Rural Pollution From Farm Practices And Biomass Fuel: Indian Government

The Indian Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh, has said that pollution in ambient air in rural areas, particularly in terms of PM10 (particulate matter having size less than 10 micron), is due to agricultural practices, burning of post-harvest residual stalks, use of wood, coal and dung-cake based hearth and baking of earthen pots.

In a written reply to a question by Shri Om Prakash Yadav in the lower house of Indian Parliament on March 7, the minister said that NEERI, Nagpur has undertaken a study, namely, Control of Indoor Air Pollution in Rural Areas under RSWNET (Rural Development, SC/ST, Women, North-East and Tribal Sector) project during 2009-10. NEERI has reported an increase in concentration of Carbon Monoxide, PM10 and Volatile Organic Compounds in indoor air in the rural household due to burning of wood, coal and dung-cake in kitchen.

According to the Minister, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has launched a National Biomass Cook-stoves Initiative in December, 2009 with the primary aim of enhancing the availability of clean and efficient energy for energy deficient and poorer sections of the society. MNRE is also implementing a National Biogas and Manure Management Programme and a total of 4.32 million family type biogas plants have been installed under the programme since inception to create a smoke free environment for women in rural kitchens, the reply said.

Indian MNRE Pilot Project To Evaluate Community-Sized Cookstoves

A pilot for field testing and evaluation of community sized biomass cookstoves for subsequent development and deployment of improved cookstoves is now being implemented by India's Delhi IIT on a mandate from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The project will be implemented through nine field agencies in eight states: Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. Each agency will be installing fifty stoves in the clusters that have been already identified.

Based on the requirements of each location, the stoves will have to be of three sizes. The smallest size of the stove will aim at catering to 50 people, the medium size for 100-150 people, while the large size stove is targeted at restaurants and commercial setups. The stoves are expected to have fuel burning rate/power output ranging from 5KW to 10KW (consuming about 4kg to 8kg of biomass per hour respectively) and the efficiency of the stove should not be less than 30% in a water boiling test in the laboratory.

The emission rate from the stoves are required to meet the BIS standards of CO, CO2 ratio, not more than 0.04 and particulate matter 2mg/m3. The stoves should carry a warranty of 3 years for the combustion chamber and 2 years for other accessories such as fan and motor. It should also be able to use locally available biomass or be supplied with fuel such as pellets, briquettes with fixed prices for 2 years.

The manufacturers who get the order are to deliver the stoves to the various implementing agencies directly and get the payments from them. However, in case of fixed type of stoves, the manufacturer/supplier is supposed to construct them on the specific sites identified by the implementing agencies.

The selected bidders will have to submit at least one sample to IIT Delhi for testing the parameters.

The Notice Inviting Quotation for technical and financial bid submission from cookstove manufacturers was open till 3rd January, 2011.

Indian Government Constitutes Core Group On Biomass Cooking Stoves

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has constituted a Core Group to interact with concerned stakeholders and to review the progress and take further steps to expand development and deployment of cook-stoves in the country, as per a Press Release by the Government of India Press Information Bureau on December 28, 2010.

In addition, the Ministry has sanctioned projects for strengthening four Improved Cook Stove Test Centers for development and modification of standards and testing of cook-stoves.

According to the release, a project was taken up by the Ministry to assess status of various types of improved cook-stoves currently available, their suitability and delivery mechanisms for deployment through Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and The Energy Resources Institute (TERI).

Based on the recommendation of the project, a pilot scale project on ‘Pilot Field Testing and Evaluation of Community Sized Biomass Cook-stoves’ has been taken up recently for demonstration of community size cook-stoves in eight identified states of the country.

Read the Press Release on: Biomass Cooking Stoves