Abstract
Modern economies run on the backbone of electricity as one of major factors behind industrial development. India is endowed with plenty of natural resources and the majority of electricity within the country is generated from thermal and hydro-electric plants. A few nuclear plants assist in meeting the national requirements for electricity but still many rural areas remain uncovered. As India is primarily a rural agrarian economy, providing electricity to the remote, undeveloped regions of the country remains a top priority of the government. A vital, untapped source is livestock generated biomass which to some extent has been utilized to generate electricity in small scale biogas based plants under the government's thrust on rural development. This study is a preliminary attempt to correlate developments in this arena in the Asian region, as well as the developed world, to explore the possibilities of harnessing this resource in a better manner. The current potential of 2600 million tons of livestock dung generated per year, capable of yielding 263,702 million m3 of biogas is exploited. Our estimates suggest that if this resource is utilized judiciously, it possesses the potential of generating 477 TWh (Terawatt hour) of electrical energy per annum.
Highlights
Indiscriminate consumption of fossil fuels to meet energy demand for the burgeoning human population world-wide, especially in high population density nations, is primarily responsible for three quarters of the total world figures for greenhouse gas (GHG) generation [1,2]
To evaluate the extent and potential of effectively utilizing biogas as a source of power generation, the amount of livestock and poultry waste generated in the country was obtained from figures published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, India [23]
It is evident that annual generation of dung stands at around 2600 million tons (MT), which is stupendous in terms of amount generated, making it a vital untapped energy source
Summary
Indiscriminate consumption of fossil fuels to meet energy demand for the burgeoning human population world-wide, especially in high population density nations, is primarily responsible for three quarters of the total world figures for greenhouse gas (GHG) generation [1,2]. The high growth rate of the human population and tendencies towards urbanization during the last few decades have raised energy demand which is likely to grow by 25% In order to fulfill this expected rise in energy demand, alternative sources need to be identified and tapped due to the recognized likelihood of the exhaustion of fossil fuels. India is the world’s seventh largest land-mass spreading over 328 million hectares and is expected to become the most populous nation of the world by the year 2025 [5,8]. India has six main climatic sub-types, ranging from deserts in the west, Energies 2017, 10, 847; doi:10.3390/en10070847 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
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