much
evidence to suggest that firewood use is contributing
significantly to forest loss at the national level. In fact,
satellite data shows that forest cover has increased
marginally in recent yeas, probably due to increased
regulation, better forest management and afforestation
programmes such as Joint Forest Management. Thus
the current solid fuel resource stands at about
380 million t/y. In comparison, the coal production is
about 270 mt and lignite production is 19.5 mt, adding
up to about 290 mt of solid fossil fuel production per
annum. Considering that the calorific values of several
biomass residues are comparable to those of high-ash
coals, produced predominantly in India, it can be said
that the solid biofuel resource is at least as big as the
solid fossil fuel resource.
Another bio-resource in India is cattle dung.
Nearly 600 mt of wet dung is produced annually from
a livestock population of about 288 m (cattle and
buffaloe) (TEDDY 2000/2001). Table 1 shows that
the livestock population is also growing, though the
rate of growth is low. This means that the wet dung
would be available as a sustainable resource. If all this
dung can be converted into biogas, the gas

Table 1- Growth of cattle and buffaloes (million)
Year Cattle Buffaloes Total
1972 178.3 57.4 235.7
1977 180.1 62.0 242.1
1982 192.4 69.8 262.2
1987 199.7 76.0 275.7
Source: TEDDY (TERI Energy Data Directory &
Yearbook) 2000/2001
production would be 36 bcM/y. If organic wastes such
as sewage, municipal solid waste, and distilleries can
also be taken as feedstock for gas production the total
biogas potential would be 36.8bcM/y. In comparison,
19.3 billion m
3
of natural gas and 3.42 mt of LPG were
consumed in 1994-95. In terms of heat energy, this
amounts to 0.975 exa joules (1 EJ = 10
18
J)/y, whereas
the biogas production potential is 0.693 EJ/y. Thus the
biogas potential, at nearly 70 per cent of the current
gaseous fossil fuel consumption levels, is too large to be
ignored. Biomethanation would also produce about 96
mt of manure. In comparison, the chemical fertilizer
consumption in 1997-98 was 16.4 mt. The fossil fuel
and bio-resource base of India is summarized in Table 2.
One major drawback of biofuel use is that these
fuels are used in traditional stoves and furnaces, which
are inherently inefficient. It is well known that
conventional mud stoves operate with thermal
efficiencies of the order of 10 per cent or less. Nearly 40
per cent of 15 m unorganized enterprises consume
biofuels in India (Sarvekshana, 1995) [Unorganized
enterprises are those which are not registered under the Small
Industries Development Organization of India]. Though
considerable number of registered small industries also
consumes biofuels, accurate information is not available
on the number of such enterprises and the quantum of
fuels consumed. Survey of some biomass using
enterprises (Kishore & Rastogi, 1987; Mande et al.,
1999; Mande et al., 2000) and available data show that
the end use efficiencies of devices used in such
enterprises is also quite low. An estimated 20 mt of
biomass is used in traditional rural enterprises (Kishore,
1999). A partial list of biomass using enterprises is given
in Table 3.

Table 2 - Fossil fuels and Bio-resource base of India
Conventional Fuels Biofuels
Coal Production (1995-96) 270.0 mt Fuel wood used (1994-95) 220 mt
Lignite Production (1994-95) 19.5 mt Crop residue production (1994-95) 160 mt
Total solid fuels 289.5 mt Total 380.0 mt
Natural gas (1994-95) 19.30 bm
3
Biogas from cattle dung (potential) 36.23 bm
3

LPG Produced (1994-95) 2.80 mt Biogas from Sewage (potential) 0.29 bm
3

LPG imported 0.62 mt Biogas from MSW (potential) 0.24 bm
3

Biogas from other wastes (potential) 0.05 bm
3

Total 36.8 bm
3

Total gas energy 0.975 EJ/yr (1 EJ= 10
18
J) Total gas energy (ultimate potential) 0.693 EJ/yr EJ= 10
18
J)
Source: V V N Kishore, Lecture notes on biogas technology, prepared for Renewable Energy Updating Workshop for FMNES
staff, Pondicherry, June 1997
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108
Thus, though the bioresource base of India is
substantial, its contribution to useful energy is low. An
indirect consequence of the low energy use efficiency is
that the carbon emissions would be high. [Useful energy is
the energy that is ultimately used for the end application. For
example, in water heating the heat content of hotwater is the useful
energy while the heat content in the fuel that was fed is the input
energy]. The ratios of carbon content to calorific value of
several fuels including biofuels and bioderived fuels are
shown in Figure 1(a) and it is apparent that, except for
hydrogen rich fuels like natural gas, the carbon emitting
potential of all fuels

Table 3 - Biomass using industries/enterprises in India
Industry Specific fuelwood consumption
(approximate)
Total firewood consumption per annum- estimated
(number of units)
Halwai (khoya making etc.) - Not known
Distilleries - -
Lime making 0.34 kg/kg limestone Not known
Surkhi 0.1 0.1 kg 0.1 kg/ kg dry clay Not known
Khandsari units - -
Brick making 8-10 kg for 100 bricks Not known
Roof tile making - -
Potteries 0.5-1.5 kg/kg final product Not known
Extraction of animal tallows 6 kg/kg tallow Not known
Beedi manufacture - Not known
Coconut oil production 0.075 kg/kg oil Not known
Rice par-boiling 0.1 kg/kg raw paddy Not known
Hotels, hostels etc. - Not known
Preparation of plaster of Paris Not known Not known
Charcoal making 4 kg/kg charcoal Not known
Tyre retreading Not known Not known
Soap manufacture 250-300 kg/batch of 400-500 kg Not known
Paper and paper board products Not known Not known
Rubber sheet smoking 1 kg (per kg fresh latex) Not known
Ceramic industry - -
Refractories - -
Bakeries 0.7 kg/kg of output Not known
Vanaspati ghee 0.67 kg/kg ghee 0.63 mt
Foundries - 45,000 t
Fabric printing of sarees and cloth 0.2 kg/m of cloth 1.72 mt
Road tarring 23 ton/km 370,000 t
Fish smoking - 20,000 t
Tobacco leaf curing* 4-10 kg/kg cured tobacco 4,38,000 t/y (43,000 tobacco barns in Karnataka State, Over
60,000 units in Andhra Pradesh)
Tea drying 1.0 kg/kg dry tea 0.25 mt annually
Cardamom curing - 75,000 t/y
Silk reeling 17-25 kg/kg silk yarn 220,000 tons annually (25000 cottage/filature units and
33,000 charka reeling units)
Silk dyeing 3 4 kg/kg of silk processed
Cotton dyeing 1 kg/kg of material processed (1000 cotton processing units in Tiruppur cluster, numbers in
other places is not available)
Puffed rice making 0.75 kg/kg of paddy processed 120,000 tons of paddy husk annually in Karnataka state
alone (5,500 in Karnataka)
Lead recycling cemations 300 kg/body Approximately 1.7 mt

