Plants In Rural Areas Research Articles

Socioeconomic impacts of domestic biogas plants on rural households to strengthen energy security.

The central theme of the study is to assess the socioeconomic impact of household biogas plants on rural households. To this end, the study selected respondents from biogas plant holders and non-holders of biogas plants in rural areas of Muzaffar-Garh. During the field survey, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 40 biogas users in two villages in each Tehsil and 40 non-biogas users in the same village. A survey based on pre-designed questionnaire was conducted, and main data of 320 households in four Tehsil districts (interviewees) in the Muzaffar-Garh region were collected. In this study, biogas is the input variable, while elderly education and total household income are the input socioeconomic variables. Farm productivity, time saving, indoor air pollution, household hygiene, and expenditure are intermediate variables. The output variables include income, health, and education level of minor children aged 2-5years. Structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques that describe the relationship between input variables and output variables can be used to obtain steadfast results. Based on the estimates, we have observed that BG investments have substantial impacts on farm productivity, time savings, indoor air pollution, household hygiene, and expenditure, which in turn has played a role in improving the status of people. It is concluded that many direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts of holding biogas plants on rural households can be measured. In order to widely promote biogas technology as an alternative energy source nationwide, there must be greater public participation.

Characteristics of Nutrient Removal in a Pilot-scale A2/O with Mixture of Sludge Fermentation Liquor and Tail Water as External Carbon Source

To resolve the issue of sewage fluctuation and discontinuity in a rural district of China, a new operation mode of replenishing the mixture of fermentation liquor and tail water during the off-flow period was proposed, and the nutrient removal performance of a pilot-scale A2/O system with this operation mode was investigated. The results of beaker experiments found that the mixture of tail water and fermentation liquor at a ratio of 12:1 had better denitrification and phosphorus release/absorption characteristics than the raw water, and theoretically had the function of enhancing denitrification and phosphorus removal performances. The results of a 97 d pilot test showed that the removal efficiency of TN and TP was improved after the system was adjusted from the constant flow mode to this new operation mode, and the average removal rate of TN and TP increased from 69.27% and 86.94% to 73.34% and 89.94%, respectively. The corresponding average effluent concentration decreased from 15.77 mg·L-1 and 0.80 mg·L-1 to 13.76 mg·L-1 and 0.64 mg·L-1. The sequencing results of the 16S rRNA gene showed that this new operation mode was beneficial to the enrichment of five common hydrolytic acidizing bacteria genera, six phosphorus-accumulating organisms genera, and four denitrifying bacteria genera. This was also the main reason for the improved nutrient removal performance. According to the long-term monitoring of the characteristics of activated sludge, this new operating mode will degrade the sedimentation performance of activated sludge in the system, and the average SVI increased from 106 mL·g-1 to 131 mL·g-1. However, this degree of deterioration did not adversely affect the sludge activity and nutrients removal performance of the system, and there was no sludge bulking in the entire experiment. The results of this study have shown that the A2/O system can maintain and improve the performance of nutrients removal by replenishing the mixture of tail water and sludge fermentation liquor when the flow is cut off. This will provide new ideas for the design and operation of sewage treatment plants in rural areas in the future.

SUDANESE EXPERIENCE TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION OF BIOMASS GASIFICATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF ENERGY FOR RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

