Enhanced biomass production and energy conversion for use in water-scarce areas of India

提供现代能源服务是印度和发展中世界减轻贫困的重要组成部分。传统上，生物质一直是许多人的主要能源，现在仍然是，它很可能是未来的主要能源。然而，生物质的分布性和低品位特性使得引入更有效的生产和使用手段变得至关重要。生物质生产需要水和土地，其他用途也需要水和土地。因此，在最大限度地利用这些有限资源时，重要的是从整体上看问题。我们的方法不是孤立地看待能源转换，而是引入具有多种好处的技术。因此，我们将在曼普拉村(拉贾斯坦邦与世隔绝的社区的代表)建立一个种植园，种植不仅可以生产能源，还可以生产食物、饲料、肥皂和植物杀虫剂的作物。在法里达巴德(哈里亚纳邦的一个小镇)，我们将种植能源作物，但同时处理污水。一个以生物质为燃料的小规模三联发电系统将被开发出来，以提供电力、用于保存食物的冰、用于烘干农作物的热量和/或用于饮用的纯净水。这些技术的开发和转让利用了英国已经开发的大量专业知识。例如，三代系统的开发建立在华威大学完成的制冷工作的基础上，同时引入了制造适合发展中国家使用的小型设备的新挑战。阿斯顿的太阳能蒸馏工作建立在早期海外项目经验的基础上，但目标是发展英国在这一日益重要的领域的产能。污水处理与能源种植园的结合在英国和欧洲最近的项目中得到了很好的尝试；但印度提出了一系列需要考虑的全新限制。任何技术如果由供应商而不是用户指定，都可能失败，尤其是当两者在地理和文化上相距遥远的时候。为了将这种风险降至最低，这项工作的一个关键要素将是通过访谈、焦点小组和在印度的观察来确定社会经济成功因素，这是我们在印度信息技术研究所-Delhi的合作伙伴的协助。社会经济研究将使这些项目的实施地点能够衡量成功；但除此之外，我们将进行建模，考虑到物理系统(种植园、发动机、冰箱等)。以及人类参与者。这个模型将使我们能够研究技术实施的各种未来情景。该项目是阿斯顿、华威、利兹、布里斯托尔和考文垂大学之间的一个联盟，得到了WRC的帮助，并与IIT-德里密切合作。

The provision of modern energy services is an essential part of alleviating poverty in India and the developing world. Traditionally, biomass has been and remains the principal source of energy for many and it is likely to be a major energy resource of the future. However, the distributed and low-grade nature of biomass makes it essential to introduce more effective means of production and use.Biomass production requires water and land which are also needed for other purposes. Therefore it is important to take a holistic view when it comes to making the best use of these finite resources. Rather than viewing energy conversion in isolation, our approach is to introduce technologies having multiple benefits. Thus, we will set up a plantation in the village of Manpura (representative of isolated communities in Rajasthan) to grow crops which can yield not only energy but also food, fodder, soap and botanical pesticides. In Faridabad (a small town in Haryana state) we will grow energy crops but at the same time treat sewage. A small scale tri-generation system, fuelled by biomass, will be developed to provide electricity, ice for food preservation, heat for drying crops and/or pure water for drinking.The development and transfer of these technologies makes use of a great deal of expertise already developed in the UK. For example, the development of the tri-generation system builds on work on refrigeration accomplished at the University of Warwick while introducing the new challenge of making a small-scale device suited to use in developing countries. The work on solar distillation at Aston builds on experience gained in earlier overseas projects but aims to develop UK capacity in this area of growing importance. The combination of sewage-treatment with energy plantations is well tried through recent projects in the UK and Europe; but India presents a whole new set of constraints which need to be taken into consideration.Any technology could fail if specified by the provider rather than by the user and this is especially true when the two are geographically and culturally remote from each other. To minimise this risk, a key element of the work will be the identification of socio-economic success factors through interviews, focus groups and observations in India, facilitated by our partners at IIT-Delhi.The socio-economic study will enable success to be measured where these projects are implemented; but to go beyond that we will carry out modelling, taking into account both the physical systems (plantation, engine, refrigerator, etc.) and the human participants. This modelling will enable us to investigate a variety of future scenarios in which the technologies are implemented.This project is a consortium among the universities of Aston, Warwick, Leeds, Bristol and Coventry with assistance from WRc and in close collaboration with IIT-Delhi.