Source: FAO field document no. 18 and Indian wood and biomass energy development project, project document submitted by TERI to
FAO, Surveys conducted by TERI, September 1994
Note:
Numbers in the paranthesis are number of units
* firewood is used predominantly in barns in Karnataka, while in Andhra Pradesh, Coal is being used predominantly
Most of the above industries are prevalent in all parts/ states in India. But, the estimates in some cases are available only in some states
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


109

is comparable. The ratios of carbon emissions per unit
of useful energy, which take into account the device
efficiency [Device efficiency is a part of the overall efficiency of
a product. For example, the device efficiency of a cookstove does
depend on the type of vessel used. In such case, the device
efficiency refers to the efficiency of the vessel that is transferring
the heat to the contents in the vessel], are shown in Figure
1(b) and it is obvious that traditionally used biofuels
emit nearly ten-times more carbon into the atmosphere
per unit of useful energy.
One might argue, since biofuels do not
contribute to net carbon emissions the issue of end use
energy efficiency is not very important. But considering
the fact that biomass is probably harvested
unsustainably in some areas of the country and that the
national forest cover is substantially lower than the
desired level, more efficient utilization of biomass will
definitely enhance the sink effect of forests. Seen
from this angle, biofuel conservation should get at least
as much importance as afforestation.
A second issue related to biomass combustion
in traditional devices is concerned with products of
incomplete combustion (PIC), chiefly carbon
monoxide, methane, total non-methane organic
compounds (TNMOC) and N
2
O. These greenhouse
gases have higher global warming potentials (GWPs)
and it has been shown that their CO
2
equivalent
contribution is nearly the same as the actual CO
2

emitted (Hayes and Smith, 1994). Results of a study
conducted for 28 stove-fuel combinations in India
(Smith et al., 2000) clearly establish that the currently
practiced biomass cycles are not GHG neutral. In fact
the study highlights the win-win situation achievable by
promoting use of modern biofuels like biogas and
producer gas.
3.0 Biomass Conversion Technologies and
Processes
An overview of current status of conversion of
biomass into useful energy might involve one or more
of the following processes:
(i) Physical processes, such as drying, size reduction,
and agglomeration (briquetting, pelletisation)
(ii) Thermochemical processes, such as direct
combustion, pyrolysis and gasification
(iii) Biochemical processes such as fermentation, and
biomethanation.

3.1 Physical Processes
Physical processes are more or less pre-
processes. For example, drying and size reduction are
important pre-requisites for biomass briquetting and for
gasification. The preparation of dung cakes by mixing
dung and agro-residues followed by sun drying is an
age-old process. Utilization of dung cakes for cooking
has two disadvantages: First the fertilizer value of dung
is lost and secondly the efficiency of cooking devices
(such as Hara, used extensively for simmering of milk
in North India) is among the lowest. Also, the burning
of dung cakes causes the highest emissions among the
biofuels (Smith et al., 2000). Some attempts have been
made to replace dung cakes with briquettes of agro
residues, which will be discussed subsequently.
Briquetting of biomass is getting established as
an enterprise in India. The growth of briquetting plants
in recent years is encouraging. However, biomass
J SCI IND RES VOL 62 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2003
110
briquetting is still not well understood in a scientific
sense and is thus a promising area of R&D. This will
also be discussed subsequently.
3.2 Thermochemical Processes
Thermochemical processes can be broadly
classified as combustion, gasification and pyrolysis,
depending on the air-fuel ratio, which is highest for
combustion and lowest for pyrolysis. Each of the three
thermochemical processes, development and
conclusions in the Indian context are explained
subsequently:
Cookstoves constitute the largest number of
combustion devices for biomass, and there is a large
variation in traditional stoves. Improving the thermal
efficiency of cookstoves and reducing the emissions
had been a major concern since the past two decades.
The national programme of improved chulhas (NPIC),
which was launched in 1985 by MNES, evokes a
somewhat mixed response concerning its success
mainly because the benefits are not easily quantifiable.
A recent review of the projected and realistic benefits
of NPIC is provided by Kishore and Ramana (2001). It
is increasingly being felt that improved chulhas are
liked mainly because of their smoke removing
capability rather than fuel saving. Though thermal
efficiency figures of up to 45 per
cent have been reported in laboratory studies (Mukunda
et al. 1988) improved cook stoves seldom gave
consistently high fuel saving in the field. Cookstoves
generally have lower combustion efficiencies and high
heat losses, especially through flue gases. Scientists
have generally adopted following strategies: (i)
Improves combustion by providing a grate, (ii) Reduces
flue gas loss by control of combustion air, and (iii)
Increases heat transfer by providing more surface
(increase the number of pots). Some designs have
concentrated on increasing the temperature of fire zone
by providing insulation, thereby trying to increase
radiative and convective heat transfer to the pot. The
control of combustion air is probably the trickiest affair.
As all cookstoves operate on natural draft, and as
sufficient opening has to be given for mending the fire
and feeding the fuel sticks, the only way to reduce the
uncontrolled draft is to provide resistance in the flow
path of flue gases. The problem with this strategy is that
it will work best for a particular value of burning rate,
vessel dimension, etc. (fixed design point) and will fare
poorly at off-design operation. As cookstoves can
seldom be operated at a fixed design point, it is quite
difficult to get consistently high performance at all
power levels. To design a solid-fuel burning stove
with: (i) High turn down ratio (ratio of maximum and
minimum burning rates) (ii) High degree of control of
air and (iii) High efficiency throughout the range of
power levels; without relying excessively on increasing
the heat transfer area and restricting the size and shape
of the fuel, it is an engineering challenge. An early
realization of this fact would help in shaping future
programmes aimed at conserving firewood.
Improving the efficiency of larger biomass
burning systems is far more feasible. Thus, improving
the power generation capacity of existing bagasse-
burning generation plants in sugar mills by
incorporating high-pressure boilers, was found to be
quite feasible.
Consequently, the bagasse cogeneration
programme of MNES has been quite successful. Power
generation from biomass, using fluidized bed boilers
for rice husk, e.g., has also been reasonably successful.
The total installed capacity of power generation based
on biomass combustion is about 34 MW at present
(MNES Annual Report 1999-2000). The potential
power generation capacity, however, is estimated to be
17,000 MW.
Biomass gasification is a process that produces
a mixture of CO, H
2
and methane, CO
2
and N
2
(called
producer gas) through a combination of
thermochemical reactions including the reduction
reaction (CO
2
+ C 2CO), shift reaction (CO + H
2
O
CO
2
+ H
2
), the methanation reaction (C + 2H
2

