2013 Alternative Energy

Purpose The activities of the community in GEV require energy resources. Located in the rural stronghold of the Thane district, energy is hard to come by. Let us consider two factors here -

Inconvenience of non-renewable sources of energy:  

Depending on them will cause a strain to our nation’s depleting resources. The cost of procurement of resources was running high and causing constraint into our budget.

Solution To implement a sustainable and cost-effective method, to reduce the dependency on conventional sources of energy.

The Alternative A) Bio Gas Energy –  Biomass is a renewable energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various human and natural activities. Biomass does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as it absorbs the same amount of carbon in growing as it releases when consumed as a fuel. B) Solar Energy –  GEV has exposure to sunlight for most part of the year and management identified certain unusable open areas to install panels to harness solar energy. C) Animal Driven Prime Mover –  Bulls not only contribute in ploughing the farmland, but also help substitute power requirement for couple of processes, which we shall study further

Benefits a. Ample availability of Food Waste: Apart from our own kitchen waste, we have two free mid-day meal projects within a radius of about 30 km. Together they cater to lunch requirements of about 80,000 children a day. They have a potential of providing about 1.5 tons/day of vegetable waste and left over food. The bio

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degradable waste, when allowed to decompose naturally, would lead to release of methane, which is a much more damaging greenhouse gas as compared to carbon di-oxide. Hence a dual benefit of generating energy and curtailing green-house effect is achieved. b. Organic Manure: The left over slurry, after the removal of biogas, acts as excellent organic manure in a very easily dispensable form. Since in GEV we have a “zero chemical” agricultural policy, this slurry is fulfilling the role of other expensive organic manures.

Link to core concept Govardhan Eco Village (GEV) is a humble attempt to highlight the importance of living in harmony with nature and using the gifts that Nature and God have bestowed upon us to serve the society by setting up a model farm community. The farm communities provide the opportunity of a sustainable way of leading a life which is physically, mentally, socially, economically, spiritually and environmentally friendly. The sustainability model is further enhanced by the gradual shift to non-conventional sources of energy. Investing in these methods will bring us closer to our objective of self-sufficiency. Our immediate surrounding (/biosphere) is also protected as we restrict wastage from going out.

The Process • Food Waste

Kitchen Bio-gas Plant

•Bio-fertilizer & Compost

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Agriculture & Nursery

•Goes to Bio-gas plant as Organic Waste •Bio-gas is generated and given to Kitchen

The Chemistry Biogas is produced from bio degradable wastes through a process called anaerobic digestion, a naturally occurring process through which organic matter such as manure, food waste, and crop residues are stabilized by microorganisms strictly in the absence of air. During this process, some organic compounds are converted to methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) gases. This mixture of gases is known as biogas. The composition of biogas is 50 to 75 per cent CH4 and 25 to 45 per cent CO2. Like natural gas, biogas can also be used as a fuel in power generators, engines, boilers and burners.

Storage In practice, specially designed and insulated tanks are used to facilitate the anaerobic digestion process under a controlled atmosphere. These tanks are known as anaerobic digesters or bio digesters. The effluent coming out from the digester after the completion of the digestion process is known as digestate. Digestate has nutrient value and can be applied on land like manure. Digestate also has much less odour compared to stored manure.

Plant setup Plant

Source of biomass

Floating dome type

Cow dung from Cow Shed

30 cu.m

Fixed dome

Food waste from FFL

6 cu.m

A bio gas generator used on site

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Capacity

Solar Energy Feature

Value

Capacity of our Solar Plant during daytime (9am-5pm)

30 KW during Day. All the energy requirements of the farm are met through Solar Power 7.2KAH

Battery Backup Capacity of our Solar Plant at night

3KW, 8 hours

Output of Solar Water Heaters

500 ltr at 60-70C Solar Power Panels at GEV

Water Pumping and Sprinkler Irrigation One of the 5 HP submersible pumps has been replaced by Bull driven borehole lineshaft pump. This pump is a positive displacement screw pump that is driven by two bulls connected to the pump rotor through a gear and chain and pulley arrangement. This arrangement multiplies the rotation of the bulls from 2 rpm to about 1400 rpm. The pump is currently installed at a depth of 60 feet and we are currently getting a discharge of about 5000 litres/hour. This figure is expected to increase when we replace the 8″ pulley with the 6″ pulley once the bulls get used to drill. Some of our flood irrigation and sprinkler irrigation areas are being irrigated through this system, which operates for about 3 hours in the morning and evening respectively.

Flour mill and oil expeller We have bull driven oil expeller and flour mill demonstrating the utility of bulls. This helps us make our own oil and flour in an eco-friendly fashion.

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Mobilizing multiple stakeholders Initiative

Stakeholder mobilized

Involvement

Bio Gas Plant

Annamrita –Free mid-day meal

It has two kitchens catering to these needs. We

scheme. Annamrita serves meals reducing their waste management burden and costs by to over a lakh students in

sourcing the wastage from the kitchen.

Mumbai schools

Impact and Sustainability Cost saved = Money earned. We would like to give a brief idea as to how shifting to bio gas generation has helped us cut down costs. Below data is as of Dec 2012.

Monthly Savings and Revenue 1 2 3 4 5 6

Number of LPG cylinders saved per month Amount saved per month on LPG cylinders (Cost of cylinder is Rs. 1150) Savings from Slurry per Month (Or market value of raw materials, saved) LPG procurement costs (For shuttling between Wada town and farm) Amount saved on Fuel per month Total savings and revenue

50 Rs. 57,500 Rs. 13,500 Rs. 2000 Rs. 2000 Rs. 75,000

Monthly Cost Incurred 1 2 3 4 5

Salary for 1 person Maintenance cost Fuel Cost per month Diesel cost per month for running the pulverizer and blower Total Cost incurred

Rs. 5600 Rs. 4000 Rs. 6000 Rs. 3000 Rs. 18,600

Net Savings per month 1

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Net Savings per month

Rs. 56,400

Innovation in method Initially our Bio-gas plant was designed for functioning on Cow dung but later with some modifications we have been able to operate it on food wastes as well which are available in abundance. In order to process the food waste, we made necessary modifications to the existing biogas plant so that it could generate about 60-70 cu.m of biogas with the existing set up. The following innovative changes were made in the existing setup to attain the goal: 1. A 5 HP pulverizer to crush the food waste before feeding 2. A 30 cu.m biogas balloon to store the additional gas 3. A 2 HP biogas blower to supply gas to kitchen at a high pressure 4. A ramp was constructed for the vehicle to climb and dispose the waste.

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