As many of the developing countries in the world, Sudan depends heavily on the biomass energy sources as a major source of energy for household and traditional industries sectors. Recently, the biomass energy accounts for more than (61%) of the total energy consumption in the national energy balance. The dependence on the biomass energy sources creates serious environmental problems including desertification and climatic changes in many of the rural areas. Sudan is rich in agricultural residues in both irrigated and rain fed agricultural sectors. The country launched a new energy and environmentally sound policy to encourage the transfer of advanced sustainable biomass energy technologies. The policy is based on the optimal and efficient utilization of the available agricultural residues by the implementation of biomass renewable energy technologies. The main objectives of this paper are to highlight the filed experience on using biomass gasifier-based project for decentralized power supply for remote location in Gezira State, Sudan, and to present the challenges facing the large scale applications of the technology in the country. Three types of biomass were used: Raw Cotton Stalks, Cotton Stalks Briquettes, and Groundnut Shells Briquettes. The efficiency and the technical performance of the gasifier has been evaluated. The research concluded that gasifier could be one of the best technical option to convert agricultural biomass products into sustainable energy in rural areas. Biomass gasification proved that it is a promising technology for dementalization power generation in rural areas (Off-Grid), both because of difficulties in providing good quality grid power, and due to the wide availability of biomass even in remote villages in the country. The cotton stalks briquettes were found to be the best biomass sources for the gasification process. The obtained results give a very encouraging picture to make villages self-sufficient in their primary energy needs. It is therefore, highly recommended that, an accurate estimation of the potential biomass resources (agricultural. residues) base in Sudan, should be undertaken for implementation of a decentralized biomass gasification power plants in rural areas.

Trace metal requirements for anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge from rural areas and food waste in Japan

Abstract For small-scale wastewater treatment plants in rural areas (WWTPRs) of Japan, reducing sludge disposal costs is an important issue. Co-digestion of sludge from WWTPRs and food waste is a promising method of reducing maintenance costs and producing energy resources such as methane. In this study, co-digestion experiments using sludge and kitchen garbage were conducted to investigate the stability of the co-digestion from the perspective of trace metal requirements. The gas production rate and pH were stable in the digester with HRTs of 140–70 days. With a HRT of 30 days, the pH gradually dropped from 7.0 to 6.5, and VFA accumulated up to a concentration of 2,200 mg/L, indicating process failure. Cobalt (Co) concentration was approximately one-tenth of the required amount reported by a previous study. When Co was added to the digester, the pH and gas production rate became stable even with a higher VS loading rate. Therefore, the unstable situation was attributed to a lack of Co in the sludge. The Co concentration of sludge from WWTPRs in Japan is generally low, similar to the sludge used in this study. The addition of Co is required for stable co-digestion of sludge from WWTPRs and food waste.

Insect Diversity and Association with Plants: A Case Study in Rural Areas of Dhirkot, Azad Kashmir Pakistan

Insects play a vital role for proper functioning of forest ecosystem, including positive roles as pollinators, seed dispersers, genetic linkers and detrimental effects by feeding on and/or killing trees. The present study was conducted to find insect association with plants in rural areas of Dhirkot. The study was conducted from March, 2019 to September, 2019. The sampling was carried out by line transect method. Thirty transects were taken for sampling insects. Sixty-five species of insects in association with 150 plants were recorded.

Mapping the Land Cover of Africa at 10 m Resolution from Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data with Google Earth Engine

The remote sensing based mapping of land cover at extensive scales, e.g., of whole continents, is still a challenging task because of the need for sophisticated pipelines that combine every step from data acquisition to land cover classification. Utilizing the Google Earth Engine (GEE), which provides a catalog of multi-source data and a cloud-based environment, this research generates a land cover map of the whole African continent at 10 m resolution. This land cover map could provide a large-scale base layer for a more detailed local climate zone mapping of urban areas, which lie in the focus of interest of many studies. In this regard, we provide a free download link for our land cover maps of African cities at the end of this paper. It is shown that our product has achieved an overall accuracy of 81% for five classes, which is superior to the existing 10 m land cover product FROM-GLC10 in detecting urban class in city areas and identifying the boundaries between trees and low plants in rural areas. The best data input configurations are carefully selected based on a comparison of results from different input sources, which include Sentinel-2, Landsat-8, Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), Night Time Light (NTL) Data, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), and MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST). We provide a further investigation of the importance of individual features derived from a Random Forest (RF) classifier. In order to study the influence of sampling strategies on the land cover mapping performance, we have designed a transferability analysis experiment, which has not been adequately addressed in the current literature. In this experiment, we test whether trained models from several cities contain valuable information to classify a different city. It was found that samples of the urban class have better reusability than those of other natural land cover classes, i.e., trees, low plants, bare soil or sand, and water. After experimental evaluation of different land cover classes across different cities, we conclude that continental land cover mapping results can be considerably improved when training samples of natural land cover classes are collected and combined from areas covering each Köppen climate zone.

