Strategies for the biomass supply chain management: India perspective
Student name: Mr Setu Goyal
Guide: Dr V V N Kishore
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: IT Power India Pvt. Ltd.
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Abhay Siddham
Abstract: Bioenergy has been continuously been vouched as the most reliable source of renewable energy
for developing countries like India. The study involved understanding of the common
terminologies associated with the bioenergy industry. At the same time, the National Project on
Biomass Atlas concluded by the MNRE, was rigorously reviewed during the course of this
project, in order to not only understand the overall power generation potential of the country
through the use of biomass resources but also in Identifying some of the major states with year
round resource availability, based on the different agricultural seasons in India. In addition to
the above, practical difficulties and on-field experiences were discussed from multiple rounds of
discussions through numerous industry experts to understand the key issues associated with the
different stages in the supply chain management of biomass resources in India. An attempt has
been made in order to compile most of these discussions, apart from some of the other credible
work done in this regard in a manner so that it could be easily understood by the audience of this
report which is intended to be the clean-tech investors, new or serial entrepreneurs and other
power developers interested in the bioenergy sector or any other industry requiring management
of biomass resources. Lastly, study has been carried out on the applicability of the concept of
Biomass Exchanges in India by studying similar concepts which are operational in some of the
Western countries, to establish its suitability in solving some of the challenges inherently
associated with the establishment of biomass based power plants.
The key findings from the study have been in terms of a significant power generation potential of
up to 33,295 MW through the use of biomass residues. Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were identified as the
most viable in terms of feedstock availability considering the fact that they have been found to
have the maximum bio-energy generation potential in both the seasons. The major, issues faced
by the biomass based plant owners were however in terms of procurement and handling of
biomass resources across their value chain. But, one of the major concerns to the promotion of
such technologies was found to be the unavailability of real-time information on availability of
surplus biomass resources. Biomass Exchange was identified as a plausible solution to such
issues, only if they are not blindly copied from the West but modified as per the prevailing market
conditions in India.
Keywords: Biomass, Bioenergy, Supply Chain Management, Biomass Exchange
