Title All authors with affiliations (Presenting author to be indicated) Introduction - objectives, context and hypotheses, or predictions Methods

/ Materials - subjects, study site, and protocol Results - including graphs, tables, etc. Discussion and conclusions highlight significance of the findings Acknowledgements and references

Patel A. R., Himanshu Tyagi &

Harpreet Singh SMMEE, IIT Ropar E-mail: amitrp@iitrpr.ac.in

Title: DECENTRALISED OFF-GRID ELECTRICITY GENERATION USING INTERMEDIATE PYROLYSIS OF WHEAT STRAW

Introduction:

India is witnessing a consistent industrial growth since several decades. With the advent of this, both commercial as well as domestic energy consumptions are growing, almost with similar pace. The primary energy consumption of the country during 2008 is reported to be: coal (53.4%); oil (31.2%); natural gas (8.6%); hydroelectricity (6.0%); and nuclear energy (0.8%) . The principal sources available to meet the energy requirement for the country are coal and oil, while the domestic sector utilises mainly coal and kerosene. The use of these fuels not only results in depleting the already scares sources of energy but also have serious environmental consequences due to emission of green house gases in the form of irreversible environmental degradation. Indian economy is heavily dependent on the imports of oil. In 200405, 72% of Indias total oil consumption met by imports in 200708
[3] [2] [1]

, whereas the same amounts to 76.5% during 200607, and to even 78%

. With the growing percentage of crude import, reflects on the economy of the country. In

view of this, it is rather imperative on the part of researchers and energy planners, to search for alternate and renewable sources of the energy.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines, and the World Resources Climate Analysis Data, the review gives the breakup of the emission produced from energy as well as in nonenergy sector for year 2000 as shown in Fig. 1 . It is important to note that green house gas (GHG) emission from agriculture (14%) is equally harmful as that from industry (14%). Any abatement policy targeted towards agricultural sector would give similar overall impact compared to its industrial counterpart. The statistics when transformed to a country like India. With its rural sector comprises of sizable 76% of the population, contributing more than 40% to the countrys GDP. Any environmental abatement measure influencing agricultural sector will generate a vital impact on economical as well as environmental front
[5] [4]

Fig. 1

GHG emissions by source for the year 2000

In recent times there has been a great interest in the biomass as renewable energy source world over. The major reasons for this are as follows. First of all technological developments relating to the conversion, crop production, etc. promise the application of biomass at lower cost and with higher conversion efficiency than it was possible previously. For example when low cost biomass residues are used for fuels, the cost of electricity is often competitive with fossil fuel-based power generation
[6]

. The

potential threat posed by climate change, due to high emission levels of greenhouse gases, the most important being CO2, has become a major stimulus for renewable energy sources in general. When produced by sustainable means, biomass emits roughly the same amount of carbon during conversion as is taken up during plant growth. The use of biomass therefore does not contribute to a build up of CO 2 in the atmosphere, and can be treated as CO2 neutral
[7]

. It is possible to generate energy from biomass

agricultural residue without affecting existing production of crop. Recent report released by UKERC

suggests that up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass from plants without damaging food production
[8]

6.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Authors are thankful to Oglesby Charitable Trust (http://www.oglesbycharitabletrust.co.uk/) for its generous grant to support the programme.

7. [1]

REFERENCES British Petroleum. BP statistics review of world energy, June; 2009, www.bp.com/ statisticalreview. [2] Planning Commission. Integrated energy policyreport of the expert committee, August; 2006, planningcommission.gov.in/reports/genrep/rep_intengy.pdf. [3] Basic statistics on Indian Petroleum & Natural Gas. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Economic Division; 200809, http://petroleum.nic.in/total.pdf. [4] Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, abdelkader Allali, http://www.ipcc.ch/meetings /ar4 -workshops-express-meetings/uncertainty-guidance-note.pdf. [5] Alam A., Agricultural waste and solar technology for energy need in farms Report on technical consultation sponsored by food and agriculture; Organization of the united nations, ICRA, New Delhi, 1982. [6] McKendry P. Energy production from biomass (part 1): overview of biomass. Bioresour Technol 2002; 83:3746. [7] Science article on GHG accounting misses the mark on biofuels, Biomass - power and thermal magazine, Posted October 22, 2009, at 3:30 p.m. CST. [8] Raphael Slade, Robert Saunders, Robert Gross, Ausilio Bauen, Energy from biomass: the size of the global resource (2011), Imperial College Centre for Energy Policy and Technology and UK Energy Research Centre, London. [9] Prabhat K. Gupta, Shivraj Sahai, et al. Residue burning in wheatwheat cropping system: Causes and implications, Research Communications Current Science, Vol. 87, No. 12, 25 December 2004. [10] Decentralized off-grid electricity generation in India using the Intermediate Pyrolysis coupled gasification technology, report June 2011, S. Sagi, A. Hornung, R.F. Berry, Aston University, Aston Triangle Birmingham B4 7ET. [11] Thakur, T. C., Crop residue as animal feed. Addressing Resource Conservation Issues in

WheatWheat Systems of South Asia, A Resource Book. Wheat Wheat Consortium for Indo-Gangetic Plains (CIMMYT), March 2003. [12] Chabra S. S., Food Front, Advance, October 2011, Vol. 59, No. 6., published by department of Information and Public Relations through PUMEDIA, Chandigarh. [13] Sarkar, A., Yadav, R. L., Gangwar, B. and Bhatia, P. C., Crop residues in India. Tech. Bull., Project Directorate for Cropping System Research, Modipuram, 1999. [14] Gupta, R. K., Naresh, R. K., Hobbs, P. R., Jiaguo, Z. and Ladha, J. K., Sustainability of post-green revolution agriculture: the wheatwheat cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains and China. And, Improving the Productivity and Sustainability of WheatWheat Systems: Issues and Impacts, ASA Special Publication 65, Wisconsin, USA, 2003. [15] Jenkins, B. M. and Bhatnagar, A. P., On electric power potential from paddy straw in Punjab and the optimal size of the power station. Bioresource Tech., 37, 2003, pp. 3541. [16] Samara, J. S., Singh, B. and Kumar, K., Managing crop residue in the wheatwheat system of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Improving the Productivity and Sustainability of WheatWheat Systems: Issues and Impacts, Special Publication 65, Wisconsin, USA, 2003. [17] Singh Y. Waste biomass to energy, environment and waste management; 1 October; 2008, www.wealthywaste.com/waste-biomass-to-energy. [18] http://www.westernmachinery.com/media/pdf/rd%20series/100rd.pdf