Bioenergy Production: Special Emphasis on Rice Husks Usage in India - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 17

3.2.2 Post-project Scenario

The proposed cogeneration plant accomplishes both the thermal and electrical en-
ergy requirements of the paper mill. The cogeneration plant displaces DG, which
reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The only fuel used in the project activ-
ity was rice husk. The total CHP output is utilized by the paper mill. The usage of
carbon neutral rice husk results in GHG reduction compared to the DG sets. The
project produced 3 MW which is more then the demand (2.4 MW) of the paper
mill. About 0.4 MW has been utilized by the power plant auxiliaries. There was
no change in the process of thermal energy. All the 5 DG sets were kept as stand-
by. Over a period of time the number of rice shelling units (Allahabad, Sultanpur
and Pratapgarh) has increased in the region indicating a higher availability of rice
husk ( Table 3.1 ).

Table 3.1. The summary of Paddy crop production in tonnes district wise

Year / District Rae Bareli Allahabad Sultanpur Pratapgarh

1997-1998 240,099 264,382 334,187 228,671

1998-1999 240,025 334,437 317,796 174,882

1999-2000 252,465 431,418 340,777 228,834

Average 244,196 343,412 330,920 210,795

Rice husk (0.25%) of
the Paddy

61,049 85,853 82,730 52,699

The total rice husk requirement is around 34,000 tonnes per annum in the post
project scenario. Around 29,000 tonnes were collected from the district's rice
shellers and the remaining 5,000 tonnes were collected from the farmers practicing
manual de-husking. The rice husk collected from various districts was analyzed
for different elements which could play a major role in the usage of rice husk.
Table 3.2 gives information about the elements present in rice husk which play
important role in GHG emissions (carbon, sulphur and nitrogen). It can be ob-
served that the rice husk has very low concentration of nitrogen and sulphur. The
presence of carbon in rice husk was about 38%.
The project considers the sustainable development indicators:

• Social well being: removal of social disparity and improvement in the quality
of life of people;
• Economic well being: reduction in total energy consumption due to the in-
creased efficiency achieved with CHP;
• Environmental well being: sustainable usage of natural resources, reduction in
GHG ; and
• Technological well being: environmentally safe technology.