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

提供现代能源服务是减轻印度和发展中世界贫困的一个重要组成部分。传统上，生物质能一直是并且仍然是许多国家的主要能源，而且很可能是未来的主要能源。然而，生物质的分布和低品位性质使得必须引进更有效的生产和利用手段。生物质生产需要水和土地，其他目的也需要水和土地。因此，在充分利用这些有限的资源时，采取全面的观点是很重要的。我们的方法不是孤立地看待能源转换，而是引入具有多重好处的技术。因此，我们将在Manpura村（拉贾斯坦邦孤立社区的代表）建立一个种植园，种植不仅能生产能源，还能生产食物、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，同时处理污水。将开发一种以生物质能为燃料的小型三联发电系统，以提供电力、保存食物所需的冰、干燥作物所需的热和/或供饮用的纯净水。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，三代发电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的经验基础上，但旨在发展英国在这一日益重要领域的能力。最近在英国和欧洲的项目中，污水处理与能源种植园的结合得到了很好的尝试；但印度提出了一系列需要考虑的新限制。如果是由提供商而不是用户指定，任何技术都可能失败，当两者在地理和文化上彼此相距遥远时尤其如此。为了最大限度地降低这种风险，工作的一个关键要素将是在印度理工学院德里分校的合作伙伴的协助下，通过访谈、焦点小组和在印度的观察，确定社会经济成功因素。社会经济研究将能够衡量这些项目在何处执行的成功；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）和人类参与者。这种建模将使我们能够研究实现这些技术的各种未来场景。该项目由阿斯顿大学、华威大学、利兹大学、布里斯托大学和考文垂大学组成，得到了WRc的协助，并与印度理工学院德里分校密切合作。

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.