Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Methane Farming and Bio-diesel- the answer to Rural problems

Posted : December 9, 2004 at 6:34 am [IST]

It is interesting. ARUN FIRODIA, chairman, Kinetic Group wrote an informative article in Times of India, December 8, 2004. Perhaps his views are wonderful and must be of interest also to all Indians. It is more so for a person like me who goes on talking about the rural issues and solutions. Let us look into the facts provided in the article:

Stocks of fossil fuels may be depleted in the next 30-40 years. Methane farming and Bio-diesel can meet the entire energy requirement of India.

Methane farming is nothing but generation of biogas from starch or organic waste including cow-dung.

India has the world’s largest livestock population of 250 million, which produces close to 125 million tonnes of cow-dung. It can produce enough methane gas to entirely replace LPG and kerosene in cooking, and substitute petrol in transportation. Methane gas can also generate enough electricity to meet all requirements, at least in rural areas. The process can also produce excellent organic manure as byproduct, substituting chemical fertilisers which require LNG as feedstock.

How? One cow gives enough cow-dung in a year to produce methane gas equivalent to 225 litres of petrol in energy terms. Going by the calorific value table, one kg of methane gas is more or less equal in energy content to one kg of petrol, LPG, kerosene or diesel.

A 15 kg LPG cylinder lasts about two months for a family of six. This works out to 15 kg of LPG per capita per year. The same holds true for kerosene. The entire LPG and kerosene requirements of our 100 crore population can be met by methane gas cylinders, produced from the cow-dung of 75 million cows.

Just like CNG, methane gas can be used to run automobile engines in place of petrol.
India’s petrol consumption last year (2003-04) was eight million tonnes. Assuming that one cow produces methane gas equivalent to 225 litres of petrol, we will need about 40 million cows to produce an energy equivalent to eight million tonnes of petrol.
A generator needs 200 gm of petrol to produce one kilowatt/hour (kwH) of electrical energy. The per capita electrical energy consumption in rural area is 112 kwH per annum. Our rural population being 74 crore, we will need another 85 million cows to meet the electrical energy needs of rural areas. It means a total of 200 million livestock to satisfy our energy requirements against availability of 250 million)..

Process of methane gas production is simple: The anaerobic decay of raw organic wastes like cow-dung in an airtight tank generates the gobar gas. An agitator quickens the process. This gas has 68 per cent methane and 31 per cent carbon dioxide. Once it is passed through lime water to remove the carbon dioxide and over iron fillings to remove HoS, the gas becomes enriched with methane.

Plants: The gobar gas plants are available in various sizes, from three cubic metres to 270 cubic metres, costing between Rs 20,000 and Rs 100,000. A compressor can extract and compress this methane gas into portable cylinders that can then be used for cooking, or in automobiles and two wheelers.
Organic manure: As much as 50 per cent of the cow-dung slurry available as leftover in the gobar gas plant can be used to produce organic manure rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. The cow-dung of 200 million cows can produce 50 million tonnes of manure, which can be used for two rotations in a year to take care of the fertiliser needs of the entire 143 million hectares in the country. It means no need to import LNG, used as feedstock in fertiliser plants and the related investment..

If every village- 6.27 lakh in India- has 50 farmer families who maintain just two bullocks and four cows each, the cow-dung of these animals can produce enough methane gas to take care of country’s entire energy needs of the country

And then thee bio-diesel: Bio-diesel is in production in a big way in the developed countries. In India, trees like pungan, neem, karanji, ratanjyot or jatropha can be grown to produce oil. A thousand such trees can be planted on one hectare, which will yield 10 tonnes of oilseeds, from which 2.5 tonnes of oil can be extracted. This oil can be converted into bio-diesel after esterification and used as fuel in diesel engines. Our annual requirement of diesel oil last year was 38 million tonnes.

This amount of bio-diesel can be produced by trees planted on 15 million hectares of fallow or wastelands. And, India has 25 million hectares of fallow land.
Methane farming and bio-diesel are the new renewable sources to meet our entire energy needs.

Why should India remain dependent on import oil from the Gulf? Why should India loose its sleep about the problem created by Pakistan for getting a gas pipe line through its territory?

But why have we failed in exploring these easier routes? Perhaps, it is because of the poor marketing and effective research and education to make all the elements including the efficiency and cost of the plant and process acceptable to the masses.

- Indra

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Methane Farming and Bio-diesel- the answer to Rural problems

Posted : December 9, 2004 at 6:34 am [IST]

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