CH
4
), and the water gas reaction (C + H
2
O CO +
H
2
). The producer gas has been classified as low btu
gas (calorific value is not generally constraint for
designing highly efficient combustion devices or for
using the gas in IC engines). Thermal efficiencies of up
to 50 per cent (higher if waste heat recovery is done)
have been achieved in producer gas burning equipment.
As the adiabatic flame temperature, of producer gas is
about 1200C, it is generally thought that it is not
suitable for process heat applications involving high
temperatures such as brick and tile manufacturing, steel
re-rolling, lime boilers But combustion of pre-mixed
gases with pre-heated air can produce flame
temperatures in excess of 1700C. Similarly, power
conversion efficiencies comparable to diesel or petrol
engines have been obtained in producer gas engines
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


111
without much derating with better control of
combustion attainable for gaseous fuels. It is thus
possible to achieve high thermal efficiencies and low
emissions, thereby making producer gas comparable
with petroleum fuels such as furnace oil, LDO and
LPG. The producer gas route of utilizing biomass is
gaining importance, especially for process heat
requirement of small enterprises and for decentralized
power generation. These emerging applications are
discussed in section 4.
The programmes of MNES aimed at promotion
of gasifiers, however, seem to have achieved only a
limited success. A programme launched in the late
eighties to promote gasifier-based irrigation pumping
systems under a heavily subsidized scheme did not take
off. Similarly, it was found in a survey at a state level
that majority of gasifier installations were not in use
(TERI Report 1999). Nevertheless, interest in biomass
gasification, especially at the individual entrepreneur
level, is picking up in the recent years.
A major limitation of gasifier promotion in
India, is that the designs, which have been developed so
far, use only firewood. Though some manufacturers
claim to have developed gasifiers operating on rice
husk, etc., there is no evidence to suggest that the
systems are operating consistently for long periods and
without major operation problems such as water
pollution due to cleaning of raw gas. All R&D efforts to
develop gasifiers with multifuel capability and for
powdery biomass gasification have not yet yielded the
desired results.
The third major thermochemical process,
pyrolysis, mainly consists of heating biomass to high
temperatures with a limited supply of air, primarily to
initiate combustion, and to maintain temperatures
required for pyrolysis. For most biomass materials,
pyrolysis occurs between 400 to 500C (biomass
characterization, IIT, Delhi). The most extensive
application of wood pyrolysis is charcoal making. The
use of charcoal for applications such as institutional
cooking, cloth ironing, CO
2
manufacture, beedi
processing, lead recovery from used batteries, smithy,
silk yarn re-reeling appears to be quite extensive, but
not well documented. There are over 400,000
unorganized enterprises consuming charcoal for
meeting their energy needs in India (Sarvekshana,
1990). The most commonly used charcoal producing
methods in the developing countries are simple pit kilns
and woodpiles covered with earth or vegetation (Vimal
& Tyagi, 1988). Fairly large chunks of wood are
required and carbonization takes from days
to-weeks depending on the size of the pile. Typically, 8
to 12 t of wood is required to produce 1 t of charcoal,
using covered-pile methods. Since charcoal has heat
content roughly double that of air-dry wood on a weight
basis (30 GJ/t as opposed to 15 GJ/t for air dry wood),
the energy efficiency of charcoal production using
traditional methods is in the range of 17 to 29 per cent
(Hall et al., 1992). As large chunks of wood are used
for charcoal production (as against twigs and branches
for cooking), and as these come only by clean felling of
trees, one has reasons to assume that almost all the
wood going for charcoal making is harvested
unsustainably, resulting in thinning of forest cover. The
marketing networks for charcoal also seem to have
been well established. Hence, it is highly desirable to
develop: (i) Charcoal kilns with high efficiency and (ii)
Charcoal substitution materials (such as char briquettes
from agro or forest residues). Improvements in
conversion efficiency can be achieved using more
sophisticated kilns made by brick, concrete or metal.
Portable steel kilns, e.g., are operational in several
African countries. In India also, the Institute of
Engineering and Rural Technology (IERT), Allahabad,
has designed a portable metal kiln (Vimal & Tyagi,
1988) for charcoal production, but it does not seem to
have been commercialized. Several large and more
sophisticated devices have also been built. These
include various continuous kilns with retorts, which
collect the liquid products and recycle the gaseous
components. Most of them require fairly small-sized
feed material but are useful for producing charcoal
from waste, such as saw dust and bark. Roughly 60 per
cent of the energy in the feed is retained (Bungay,
1991). These plants, however, cost several million
dollars to build, and are probably not appropriate in
Indian conditions. A comparison of the efficiency, cost
and lifetime of some of the main types of charcoal
making systems is given by Sinha & Kishore (1991).
TERI (1992), has reported use of a downdraft
gasifier with a grate-shaking mechanism to produce
charcoal continuously, but the technique has not been
developed further. A recent innovation is the reverse-
downdraft gasifier to produce both charcoal and gas,
which seems to have promise for rural enterprises. A
process for production of charcoal-like material, called
PARU fuel, had been developed by IIT, Delhi and
released for commercialization, but seems to have
failed as an enterprise. There were some attempts to
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112
produce activated char from biomass, which can fetch a
high price, but these have not been translated into
commercial ventures. Process to produce pyrolysis-
oils or liquid fuels from biomass are also available
(e.g. in Canada), but these are yet to be commercialized
on a large scale.
Incineration is also a variant process of
pyrolysis, and has been tried in the past for producing
power from municipal solid wastes in Delhi. However,
this plant never seems to have worked satisfactorily and
has been subject of considerable inter-governmental
litigation. Surprisingly, there had been very little
discussion on the scientific and technological merits or
otherwise of the application of incineration process for
treating municipal solid wastes.
3.3 Biochemical Processes
Biochemical processes involve the use of
microbes and biochemical techniques to produce liquid
or gaseous products (fuels in the context of this paper)
from organic matter. One of the most important
examples of biochemical processes is ethanol
production.
A variety of crops can be used as feedstock for
production of ethanol from fermentable sugar using
yeast, such as sugar cane, sweet sorghum, cassava and
various cereal crops (Table 4). The most widely used
feedstocks, however, are sugar and starch.