Spectroscopic and Phytochemical Examination of Medicinal Plants in Rural Areas of Krishnankoil

Herbal medicines are part of our daily routine. Usage of synthetic drugs provides instant relief but doesn’t give a long term solution. Here we report few medicinal plants of Indigofera Tinctoria, Momordica Cymbalaria, and Withania Somnifera that has been collected in Krishnankoil area of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu. The identification of biomolecules was investigated using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Charge transfer between bonding, antibonding, non-bonding was analyzed with UV-Vis spectroscopy along with measurement of absorption. Phytochemical testing was carried out inorder to understand the important constituents in the chosen herbals

Site Selection for Wastewater Treatment Plants in Rural Areas Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process and Geographical Information System

Background: Population growth and industrial and agricultural activities have increased the consumption of water, leading to clean water scarcity. Wastewater treatment is an important concern as determining proper sites for wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) largely influences proper operation. The present study aimed to determine an optimized site for WWTP in the rural complexes of Zanjanrood catchment in Zanjan province, Iran. Methods: The site priority map was generated using the geographical information system (GIS) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Locating of the plants was based on various parameters. After map preparation, the weight of each parameter was determined using the AHP approach, and the conversion of the layers was performed using the GIS. The site priority map for each sub-catchment was determined and optimized. Results: In the criteria pairwise comparison matrix, the distance from the city had the highest value (16%), while the distance from the oil and gas transmission pipelines had the lowest value (1%). The site was located at the lowest elevation compared to the villages in each complex. Conclusion: According to the results, the AHP followed by the optimization method could pinpoint the optimal sites for the environmental protection of treatment plant construction in rural areas.

The occurrence and transformation behaviors of disinfection byproducts in drinking water distribution systems in rural areas of eastern China

The occurrence and transformation behaviors of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) were investigated in the finished water and tap water of 14 water treatment plants in rural areas of eastern China. Mammalian cell toxicity data from previous studies were used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of trihalomethanes (THMs), haloacetic acids (HAAs), haloacetonitriles (HANs), trichloronitromethane (TCNM) and the genotoxicity of HAAs, HANs and TCNM. Correlation analysis was conducted to identify the factors that might influence the variability of DBPs. The measured median values were 29.76 μg/L for THMs, 20.47 μg/L for HAAs, 3.98 μg/L for HANs, 0.76 μg/L for haloketones (HKs) and 0.03 μg/L for TCNM. The spatial variability analysis showed that the total concentrations of HAAs and HANs decreased during long hydraulic residence time (HRT) in seven drinking water distribution systems, which could result in reduced mammalian cell cytotoxicity and genotoxicity at consumers’ taps. The concentrations of trihalogenated-DBPs were more stable than those of dihalogenated-DBPs and monohalogenated-DBPs during long HRT. Bromine acted as a more efficient substituting agent than chlorine for THMs and dihaloacetonitriles (DHANs) in actual drinking water. The dominant chlorinated-THMs and chlorinated-DHANs would transfer to brominated -THMs and brominated-DHANs when the concentration of bromide ion exceeds 450.67 and 610.25 μg/L, respectively. Correlation analysis indicated that particulate and soluble manganese (Mn) might play critical roles in promoting the production of DBPs in bulk water. Hydraulic disturbance could also result in secondary release of DBPs from loose deposits accumulated on distribution pipe walls.

Environmentally Friendly Power Generation Technology with Solar PV-Biogas in Rural Areas of Eastern Java

