Feasibility of biomass gasifier power for brick molding and telecom towers
Student name: Mr Nakul Sharma
Guide: Dr V V N Kishore
Year of completion: 2012
Host Organisation: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr V.K. Jain
Abstract: The intertwining relationship between lack of energy access and low socio-economic development
has been widely acknowledged and reported in several important literatures, but the issue is how
to use energy efficiently and effectively to support the overall development of an economy. Thus,
in order to have a wider impact, projects should focus more on the socio-economic development
of the country through Micro, Small and Medium scale Enterprises (MSMEs) using Renewable
Energy Technologies. Productive use of RETs for example in MSMEs not only enhances the
income generation opportunities and productivity in the rural areas but will also provide new
opportunities for MSMEs to develop and diversify.
But there are some barriers which put renewable energy based decentralized power
generation unfavourable position in comparison with conventional energy sources, such as high
initial capital costs coupled with imperfect capital markets, lack of skills or information among
operators, technology prejudice & financing risks being some of the major reasons behind energy
cost (Rs/kWh) based OR cost plus approach in policy structuring.
Thus a true comparison must be made on the basis of total “Levelized†costs; Which can
account for initial capital costs, future fuel costs, future operation and maintenance costs, and
equipment lifetime for fair comparing with conventional sources/fossil-fuel based power
generation.
Therefore a study focuses on financial evaluation of biomass gasifier based power
projects for decentralized power supply to remote Industries (Brick Molding & Telecom Tower).
Parallel cost comparison on Rs/kWh basis is also discussed between diesel engine generator (DG)
sets, dual fuel (DF) engine sets based gasifier and hundred percent producer gas (HPG) based
gasifiers for 100 kW, 200 kW & 300 kW capacity by using Levelized unit cost of electricity (LUCE)
mechanism.
The study finds out that Dual Fuel based gasifier systems are not only technically
matured but are financially more attractive than Diesel generation sets, the hundred percent
producer gas based gasifiers though most beneficial option among all has not gained much
popularity due to various reasons such as inflated OR unchecked capital costing, system sizing
barriers created by almost every manufacturers in India.