The use of feedstock containing starch and
cellulose for the purpose of ethanol production requires
the conversion of these materials to fermentable sugar
following which the fermentation step yields the
desired ethanol grade after the distillation process.
When grain-containing starch is to be used as
feedstock, the preparation for the fermentation process
involves enzyme propagation, from starch breakdown
to fermentable sugars, followed by the yeast
propagation. In comparison, conversion of cellulosic
materials to fermentable sugars, the conversion process
to starch is fairly simple. Two inherent characteristics
of biomass result in the problem of converting
cellulosic material: cellulose is difficult to convert to
glucose sugars which are easy to convert to ethanol
whereas hemicelluloses can be easily converted to
xylose is difficult to ferment to ethanol (Department of
Energy, 1990).
The process of ethanol fermentation involves
the conversion of simple sugars to ethanol and carbon
dioxide by yeasts. Biochemically, it is highly efficient
and virtually all energy in the sugar retained in the
ethanol produced (Hall et al., 1982). Removal of
ethanol from fermentation broth is usually performed
using distillation techniques, which is an energy-
intensive step since the maximum concentration of
ethanol obtained from the broth is only in the range of
10 to 20 per cent.
When sugar crops such as sweet sorghum and
sugarcane are used for ethanol production, sugary

Table 4 - Ethanol yields from selected biomass Carbohydrate rich plants

Raw material Possible production (t/ha) Carbohydrate content (per
cent)
Ethanol yields (L/t)
Beet 40-50 16 90-100
Sugarcane 50-100 13 60-80
Maize 4-8 60 360-400
Wheat 2-5 62 370-420
Barley 2-4 52 310-350
Grain sorghum 2-5 70 330-370
Potatoes 20-30 18 100-120
Sweet Potatoes 10-20 26 140-170
Ligno-cellulosic raw material Dry matter t/ha Ethanol yields L/t
Soft wood
Dilute acids 9-15 190-220
Concentrated acids 9-15 230-270
Hard wood
Dilute acids 9-15 160-180
Concentrated acids 9-15 190-220
Straw
Dilute acids 1.5-3.5 140-160
Concentrated acids 1.5-3.5 160-180
Source: adapted from OECD, 1984
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113
juices can be tapped from the plant and
fermented directly. After extraction the bagasse residue
can be burnt to fuel subsequent distillation steps.
Starch crops, such as cassava and cereal crops,
can also be used, although the starch must be broken
down to simple sugars before fermentation, using the
sacharification process. This involves mixing the
substrate with water, heating it and then subjecting it to
enzymic hydrolysis. Because starch crops produce no
byproduct that is equivalent to sugarcane bagasse, an
external energy source is required to fuel the distillation
process. The use of other renewables, such as wood
from plantations and use of solar energy (as the boiling
point of ethanol is 78C, the use of solar distillation is
possible) is the logical solution to this problem. If oil
were used the amount of energy required would be
equivalent to the quantity of ethanol produced.
Sugar and starch crops for ethanol production
have potential in regions where large areas of
reasonably fertile land are under-utilized. Sugarcane
and sweet sorghum are the main examples of crops
containing sugar. Under suitable agro-climatic
conditions, using modern agricultural methods, these
crops yield up to 50 and 35 t/ha, respectively. Moreover
the sugars they contain are directly fermentable to
ethanol and yield bagasse as a byproduct. Bagasse can
be used as a fuel for the energy-intensive ethanol
distillation process, thereby improving the overall
energy balance. The main disadvantage of these crops
(particularly sugarcane) is that they require land and
adequate irrigation for high yields (Hall et al., 1982;
Vimal and Tyagi, 1988).
The primary starch crop of interest is cassava.
Though a variety of other plants such as sweet potatoes,
corn, rice and other cereals can be converted to ethanol,
but their value as foodstuffs makes them unavailable
for ethanol production. Cassava has the advantage of
being tolerant to poor soil and adverse weather
conditions. Another potential feedstock for ethanol
production is surplus molasses from existing sugar
production facilities. Every tonne of cane sugar
produced, results in approximately 190 L of molasses
as a byproduct. This contains 50-55 per cent
fermentable sugars and yields about 280 L of ethanol
per tonne of molasses when fermented (Hall et al.,
1982). Only in remote sugar production facilities
(where it is wasted because of high transportation costs)
does converting molasses to ethanol appear feasible. In
India, molasses is a valuable input to the chemical
industry and therefore may not be available for
alternate uses (Vimal and Tyagi, 1988).
As mentioned earlier, the conversion of woody
biomass and grasses with significant cellulosic and
hemicellulosic material to ethanol is a difficult process.
Significant R&D efforts are being devoted to improve
conversion processes to increase the yields of ethanol,
using such feedstocks. The US Department of Energy,
e.g., hopes to achieve the overall goal of producing
ethanol at $ 0.14/L by the turn of the century. The 1989
production cost was placed at $ 0.32/L, whereas the
1979 production cost was $ 0.86/L (DOE, 1990).
The use of ethanol as a source of energy is,
however, a debatable issue in the Indian context, as it
does not appear to be economical. Detailed techno-
economical calculations are yet to be made to examine
the feasibility of using ethanol as a blend of petrol or
for use in advanced power generation system such as
fuel cells. The contribution of ethanol production with a
decentralized power plant would appear attractive, as
the waste heat can be gainfully used in the distillation
process. Such small, decentralized cogeneration
systems will be discussed later.
The second most important biochemical
process in the Indian context is anaerobic digestion, or
biomethanation. As mentioned earlier, India has a huge
cattle-dung resource, which is highly adaptable for
biogas production. Anaerobic digestion involves
complex biochemical reactions, but these can broadly
be classified as acidification reactions and methanation
reactions. The complex molecules of biomass are first
broken down to simple molecules; chiefly acetic acid in
the first step and methane is produced from acids in the
second step. The kinetics of methane production is
highly dependent on temperature, methanogen
concentration, and pH. Biogas reactors can range from
a deceptively simple brick and concrete digester to
using cattle dung to highly complicated UASB (Up
flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) reactors processing
industrial effluent to produce methane. The hydraulic
retention time, and thus the volume of the reactor, can
vary from 100 d (for a rural biogas plant in a cold, north
Indian hilly region) to 24 (for a UASB reactor with well
formed granules).
Considering the potential in the country, MNES
launched several programmes to promote
J SCI IND RES VOL 62 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2003
114
biomethanation technology quite early. The earliest
(and probably the largest till a few years ago from
resource allocation point) in the National Programme
for Biogas Development (NPBD) aimed at promoting
biogas plants in rural areas for utilizing the available
cattle dung.
The latest is to promote biomethanation of
urban and industrial wastes, aided by UNDP/GEF, with
financial outlay of about 6 m dollars.
The number of biogas plants installed so far is
about 2.9 million, second only to China. By all official
counts, the NPBD is a success, but the programme is
generally criticized for being dependent solely on
government support. At the rate at which biogas plants
are installed (even without taking into account the
plants becoming non-functional for a variety of
reasons), it would take several decades to realize the
full potential of using cattle dung in rural areas. In spite
of the enormous promise, biogas technology has for
rural economy; the whole programme appears to be
heading for a lame tapering-off. This can probably be
attributed to the failure of MNES to integrate R&D,
technology, entrepreneurship, and financing and social
dynamics into a powerful programme focusing on
business development opportunities. The extremely
limited R&D efforts concentrated primarily on
microbiological studies and even there, no effective
linkage was established between laboratory work and
field implementation.
The simple biogas digester, just like the simple
chulha, seems to be eluding rigorous scientific analysis
that can lead to an optimal design. In spite of a number
of separate studies on microbial kinetics, residence time
distribution studies (Raman et. al., 1988) heat transfer
analysis (Kishore, 1989) and even rheological studies, a
chemical reactor model of the biogas plant has not been
developed so far. While the theoretical possibility exists
that hydraulic retention time (HRT) of a few days is
possible from kinetic consideration, the actual HRT
remains at 40 d and in spite of so many advances in
materials, cement, brick and metal continue to be the
chief constructing materials.
On the other hand, based on R&D carried out
in advanced countries, chiefly The Netherlands,
concepts such as UASB have evolved and have been
applied for biomethanation of distillery effluents,
tannery effluents, sewage etc. However, no suitable
high rate, or even medium rate, technology has been
developed for solid organic residues like municipal
solid waste (MSW), industrial solid wastes, cattle dung,
poultry waste. A biphasic process involving enhanced
acidification, followed by methanation in a UASB
reactor has been recently developed (Rajeshwari et. al,
2000) but it is yet to be upscaled and field tested.
Composting is also an important biochemical
process. Based on the work done by Excel industries,
some plants have been constructed to produce rich
organic manure from MSW in recent years. However,
as these plants rely on a lot of open area, which
becomes a problem during monsoon, they seem to have
met only a limited success. Reactor composting would
be quite convenient for several residues (e.g. hotel
wastes), but no such work has been initiated so far.
In conclusion, it appears that there are still
largely unexplored or under explored areas for R&D,
product development, process development etc. in the
broad area of biomass utilization and that there has
been very little overlap between field based national
programmes, development of product and technology
and dissemination.