Increasing human activity has an impact on energy needs. Electrical energy is the most dominant type of energy used daily. the increase in electricity demand in East Java was due to an increase in industrial activity in several cities in East Java, such as Surabaya, Mojokerto, Sidoarjo. Meanwhile, the electrical energy needs of several rural areas in East Java, such as in Bodowoso, Bangkalan, Sumenep have not been fulfilled due to geographical factors. The solution to fulfillment of electricity in rural areas can utilize the potential of alternative energy, such as solar energy and biogas. The high potential of solar energy and biogas can be used as an energy source for solar PV-biogas hybrid power plants. The aim of the study was to study the application of a solar PV-biogas power plant model in rural areas. The research method of the solar PV-biogas hybrid power plant is carried out in several stages to assess the potential for the application of hybrid power plants in rural areas in eastern Java. The research method uses a 100 Wp solar PV hybrid system model and 1 KW biogas generator set by analyzing the potential of electricity produced on average per day. The results of the study of the analysis of the potential application of solar PV-biogas power plants show the configuration of the power plant model of generating solar PV-biogas generators produced by solar PV electric power 1.260 kW per day and 0,379 kW KW biogas generator with a total electrical energy of 1,639 kW / day. Electric energy consumption per family head is an average of 1 kWh / day. the application of a solar PV-biogas hybrid power plant still with a surplus of 0,639 KW. the model of solar PV-biogas generator has a good effective and efficient to be applied in rural Java east.

Access to Safe DrinkingWater in Rural Punjab: An Evaluation of Community Reverse Osmosis (RO) Installed in Muktsar District

Lack of access to safe water takes a considerable toll on the health and economic well-being of India's population, and largely affects those in rural areas. Reflections of lack of access to safe drinking water in India are clearly seen in the statistics that about 38 million people are affected by waterborne disease and about 400, 000 deaths are attributed to contaminated water in India each year. Rural poor in India are more vulnerable to waterborne diseases due to their non-affordability to easy access to safe drinking water. Contamination of water at different levels through different sources is also sharply reflected in high incidence of cancer disease in Punjab. The rate of cancer incidences in the Punjab State is 30.5/lakh population whereas the rate is as high as 75/lakh in Bathinda and Muktsar districts. Various international organisations, national authorities, and state governments are continuously working to address the stark reflection of water contamination in the health charts. Government effort for the provision of and access to safe drinking water through the installation of community RO systems in the villages of Punjab is a welcome step. The articleis an attempt to evaluate the functioning of installed RO systems; study the availability and affordability of potable RO water; record the difficulties faced by people in procuring RO potable water; and suggest ways for easy access to safe drinking water. The findings reveal comfortable and affordable access to community RO facility, People do not face any major problem at these facilities. The expenditure incurred by the state government for the installation of reverse osmosis plants in rural areas is a productive investment to secure good health of the people. However, rigorous steps are further required to take this initiative to another level of community-managed RO systems.

Traditional healing practices in rural Bangladesh: a qualitative investigation

BackgroundTraditional healing practice is an important and integral part of healthcare systems in almost all countries of the world. Very few studies have addressed the holistic scenario of traditional healing practices in Bangladesh, although these serve around 80% of the ailing people. This study explored distinctive forms of traditional healing practices in rural Bangladesh.MethodsDuring July to October 2007, the study team conducted 64 unstructured interviews, and 18 key informant interviews with traditional healers and patients from Bhabanipur and Jobra, two adjacent villages in Chittagong district, Bangladesh. The study also used participatory observations of traditional healing activities in the treatment centers.ResultsMajority of the community members, especially people of low socioeconomic status, first approached the traditional healers with their medical problems. Only after failure of such treatment did they move to qualified physicians for modern treatment. Interestingly, if this failed, they returned to the traditional healers. This study identified both religious and non-religious healing practices. The key religious healing practices reportedly included Kalami, Bhandai, and Spiritual Healing, whereas the non-religious healing practices included Sorcery, Kabiraji, and Home Medicine. Both patients and healers practiced self-medication at home with their indigenous knowledge. Kabiraji was widely practiced based on informal use of local medicinal plants in rural areas. Healers in both Kalami and Bhandari practices resorted to religious rituals, and usually used verses of holy books in healing, which required a firm belief of patients for the treatment to be effective. Sorcerers deliberately used their so-called supernatural power not only to treat a patient but also to cause harm to others upon secret request. The spiritual healing reportedly diagnosed and cured the health problems through communication with sacred spirits. Although the fee for diagnosis was small, spiritual healing required different types of treatment instruments, which made the treatment implicitly expensive.ConclusionsTraditional healing was widely practiced as the means of primary healthcare in rural areas of Bangladesh, especially among the people with low socioeconomic status. The extent of services showed no decline with the advancement of modern medical sciences; rather it has increased with the passage of time.

