Green energy: Lakshadweep to generate electricity from coconut leaves, stem, husk and shells

In what is likely a global first, inhabitants of 11 Lakshadweep islands have decided to stop using diesel and turn to coconuts for meeting their frugal power needs.

An alternative energy expert has shown the residents how to generate sufficien telectricity from coconut leaves, stem, husk and shells. With millions of coconut trees on the islands, supply will never be an issue and it will also help cut down on pollution in the archipelago.

About 200-440 km off the south western coast of India, Lakshadweep - a Sanskrit name that means one hundred thousand islands - consists of 36 islands in all, 25 of which are uninhabited. The main source of power for the inhabitants of these fragile ecological coral islands for long has been diesel generators.

"Diesel is costly and electricity produced from these generators costs around 28 per unit against conventional power cost of about 3-4 per unit. The power department of Lakshadweep offers 90% subsidy - about 25 on every unit of power sold - and spends 80 crore each year, which is a drain on the government," SP Gon Choudhury, advisor to the Lakshadweep's power department, told ET.

Choudhury, a nationally renowned solar power expert, was invited by the Lakshadweep authorities to suggest ways to set up solar power generation systems on the islands for minimising pollution. "After studying the landscape of the cluster of islands, its habitat and the ecological system, despite being a solar expert, I suggested setting up small bio-mass power generation systems on each island that will use coconut leaves, husk and the shells."

Assured, cheap fuel supply

Wind power has also been ruled out due to land constraints," Choudhury said.

He claims power from coconut is a global first. These trees being an intrinsic part of the island and available in such abundance, fuel for the power plants is assured and comes almost free of cost. "Energy content in the fuel is very high and it will bring down cost of generation from 28 per unit to 11 per unit," he said.

Ravi Chandar, executive engineer at the Lakshadweep power department, says: "It will reduce emissions by 80-90% in comparison to diesel generators and outgo on account of subsidy will reduce from 80 crore per year to a meagre 8 crore every year."

The plan is to set up biomass units with a total installed capacity of about 10 mw that will meet the power demand of the population. "Investment for the project has been pegged at 80 crore. It will be set up on a built, operate and transfer basis. The company that builds the units will run it for 10 years after which it will be transferred to the government," said Chandar.

A detailed project report has been prepared and passed by the Lakshadweep authorities, which will start inviting expressions of interest next month, he said.

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Printing a Green Future

KG SINGH AND Sidhartha Bhimania set up EnNatura. By outsourcing the manufacturing to small companies, they got by without making major capital investments. But getting companies to use the ink was another matter. They paid companies to use the product. The gamble paid off.

The Challenge

THE OFFSET printing business — think media, publishing, advertising and packaging, to name a few industries — consumes more than 3 million tonnes of hydrocarbon-based printing ink and chemicals, and emits over 5 lakh tonnes of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) annually. Apart from posing a serious threat to workers in the printing industry, VOCs are massive contributors to global warming. The key health and environmental challenge is posed by the petroleum component of ink, released as emissions during the drying and washing process. The resulting photochemical smog not only depletes the ozone layer, it can be linked to respiratory ailments in workers, including tuberculosis and an increased risk of cancer.

The Idea

KRISHNA GOPAL SINGH, a chemical engineer from IIT Delhi, and his friend Sidhartha Bhimania were brainstorming ideas for a start-up when they discussed it with their professor, who, it turned out, was working on ink. The solution seemed obvious: develop an ink that had negligible emissions. The challenge wasn’t just in developing eco-friendly ink though; it was in ensuring that this ink gave the same spectacular printing results and vivid colours as the conventional variety.

The real issue? Resin. The duo realised that they needed to develop their own resin to control emissions. Soon, they created a pH-sensitive resin from renewable feedstock, enabling them to create a biodegradable ink that causes zero emissions.

The next step? To do away with the use of hydrocarbon solvents. The unique chemical formulation of the ink also makes washing easier when recycling waste paper; the pH-sensitivity of the resin means the ink can be washed off with a mildly alkaline, aqueous wash solution, doing away with the need for hydrocarbon-based solutions that use kerosene. Not only does this dramatically reduce the environmental and energy footprint, it can be a game-changer in altering the economics of recycling. Singh estimates that washing costs are cut by as much as 85-90 percent compared with traditional methods.

The result? A fundamentally different printing process that has taken VOC emissions down to zero and makes recycling less expensive.

The Innovator

KG SINGH AND Sidhartha Bhimania set up EnNatura. By outsourcing the manufacturing to small companies, they got by without making major capital investments. But getting companies to use the ink was another matter. They paid companies to use the product. The gamble paid off. But they didn’t have enough money to produce quantities to meet the demand. They switched strategies by going to publishers and NGOs who were interested in green issues rather than printers themselves. With funding from the government and a venture capitalist, they have been able to get their dream off the ground.

The Impact

IT’S EARLY DAYS yet but having ironed out chemical issues, they have 10 printers now using their ink in varying quantities. “It’s a slow process,” says Singh. “Ink is a small cost vis-à-vis the cost of paper but its impact is very high; the wrong ink can lay waste very expensive paper. So adoption is slow and printers wait a long time, often months, to check how the ink deals with fading and other post-printing issues. But the fact that we have got 10 printers who now work with us is, in many ways, the end of stage 1 of the project. It’s time now for scale.”

The Way Forward

CHALLENGES OF SCALE are almost invariably linked to funding: no different for EnNatura. To meet the large-scale demand, they need to invest in manufacturing and marketing. “There’s actually been no barrier to trials,” says Singh. “People try the product easily enough. But to switch to using this in serious quantities requires commitment from printers. We have got the product right after trials and reformulations for around 18 months with printers. Now we need to look at the business and operations end of it.”

Source: http://rise.mahindra.com/printing-a-green-future/