4.0 Modern Biomass Utilization: Some
Emerging End Uses and Research Needs
Modern biomass utilization hinges on using
efficient and environmentally friendly technologies for
conversion of biomass to more convenient forms. In
the Indian context, these technologies can be listed as
follows:
Biomass briquetting/pelletisation.
Efficient charcoal making from wood/biomass
residues.
Biomass gasification.
Advanced biomethanation.

A host of supporting technologies/systems will
also be required to make full benefit of the conversion
technologies. Some of these are:
A variety of drying equipment for use with
different materials to be dried.
Size reduction and agglomeration machinery.
Cooling/cleaning systems for producer gas with
particular emphasis on low maintenance and long
life.
Efficient producer gas engines capable of operating
on gas alone.
Optimal or low cost gas storage systems.
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


115
Efficient blowers, compressors etc.
Efficient gas burners.
Smaller capacity waste heat recovery systems.
Low capacity absorption/adsorption cooling
systems operating on waste heat and/or producer
gas.
Control systems for gas flow.
A combination of the above
systems/subsystems can be gainfully employed to
tackle a variety of applications ranging from process
heat in industries to small power generation in rural
areas. An attempt is made to classify the promising end
uses and outline the underlying research needs.

4.1 Biomass as a Substitute to Fossil Fuels
Whenever there is an increase in the prices of
petroleum fuels the demand for alternative fuels/energy
hots up. The last few years witnessed such increases in
prices and there are chances that the scenario might
repeat. The last few years also saw an increase in
demand for biomass briquettes, conversion of oil-fired
devices to wood or biomass fired devices, co-firing of
biomass with coal. The significance of biomass lies in
the economies, as shown in Figure 2. It can be seen
that producer gas from biomass (wood or briquettes) is
an extremely attractive option for process heat as
compared with petroleum derived fuels. As firewood is
not a desirable option in the long run from
sustainability point of view, biomass briquetting would
become an important topic in the coming years.

One of the major problems dogging the
briquetting industry is the wear and tear of machine
parts such as the ram, taper die, wear ring, split die, etc.
Due to the need for constantly replacing the worn out
parts, briquetting plants operate at a low capacity
utilization factor of about 28 per cent (Pachauri et. al.,
1994). Attempts in the past to solve this problem by
using different materials for the wearing out parts
yielded only a limited success. It was also observed
that heating biomass or the die reduced wear and tear
(Joshi et. al., 1994). The important point to be noted is
that the best scientific and technical minds of the
country have perhaps not applied their minds to the
problems of the industry. The small entrepreneurs,
with their limited scientific skills have done an
excellent job of finding low cost solutions in a difficult
trial and error process to sustain the enterprise. In order
to pump some advanced knowledge into briquetting, a
small project was recently granted to an entrepreneur in
Maharashtra by the Home Grown Technology (HGT)
programme of DSIR (Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research). In this project, advanced coating
techniques are being tried to improve the life of the
crucial machine parts.
Another problem facing briquetting industry is that
briquettes form well with sawdust alone. Even though
other biomass can be used, sawdust is a necessary
ingredient (at least 50 per cent). This poses a severe
constraint on the industry, as major agro-residues such
as bagasse, rice husk, coir pith etc. will





