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INDIAN SCENARIO

4.2.3.1
AVAILABILITY & UTILISATION OF BIOMASS IN INDIA

Under the 11th Plan period (2007 -12) the Government of India planned to add as much as
1700 MW of power production through biomass and bagasse cogeneration in various states.
It has been indicated earlier that we have large potential for utilizing more biomass. Although
at this time there is some utilization of biomass in India directly or indirectly, there is still about
25% surplus biomass which remains unutilized [68].
Power generation projects from biomass in India during 2016 account for 4831.33 MW. About
32% of the total primary energy use in the country is still derived from biomass and more than
70% of the country’s population depends upon it for its energy needs. The current availability
of biomass in India is estimated at about 500 MMTPA. Studies sponsored by the Ministry have
estimated surplus biomass availability at about 120 – 150 MMTPA, covering agricultural and
forestry residues corresponding to a potential of about 18,000 MW. This apart, about 7000 MW
additional power can be generated through bagasse based cogeneration in the country’s 550
sugar mills, if these sugar mills were to adopt technically and economically optimal levels of
cogeneration for extracting power from the bagasse produced by them. The most commonly
used route is combustion. The advantage is that the technology used is similar to that of
a thermal plant based on coal, except for the boiler. The Ministry has been implementing
biomass power/cogeneration programs since the mid-nineties. A total of approximately 500
biomass power and cogeneration projects aggregating to 4760 MW capacity have been
installed in the country for feeding power to the grid. In addition, around 30 biomass power
projects aggregating to about 350 MW are under various stages of implementation. Around 70
cogeneration projects are under implementation with surplus capacity aggregating to 800 MW
[67]. Bioenergy has remained critical to India’s energy mix. The current potential of surplus
agro and forest residues to energy is estimated at 16,881 MW along with an additional “waste
to energy” potential of 2,700 MW [68].

4.2.3.2
MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW) AS FEEDSTOCK IN INDIA

In India, MSW is a problem in almost all the cities. India generated about 188,500 Tons of MSW
per day in 2012. The average composition of this MSW is 51% organics, 17.5% recyclables
(paper, plastic, metal and glass), and the average calorific value is 7.3 MJ/kg (1745 kcal/kg).
The compost yield from mixed MSW is only about 6 to 7%, and 60% is discarded as compost
reject and used as landfill. The calorific value of these rejects is quite high (2,770 kcal/kg.) In
Mumbai alone, from open landfill fires, pollutants of the order of about 22,000 TPY are emitted.
From the rejects of the compost, about 58 million barrels of oil equivalent energy could be
produced per year [105]. From the report of Govt. of India it is estimated that about 1400 Sq KM
of land will be required between 2009 and 2047 for disposal of MSW from Hyderabad, Mumbai
and Chennai only. During 2041 India will generate about 230 MTPA MSW per year ie.630,000
TPD [106]. Most of the towns/cities in India do not have proper action plans for implementation
of MSW rules. Waste collection is observed only for 70% of total waste generation and the
remaining 30% is lost in the urban environment. However, there is a large gap between waste
collection and processing. Most of the Municipalities have no sanitary landfill facility and follow
dumping for disposal of MSW [107].
So far conversion of Waste to Energy was considered as the best way to reduce the detrimental
impact of the large amount of waste generated. This is practiced in almost all the developed
and many developing countries. Govt of India recognizes that the energy created from MSW
is renewable energy. Several years back India had set up WtE plants in some cities but the
experience was not up to expectations. With recent developments in technology it is now
possible to operate WtE plants quite efficiently. The estimated potential for power generation

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