Husk Power Systems introduces electricity to the villages of Bihar who are rice-rich but power-poor
The name Tamkuha means "fog of darkness," and the Bihar village was just that before four enterprising people, with roots from Bihar, used the most abundant waste material from local areas to lighten up the
homes of the villagers in August 2007. Today, they have managed to brighten almost 94,000 rural lives and 12,000 households.
Three-year-old Husk Power Systems (HPS) uses biomass gasification to generate electricity from rice husk. The process saves hundreds of tons of carbon emissions, unlike power generation from coal or diesel. In the entire process they use the services of the local people, providing a livelihood to many. The company has received recognition from many institutions which include University of Texas, University of Virginia, and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in India.
Founded by Gyanesh Pandey, Manoj Sinha, Charles Ransler, and Ratnesh Yadav in 2008, HPS utilizes discarded rice-husk that is collected after the milling process. Yadav recalls that when he returned to Patna after his father’s death in 2006, he was appalled by the state of the villages as he travelled through Bihar. "As the sun was set, the streets and village corners bore such a deserted and dark look that one would wonder if the area is inhabited or not," he adds.
 |
| Lighting up - Biomass gasification plant of HPS. |
Yadav and Pandey, now COO and CEO of HPS respectively, pledged to change the scenario by innovating in the field of water management or electricity production. They zeroed in on using rice husks to generate power for their electricity-producing generators as they realized that "the farmers were actually paying transporters to get rid of the leftover husk." They then procured biomass gasification plants and fed the heaps of husks into them. A biomass gasification plant is a simple metal box with a furnace at the bottom where partial combustion of the raw material takes place, resulting in gas production. The rice husk has to be initially ignited. Owing to its high silica content it does not burn easily, and is left in the metal chamber of the gasification plant for partial combustion in the presence of very less or no air.
The furnace temperature is maintained at 400 to 500°C and as a result gases are produced along with the byproduct called rice-char. The chamber mouth is attached with a venturi, which is a kind of a water fountain – which creates suction pressure and helps in the separation of the char, gas, and the dust particles from the gas. There are four filters attached at the end to help do the same.
Initially the four co-founders did the entire work themselves, from educating the villagers to setting up the gasification plants and digging holes to laying out the electricity wires. They set up the first plant in Tamkuha village which produced electricity at the rate of 32 kilo watt for every 50 kilograms of rice husk every hour. Their subsequent client was Dhanha village which lies in west Champaran district of Bihar.
Some of the challenges included sourcing funds, educating villagers, and making them accept and believe that such a win-win situation is not a farce. As the company lacked funds and could not procure cement poles for putting up wires, they sourced bamboo poles from the area to do the job. Yadav calls it the local effect. "Local people, local resources, and local jugaad." They used their own distribution network and double jacketed wires for the electricity to reach places. "This way we were fast and efficient, while maintaining the low cost," says Yadav. After the set up was ready, HPS was able to provide electricity to the villagers at Rs 80 per 30 watts as against Rs 150 that they were earlier spending on kerosene lamps per month.
With the help of companies such as Shell and Acumen Funds, HPS has been able to set up 26 plants in 104 villages. They have plans to add another bunch of 35 plants by June 2010 and another 100 by the end of 2010.
Meenakshi Rohatgi
This article is sourced from: Technology Review India.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Hope visiting this page will grab your trust, all anyone really wants is a trustworthy supplier who they can count on to deliver on quickly, correctly, and top quality every time!