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have to be left out of briquetting. The peculiar
problems of biomass briquetting seem to warrant an
indepth scientific and engineering research, which has
not been initiated even after two decades of briquetting
in India.
Briquetting plants are located in rural areas for
logistic reasons, but power supply is an acute problem
in these areas. There is no easy solution for this
problem. An approach suggested long back is to install
a gasifier-based power plant for powering the
briquetting machine, and sell both power and
briquettes. However, there are no reliable gasifiers that
can take briquettes as fuel (briquettes are known to
cause clinker problems in gasifiers) and the idea could
never be tried.
Briquettes also do not burn efficiently in
furnaces, which were originally designed, and for coal
and burning of briquettes may not be environmentally
sound. All these issues can be examined in detail if
there is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary
programme aimed at large-scale promotion of
briquetting enterprise.
Pelletisation is an alternative to briquetting. It
involves pulverization, steaming, and addition of a
binder and extrusion of pellets. Pelletisation takes
place at a lower pressure and hence problems of wear
and tear are drastically reduced. Another ongoing
project of HGT is studying different technical aspects
of pelletisation. The drawbacks of pelletisation are the
need to add a binder, such as molasses and the stability
and shelf-life of pellets, which are known to
disintegrate easily. As mentioned earlier the problems
of briquetting and pelletisation are complex and would
need a multidisciplinary approach.
One important socio-economic aspects of
briquetting is that, nearly 30 per cent of the production
cost of briquettes, which goes towards biomass
procurement, is ploughed back to rural areas where
employment opportunities other than agriculture is
quite meager. Thus, briquetting can, in principle, help
in creating of wealth in rural areas.
Biomass, such as firewood obtained sustainably
from plantation (e.g. rubber plantations), coconut
shells, and cashew shells can probably be directly used
in suitable gasifier systems to replace fuel oil or diesel.
However, experience suggests (Kishore, 2001) that a
gasifier system cannot be just added into an existing
end use, but considerable effort goes for integrating
the gasifier with an application. Thus, development of
a complete end use package, which might involve
modifications of some components in the existing
system, is very important to ensure successful
integration. The costs for such field-based R&D-cum-
demonstration are usually quite high and cannot be
afforded by the entrepreneur. Hence, there is a need to
take up such projects for a variety of industries such as
crumb rubber manufacture, tea drying, coffee
processing, food processing, lime kilns, mini-cement
plants, lead recovery from used batteries, aluminium
and brass melting, wire enameling etc. In some
enterprises such as tea processing, there is also a good
scope for introducing small cogeneration systems
(Mande and Kishore, 1997), resulting in a much better
utilization of biomass.
4.2 Biomass for Development of Rural Infrastructure
Biomass technologies for decentralized power
generation can be categorized as follows:
Direct burning of biomass to run steam turbines.
Direct burning of biomass to run sterling engines.
Gasification of biomass to run IC engines and
combined cycle systems.
Biogas production from cattle dung to run IC
engines.
Miscellaneous technologies for producing liquid
fuel (bio-alcohol, bio-diesel, pyrolitic oil) to run IC
engines.
Earlier attempts of projects related to direct
burning of biomass, such as the dendothermal power
plants in Philippines (Kishore & Thukral, 1993) failed
probably due to a combination of factors related to
technology maturity, biomass collection, organizational
set up, funding. Biomass fired stirling engine system
(Kishore and Sinha, 1991) seemed a sound technology
option for small power generation (< 25 kW) for
isolated rural communities and for irrigation pumping.
Lack of financial support for technology improvements
and market development resulted in closing down of
the enterprise.
The first tried out option for small village
power was the biogas system. The community biogas
concept in which cooking gas was produced in a
decentralized manner and distributed to households and
part of the gas used for power generation was a highly
relevant local initiative. But as there were no efforts on
technology upgradation (for example, in the direction
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


117
of developing high rate reactors, dry digestion etc.) and
enterprise development, the community biogas concept
degenerated into a government run programme and is
finally abandoned. But the concept can be revived in
view of the recent advances in anaerobic digestion.
Processes, such as those described by Rajeshwari et al.
(2000), can be scaled up, demonstrated at a village level
through entrepreneurial efforts for production of power,
cooking gas and manure on commercial or semi-
commercial lines. Or the community biogas plant can
itself be upgraded and revamped to involve
entrepreneurs.
A project aiming to utilize oil from non-edible
oil seeds as a substitute for diesel has recently been
initiated in the state of Karnataka, but there is not
enough field experience and operational data to
evaluate such a process for technical and economic
viability. Processes for producing pyrolytic oil from
biomass are available, e.g., at Biomass Technology
Group (BTG), University of Twente, The Netherlands
and a proposal to use such oils for gas turbine operation
has been mooted by a Canadian company. Such
projects are yet to be evaluated for detailed techno-
economic feasibility studies.
There are two problems preventing village
power ventures from becoming success stories
commercial. The first one is related to plant load
utilization and the second to the purchasing power of
rural people. The cost of power generation, apart from
other factors, depends critically on the plant load factor
or the number of hours of operation per year at the rated
load. Figure 3 shows the variation of different cost
components with the number of hours of operation for a
typical gasifier-based dual fuel power plant. It can be
seen that, while the diesel and biomass costs remain
more or less constant, the Operation, Maintenance and
Repair (OMR) and interest costs per unit of electricity
generated are quite high at low plant usage hours. And
yet, this is typically the case for rural loads where
lighting load is low, pumping load is seasonal and no
industrial load centers exist. Thus the final cost of
electricity generated would tend to be high. On the
other hand, the purchasing power of rural people is
quite low in many areas as they are dependent primarily
on agriculture. Also, electricity had been subsidized
heavily for rural areas and hence people are accustomed
to pay very little for it. This situation, however, is
changing slowly due to electric power

regulatory bodies and several state governments are
convinced about the need to raise tariffs. It is thus
imperative that any power producer operating in rural
areas cannot restrict to supply of electricity alone, and
will have to expand the services offered, so that extra
income is generated. Some of the operations which
have the potential to increase the profitability of a rural
energy enterprise and which would help in improving
rural infrastructure at the same time are:
Establishing a briquetting plant.
Supply of cooking gas.
Making of char briquettes.
Cold storage for agriculture produce.
Crop drying.
Desalination to provide drinking water.

The advantages of setting up briquetting plants
have already been discussed. In the context of rural
power generation, a briquetting plant would serve to
increase the load in factory considerably.

Supply of cooking gas through the
biomethanation route has already mentioned earlier, but
it is also possible to supply piped producer gas for
cooking. A scheme for such a process is shown in
Figure 2 and more than 65 such installations have been
established in China (Sun et al., 1995). There are
several advantages of getting into the business of
cooking gas supply. First, it has a direct bearing on the
quality of life and removes the drudgery of women.
Secondly, it frees biomass from being inefficiently used
and thus makes it available for power generation. A
conceptual scheme of how the biomass burnt at present
J SCI IND RES VOL 62 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2003
118
in traditional stoves can be used for providing both
cooking gas and electricity at the national level is
shown in Figure 4. It is evident that by following the
gasifier route, not only all the cooking energy
requirements are met, but also enough biomass would
be available to generate 125 billion kWh of electricity.
The current demand in rural areas is not even half this
amount.

