Cleaner energy production by combined use of biomass plants and thermal plants: a novel approach for sustainable environment
Abstract Global research studies focus on cleaner bioenergy production by using biomass. Rice husk is one of the potential biomass resources for producing a significant amount of bioenergy. However, rice mills lack cogeneration facilities. Insufficient rice husk availability and accessibility data i...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Sustainable Environment Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s42834-025-00248-y |
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| Summary: | Abstract Global research studies focus on cleaner bioenergy production by using biomass. Rice husk is one of the potential biomass resources for producing a significant amount of bioenergy. However, rice mills lack cogeneration facilities. Insufficient rice husk availability and accessibility data is another hindrance. As rice husk is abundant in rural areas and most of the rice mills are running on a small-scale budget, the establishment of new, highly equipped, expensive cogeneration facilities at all rice mills is not feasible. Instead, employing nearby sugar refineries and coal-fired thermal stations is cost-effective. Thus, this study examines the synergistic use of sugar refineries and thermal plants to produce rice husk-based cleaner energy. This study also proposes locations for new biomass-based power plants where sugar refineries/thermal stations cannot be utilized. The study focused on three major rice-producing states of India: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. 74 regions across three states were assessed. ArcGIS and multi-criteria-decision-making were used to analyze site suitability. Suitability values were tested for strength and reliability using sensitivity analysis. Analysis suggests the use of existing 44 sugar refineries and 7 coal-fired thermal stations for bioenergy generation. With this synergistic cleaner production technique, only 15 new rice husk-based power plants are required, and there is no need to construct at all rice mills. The rice husk from the study areas has the potential to produce bioenergy of about 466 MW. Thus, a 98.7% decrease in carbon emissions was seen when rice husk was utilized for cleaner bioenergy production instead of coal. |
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| ISSN: | 2468-2039 |