Embodied Energy Calculation of Small-Scale Biogas Plants in Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Installation of a biogas plant consumes a considerable amount of energy especially in transportation and manufacturing of various biogas plant construction materials. Energy conservation has become one of the important issues of today’s world for reducing greenhouse gases emission into the atmosphere and for reducing the costs of materials. This paper is focused on some issues relating to embodied energy in a biogas plant, particularly in the Bangladeshi context. Energy consumption in the production and transportation of basic biogas plant materials (such as brick, cement, sand etc.) and other materials used for construction has been discussed. Data has been collected from 20 small-scale biogas plants (2.4 m 3 , 3.2 m 3 , 4.8 m 3 ) located in different rural areas of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. It is found that the embodied energy of 2.4, 3.2 and 4.8 m 3 biogas plants are 9.4 GJ, 11.4 GJ, and 22.7 GJ respectively. Around 59-63% of total energy is costs by bricks, 29-33% by cement, 1.5% by sand, 3-5% by PVC pipe, 1% by HDPE pipe and 0.5% by steel used to install the plants. It is also found that the energy required for the production of the construction materials was 83-85% of total energy required while transportation energy was 16-17%. However, a complete analysis of energy input for the installation of a small scale biogas plant in Bangladesh has been described in this paper which will hopefully be helpful for further research in this sector.

Addressing Climate Change through Sustainable Agriculture Practices in India with Reference to Biogas Programme: A Review of State of Punjab

Punjab is an agrarian state and faces a critical problem of burning of crop residues to eliminate waste from agricultural fields. This emits large amount of particulate matters and green house gases, which adversely affect human health as well as the environment. In order to address this problem, biogas can be used as it is one of the renewable sources to supply clean energy and green manure and is an excellent solution for mitigation of climate change. The National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP) initiated in 2005 aims to reduce usage of conventional fuels in houses and in agriculture to encourage usage of renewable energy sources. The main objective of the paper is to explore the development of NBMMP scheme in Punjab while assessing the perspective of beneficiaries towards use of biogas plant from three districts of Punjab. The analytical study shows that beneficiaries are satisfied with working and performance of biogas plants and this has reduced the carbon emission through use of unprocessed biomass and has also decreased the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers in farms. The results of study highlight the gaps in promoting awareness regarding biogas plants in rural areas in Punjab.

Lethal poisoning with Gelsemium elegans in Guizhou, China

• The mode of poisoning was uncommon, and the death rate of poisoning was high. • Poisoning by toxic plants in rural areas is a problem that is worth paying attention to. • The survey and analysis of this case of poisoning are conducive to provide guidance for similar events.

Novel regeneration method for phosphate loaded granular ferric (hydr)oxide – A contribution to phosphorus recycling

At a progressive rate, small wastewater treatment plants in rural areas need to be equipped with an additional phosphorus removal stage in order to achieve a good chemical status in the receiving natural water bodies. A conventional regeneration method for ferric (hydr)oxides such as phosphate specific adsorbents, which can be applied to remove and recover phosphorus in fixed bed filters, was investigated and improved. It was shown that a loss of up to 85% of the initial capacity can be observed when regeneration with 1 M NaOH is implemented. The losses are caused by surface blocking with different calcium-containing compounds as revealed by an EDX analysis. These blocking compounds could be removed completely with an additional acidic regeneration step at pH = 2.5. During the alkaline desorption that followed, complete phosphorus removal and a full recovery of the adsorption capacity were achieved for goethite-rich Bayoxide® E 33 HC (E33HC) and akaganéite-rich GEH® 104 (GEH). The regeneration procedure was repeated up to eight times without any signs of further decline in the phosphate adsorption capacity or any changes in the specific surface area or pore size distribution of the adsorbent. In contrast to GEH and E33HC, ferric hydroxide- and calcite-rich FerroSorp® Plus (FSP) was partly dissolved during acid treatment.