The useful energy utilized for the purpose of
cooking is based on the current firewood consumption
of 220 mt/y (TEDDY, 2000/2001) and the traditional
oven is assumed to operate at an efficiency of about 10
per cent (though it is lower than this number in many
cases). This would produce a useful energy of 88 x
10
12
kcals of thermal energy. If the biomass is used
through the route of gasification, at a conversion
efficiency of about 70 per cent (wood to gas) and the
device efficiency of 50 per cent (other than the
gasification, the burner efficiency, etc.), it would not
only meet all the cooking energy requirements (same
useful energy) but also will be able to produce about
125 b kWh of electricity additional. Additionally, if
someformof




KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


119
cogeneration is integrated to get process heat as well as
electricity, would further, benefit the situation either in
reducing the fuel consumed or will be able to meet
energy needs in other forms.
If a biogas plant is operated in the same
complex, as the gasifier power plant the waste heat
from the engine can also be used which increases the
operating temperature of the biogas plant, thus
increasing the gas production rates. There are several
other ways of using the waste heat. It can be used to
run a cold storage operating on the absorption
(ammonia-water) or adsorption (methanol-silica gel)
(Mande et al., 1997) systems. If necessary, the waste
heat can be supplemented by burning part of the gas.
There is a severe shortage of cold storages in the
country leading to spoilage of fruits and vegetables,
resulting in distress sales by farmers. The usual
practice is to rent out cold storage space on a daily or
weekly rate. Operation of cold storages thus provides
additional income to the power plant besides increasing
the overall efficiency significantly.
The other post-harvest operation in rural areas
is drying. Crop drying is presently done by open sun
drying, leading to inefficient moisture removal, fungus
infection etc. Crops need drying temperatures in the
range of 55-80C, which can be easily obtained from
engine exhaust by using a gas-air heat exchanger.
Recent experience of using gasifiers for cardamom
curing in Sikkim showed that, not only drying times are
reduced, but also the quality of the dried product is
superior, fetching a higher price in the market. When
the demand for drying is high in drying season, gas can
be used directly for burning to augment the available
waste heat.
Many villages in India suffer from chronic
draught, which aggravates if monsoons fail. Some of
these villages, especially in Gujarat state, have brackish
water, which is not fit for drinking purposes. A
multistage flash (MSF) distillation system can be used
to produce drinking water from brackish water.
Though the available MSF systems are too large to be
used in a decentralized manner, a 3-or 4-stage system
can be easily developed for such applications. MSF
systems also require temperatures of about 100C,
which can be obtained from waste heat. Another
alternative is to use membrane systems for reverse
osmosis to produce drinking water. These will need
power and hence can be employed as load centres.
A strong case thus exists for a rural power
company to expand its services several-fold, so that any
loss in the selling of power is offset by profits in other
streams. Several thousands of such companies,
operating with a basket of devices and technologies,
can be set up throughout the countryside as a chain.
Such a chain of companies would require the following
inputs for steady, profit making operation:
Quality technical and R&D inputs from established
institutes.
A high level of system integration to optimize
operations.
Mechanisms to ensure supply of biomass and sale
of power and other goods and services.
Financing schemes at low interest rates both for
initial and working capitals.
Established NGOs (Non governmental
organizations) with a good trace record can also get
involved in these activities.

5.0 The Importance of Product Development,
Manufacturer and Market Network for
Rural and Small Enterprises
In conventional sense, industrial research
involves either an R&D institute developing and
transferring the technology of a product/process to the
industry or an established industry developing
products/processes for its own upgradation through in-
house R&D or collaboration. The funding patterns for
such R&D activities are also well established. For
small and rural enterprises, however, such conventional
scientific wisdom may not work.
The different between the current practice of
funding and a desirable funding pattern is explained
in Figure 4 (Kishore, et al., 2001, ed. Vipradas). Figure
4 projects a desired trajectory of indigenous technology
development with time as X-axis and development in
the Y-axis to arrive at the matured product. Generally
the development starts with the evolution of an idea that
gets transformed into a laboratory prototype, which gets
R & D funding. In many cases, the support may
continue up to the development of a field prototype
testing. Normally the funds stop almost abruptly as
soon as a laboratory prototype or proof-of-concept
system is demonstrated. It is generally assumed that
the process of transformation of a laboratory prototype
into an industrial product is the job of the entrepreneur.
But the rural and small entrepreneurs are ill equipped to
J SCI IND RES VOL 62 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2003
120
carry out this task. In most cases, alternate energy
devices are diffusely spread and its utilization is
problem specific. Here, a laboratory demonstration of a
concept should not be end of the project. The product
has to be successfully interpreted (from industrial
design, manufacturers and also from users point of
view) at the end users level with economic
implications. The product should be reliable [Reliability
is the ability of a product to deliver what it is designed for
consistently], material optimization (proper selection of
material and cost-effective [Material optimization-Often new
products specifically alternate energy devices that are at proof-of-
concept stage suffer from proper material selection and use of
appropriate quantum material that have implications on life of the
product and also on the cost] and competitive [The choice of a
product in most cases is compared to the cost of existing/current
product. Hence the costing should this aspect to be competitive] to
existing practices. Attempts to promote alternative
energy devices, such as gasifier based pumping systems
in India which did not take off at the desired level
perhaps also due to some of the above problems.
An illustration, where some of the above mentioned
problems were addressed, involves a product
development for the silk reeling [An activity where the
cocoons are cooked and reeled to get silk yarn. The owner of such a
unit is generally called as reeler] industry and is shown in
Figure 5. It has been shown (Sunil et al., 2001, ed.
Vipradas) that the viability, user-friendliness, life, etc.
of the product keeps improving from stage-to-stage,
until it becomes strong enough to enter and sustain the
market environment. Substantial ground works in
developing product based on gasifier for cocoon
cooking was undertaken before the actual intervention
was designed. Considerable care was taken in reaching
the product to maturity with appropriate inputs from
various stakeholders (from users, subject experts,
design consultants, manufacturers and backstoppers
[Consultants who had the mandate to see to it that the programme is
meeting its designed goal and the activities are running as per plan
and schedule. In addition, they were also involved in technical
assessment of the project apart from other aspects the project]).
Though, original premise for using the gasifier based
system cocoon cooking was, to reduce the fuel
consumption and improve the working condition, due
to lesser pollution in the reeling unit, there were several
other benefits. These include reduction in renditta
(renditta is term generally used in silk industry
essentially





means quantity of cocoons required to produce one kg
of silk), improvement in the quality of silk produced
due to better processing conditions (consistent heat
from gasifier based burner when compared to
traditional oven), increased processing rate (which
could result in saving of labour to do certain work or to
increase the quantity of material processed) and also
reduction in water consumed. The annual monetary
savings due to these improvements are given in Figure
5and the fuel savings in subsequent models of gasifier
based ovens.

