Biomass to bail Tamil Nadu from crisis?

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With Tamil Nadu in a critical power crisis, the government resorting to frequent power outages and the forecast bleak, the need to tap an alternate source of energy in the state is now more urgent than ever before.

Biologists and environmentalists believe the solution could lie in biomass, biological material from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood and waste.

They have urged the government to consider electricity production through the energy source that is both green and potentially inexhaustible.

“While nuclear energy carries a potential safety threat, other non-fossil sources like wind and solar power are part-time or seasonal. Biomass, on the other hand, could be the future,” said state planning commission member G. Kumaravelu, a retired forest official.

Woody biomass harvested from a year-old tree rich in carbon can be used for electricity production either through biomass gassifier technology or through the conventional thermal power plants that generate steam that turns turbines to produce electricity.

The problem is the production of biomass-rich trees. Indigenous species such as ‘Melia Dubia’, known as ‘Malai Vembu’ in Tamil, has shown a good rate of growth under the existing climatic conditions and soil fertility in the state.

The tree could be ideal for use in biomass energy plants to meet the existing power demand, say experts.

“The calorific value of this species is about 3,860/gm, which is better than lignite and bagasse. The wood obtained from one- to two-year-old trees were found to be of excellent utility value as biomass fuel, both for gassifier and thermal steam, with lower ash content (2.88 per cent) and higher fixed carbon content,” said D. Narasimhan, department of plant biology, Madras Christian College.