External Lightning Protection and Grounding in Large-Scale Photovoltaic Applications

The development of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) plants in rural areas is constantly increasing. However, the knowledge of performing and installing lightning and surge protection in large-scale PV plants is still premature. The main objective of this paper is to provide a method for assessing the external lightning protection and earthing designs that may be installed in large-scale solar applications. Consequently, the method and models presented in this paper may assist engineers to perform a comparison between the use of isolated and nonisolated lightning protection systems, and second to select suitable surge protection equipment.

Lessons Learnt from the Energy Needs Assessment Carried out for the Biogas Program for Rural Development in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

This paper briefly presents the experience of the Center for Regional Energy Management in the needs assessment, capacity building and adoption of household biogas plants in rural areas of Yogyakarta over the past five years. The biogas program has been designed to solve specific energy provision problems in rural areas, such as securing cooking fuel, as well as to promote ecological farming by using biogas digester as organic manure, thereby efficiently recycling locally available biomass waste. The paper also points that realizing these goals would require significant changes in funding and policy support for the successful implementations of biogas in developing countries. In addition, it highlights some of the key issues related to the implementation of rural energy programs and suggests a new approach and future strategies for initiatives that endeavor to address the issue of rural poverty and improve the living conditions of rural people.

Process safety in using NH3 as refrigerant in Indian ice making plants: case studies followed by policy recommendations

ABSTRACTAmmonia is used as refrigerant in microscale ice making plants in rural areas of India. Many of these are operated unmanned sometimes and thus NH3 leakage is a very common environmental hazard. Studies do not seem to have been reported on the safety management of this sector yet. In this light, the present article attempts to investigate into the safety management practices to such plants. In the first part, an assessment is made on the basis of various process‐related data provided by the owners. For instance, the raw material consumptions are verified through subjective and objective judgments with scientific insights. In the second part, the differences existing in the safety management practices between the microscale and the small/medium‐scale units during NH3 leakage are elucidated through case studies. Finally, few recommendations are put forward for strengthening the Indian safety management policies for ice making plants in rural India. Copyright © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Regional energy concepts – based on alternative biomass cultivation for rural areas and its efficient energy usage

In the German electric energy market, the share of regional and decentralized power generation based on renewables has become more and more signifi cant. The following study describes the initiative of the energy and utilities company ‘EnBW Energie Baden-Wurttemberg AG’ (EnBW) in Germany to investigate regional energy concepts based on agricultural biomass. The study focuses on two aspects: the development of more sustainable approaches for energy crops cultivation and the effi cient use of cogeneration heat produced by bioenergy-driven power plants in rural areas. For the development of concepts and tools, a study area including two counties in the South-West of Germany were chosen. This article focuses on the work done on the county of Ravensburg. Geographic information system (GIS) tools are used to collect data about current land use practices related to energy crops. Subsequently, the suitability of new and more sustainable energy crops for biogas production based on current production regimes is investigated by following a modeling approach. The approach followed includes the screening of new agricultural substrates as substitutes for maize, which is currently the dominant energy crop for biogas production in Germany, the modeling of new substrate mixtures, and the measurement of the methane potential of energy crop samples in a biogas laboratory. Bioenergy-driven power plants are usually implemented nearby high biomass potentials—in rural areas, where heat demand is scarce. Optimizing heat use in combined heat and power (CHP) generators is a major issue for the future of bioenergy. The effi cient utilization of residual heat is one of the targets of the upcoming update of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act in 2012. Therefore, the profi table operation of biogas plants increasingly depends on the level of heat use which can be reached. The possibilities for heat supply to potential consumers in rural areas have been investigated using a GIS methodology on an object-based level for residential and tertiary/industry sectors. Building age and type have been used as parameters to estimate the annual heat consumption. Scenarios illustrating a renovation rate of the investigated objects (buildings) have been calculated. For the purpose of verifi cation and calibration, measurements of the heat demand of more than 3,000 houses have been used. Furthermore, on the basis of existing biogas plants, a techno-economic comparison of heat networks with micro gas networks for the distribution of renewable energy to demand sites have been performed.