Marketing is another important issue to be
understood during the product development stage itself.
Almost any product can be pushed into an artificial
market aided by subsidies, but it is an extremely
difficult task to market a new product in rural areas and
in non-consumer market segment. Identification and
selection of manufacturers, ensuring quality control,
establishing the chain of linkages both for sales and
services, all require financial support, which is not
available at present both to the scientist and to the small
entrepreneur.

6.0 Conclusions
The biomass resource base of India is
comparable to that of fossil fuels. But factors, such as
collection, processing, low end-use efficiency of
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


121
conventional devices, and insufficient maturity of
present biomass energy technologies are major barriers
for utilizing the available bioresources more efficiently
and on a sustainable basis. A review of the present
status of biomass conversion and utilization
technologies reveals that there is a large scope for
launching major R&D and product development
initiatives for promotion of efficient use of biomass.
Utilization of a basket of energy technologies, rather
than a single technology to deliver energy and
economic services in rural areas seems to hold the key
for successful commercialization and mainstreaming of
biomass energy technologies. The R&D strategy and
funding pattern for development of
products/processes/technologies based on biomass for
the benefit of small and rural enterprises will
necessarily have to follow an unconventional approach.

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Dr. Kishore has 22 years of expertise in the areas of biomass utilization, waste-to-energy systems and
solar energy applications. His main work experience consisted of development of products, processes, and
end-use packages starting from conceptualization and prototype development to field-testing, transfer of
technology and identification of market linkages. He led a group of professionals at TERI who successfully
developed and commercialized biomass gasifier for a variety of applications such as sericulture, textile dyeing,
institutional cooking, cardamom curing, rubber drying etc. and for decentralized power generation for remote
areas. Nearly 250 TERI gasifier systems for a variety of end-uses have been installed throughout the country
both under demonstration-cum action research projects supported by Government departments and bilateral
agencies and commercially through manufacturers to whom the technology is transferred. Dr. Kishore has developed a process
of generating energy and manure from wastes such as vegetable market wastes, food processing wastes and other organic wastes
by means of a biphasic process termed TERIs Enhanced Acidification and Methanation (TEAM) process. He has led a team,
which designed, constructed and operated Asias largest solar pond (6000 m
2
) for supply of process heat to a dairy in Kutch in
north-west India. Earlier, he was instrumental in developing the TERI model of rural biogas plant, a mobile briquetting-
gasification system for rural areas, passive solar systems for comfort conditioning in composite climates, shallow solar pond
system for domestic hot water and solar (thermal) water pump. He also led a group for studying greenhouse gas emissions from
small biomass combustion devices in India under a collaborative project with East West Centre, Hawaii. He has executed several
other projects, which involved policy analysis, laboratory work and extensive field work. He has published over 150 papers in
scientific and technical journals, edited 5 books and holds six patents. Dr. Kishore is a Chemical Engineer with a doctoral degree
from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He is currently a Senior Fellow and Resource Advisor at TERI and is involved in
several ongoing projects in biomass and waste utilization, and in projects dealing with climate change issues, renewable energy
policy and energy efficiency improvement in rural and small enterprises. He also holds the additional charge of Head, Centre of
Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Applied Sciences, TERI School of Advanced Studies, which has a deemed university
status. He acted as the Dean of Energy Engineering Division of TERI during 1990-1992. Before joining TERI in 1984, he was
working as Scientist C in the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute of CSIR. He has acted as a chairperson and
member of several committees of the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES), Department of Science and
Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research etc. Currently, he is a member of the Standing Monitoring and Review
Committee of Gasifier Action Research Project (GARP) of MNES and Monitoring Committee for the project on 5 & 25 kW
decentralized power packs under New Millenium India Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI), launched by CSIR. He is the
recipient of Dr. K.S. Rao Memorial award given by the Solar Energy Society of India, for the year 2001.
KISHORE & SRINIVAS: BIOFUELS OF INDIA


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Mr. Srinivas has 12 years of experience in the demonstration and dissemination of energy eifficient
and renewable energy technologies specifically biomass energy systems, evaluation of renewable energy
devices in various parts of the country, and energy planning. He has experience in the design of sub-systems
of gasifier based technology for decentralized power generation and thermal applications. He was involved
in the installation of various Renewable energy systems in various parts of the country (India); gasifier based
power generating systems for village electrification in Karnataka; thermal systems in the industries in silk
reeling and dyeing in the state of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; Solar home systems, Solar
street lights, Solar pumping systems and small sized biogas plants in Haryana. He has a record of
supervising the operation of the gasifier based power generation unit (low capacity) for over 5,000 hours in the field and over
30,000 hours for gasifier based thermal applications in silk industry. His conceptualizing of establishing a supply mechanism has
ensured the marketing of gasifier systems in silk dyeing sector and their sustained operation. He has published about 24 papers
in national & international journals, workshops and conferences and edited a book titled Biomass energy systems. Mr.
Srinivas is a Mechanical Engineer with Bachelors degree from the Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Surathkal. He is
currently a Research Associate at TERI and is involved in several ongoing projects in biomass assessment, monitoring of
implementation of biomass devices (Biogas plants and Improved Cookstoves) in Southern India, policy research on promotion
and adoption of cleaner technologies and fuels by low-capacity end-users: Biomass based small and rural industries (Karnataka
state), designing and coordinating entrepreneurship development programmes in the area of renewable energy as project leader
leading a group of about eight interdisciplinary professionals. Before joining TERI, he worked as Project Engineer at
Combustion, Gasification and Propulsion Laboratory, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on a project demonstrating the
decentralized power generation through gasification technology and also worked as a lecturer for a very brief period at Bapuji
Institute of Engnineering & Technology, Karnataka. He is the recipient of first prize for presenting a paper given by Ministry of
Non-conventional Energy Sources during the year 1993. He is also one of the team member involved in the development of
gasifier based cocoon cooking system that was awarded Energy Globe 2001- The world Award for Sustainable Energy, Best 50
instituted by Government of Austria.