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贫的一个重要组成部分。传统上，生物质一直是并仍然是许多人的主要能源，而且很可能是未来的主要能源。然而，生物量的分布和低等级性质使得必须采用更有效的生产和使用手段，生物量生产需要水和土地，而这些也是其他用途所需要的。因此，在最佳利用这些有限资源时，必须采取全面的观点。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，种植不仅能产生能源，还能产生食物、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。将开发一个以生物质为燃料的小型三联产系统，以提供电力、用于食品保存的冰、用于干燥农作物的热量和/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，三联产系统的开发是在沃里克大学完成的制冷工作的基础上进行的，同时提出了制造适合发展中国家使用的小型装置的新挑战。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的领域的能力。在英国和欧洲，污水处理与能源种植相结合的做法在最近的项目中得到了很好的尝试;但印度提出了一系列新的限制，需要加以考虑。如果由供应商而不是用户指定，任何技术都可能失败，当两者在地理和文化上相互远离时尤其如此。为了最大限度地减少这种风险，工作的一个关键要素将是通过在印度的访谈，焦点小组和观察，在我们的合作伙伴在印度理工学院德里的促进下，确定社会经济成功因素。社会经济研究将使成功在这些项目实施的地方得以衡量;但为了超越这一点，我们将进行建模，同时考虑到物理系统（种植园，发动机，冰箱等）。和人类参与者。这个模型将使我们能够调查各种未来的情况下，技术implemented.This项目是一个财团之间的大学阿斯顿，沃里克，利兹，布里斯托和考文垂的援助从WRc和印度理工学院-德里。

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.