Research Activities \/ Achievements\/ Recommendations<\/span><\/h3>\nA. Improved Biomass Cook stoves<\/span><\/p>\nImproved biomass cookstoves in a variety of designs, sizes and materials of construction are available to suit requirements of different regions. Important advantages of the improved biomass cookstoves over the traditional chulahas are as follows<\/span><\/p>\n\n- 25-50 % lower wood consumption. This is because of almost double thermal efficiency of the improved stoves as compared to traditional chulahas.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Very low smoke in the kitchen \/ house mainly because of provision of a chimney.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Easier cleaning of cooking pots because of their significantly lower blackening during cooking.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Lower maintenance of the house because of significantly lower smoke level.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Better health of people particularly woman and children.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Double pot fixed chulahas designs and single pot portable chulahas designs suiting to cooking requirements of the region is available. Improved mud chulahas involve cost only for asbestos cement (AC) pipe used as chimney.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Res-A-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-A-1.jpg\") <\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | ![\"Res-A-2\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-A-2.jpg\") <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\n| Double pot durable stove under regular use in Digras and Manki, Distt: Akola<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The salient features of these stoves are as follows<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Option to choose single pot and double pot designs in two different capacities as per requirements<\/span><\/li>\n
- Thermal efficiency for the single pot design is around 21% & for the double pot around 25%.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Around 40-50% savings in cooking time and biomass consumption.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Pollution levels (carbon monoxide, ammonia & methane) reduced by 30-80% compared to traditional stoves.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Bricks cement, sand and AC pipe are used for construction.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Cost of the single pot stove is around Rs 200 and that for the double pot stove is around Rs 270.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
B. Biogas Plant <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nBiogas plant is a device in which 1:1 mixture of cattle dung and water is fed and clean burning fuel as a biogas and digested slurry as manure are obtained. All the designs of biogas plants being promoted by MNRE used cattle dung thoroughly mixed with equal quantity of water as feed slurry. The digested slurry discharge from plant is watery and is dried in open pits for a period of 45 days before it becomes suitable for transportation to fields for use as manure. Some of the working plants are rendered unserviceable every year mainly because feeding is suspended due to scarcity of water.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Res-B-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-B-1.jpg\") <\/p>\n
Fixed dome type solid-state biogas plant installed in village<\/span><\/p>\nFor solving the problem of water scarce regions of the country and of easier management of the digested slurry, the conventional fixed dome type biogas plant designs have been successfully modified under AICRP on RES for digestion of cattle dung in solid state condition i.e. water for mixing with cattle dung before feeding is not required. The main modifications incorporated are as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- The inlet feed chamber of the plant was replaced with commercially available 30 cm internal diameter RCC or rigid PVC pipe.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The outlet slurry chamber of Janata type plant was enlarged to accommodate total volume of the slurry displaced from the digester. The step type construction of the outlet chamber was changed to an inclined smooth surface for streamlined flow of the digested slurry.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The outlet channel was widened from 15 cm to 30 cm to facilitate self discharge of the digested slurry on to the ground.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The interior side of the gas dome was provided with an additional layer of 1:1 cement-sand mortar plaster of about 8 mm thickness to withstand higher gas pressure and to reduce possibility of leakage of the gas.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
C. Domestic Solar Dryers<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n| A high efficiency multi-rack solar dryer developed under AICRP on RES is now commercially available for drying such products at domestic level. The dryer consists of a drying chamber, glazing, drying trays, shading plates, tray support & tray stopper and caster wheels for easy shifting of the dryer.<\/span><\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | ![\"Res-C-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-C-1.jpg\") <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u00a0<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | Portable multi-rack farm solar dryer<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n D. Solar Tunnel Dryer<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n| A number of farm products require drying either before marketing or during primary and secondary processing. Some popular examples are bulk drying of chilies, goose berry fruits and drying of socked paddy grains, chickpea etc. before milling. A walk-in type solar tunnel dryer is now available for bulk drying of farm and agro-industrial products.<\/span><\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | ![\"Res-D-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-D-1.jpg\") <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| \u00a0<\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | Natural convection solar tunnel dryer<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n E. Biomass Gasifiers for Thermal Applications and Power Generation<\/span><\/p>\nBiomass has traditionally been used for thermal applications in open combustion devices for domestic cooking and agro-processing activities such as jaggery preparation, roasting of grains, etc. Biomass can be converted into producer gas by burning in specially designed devices called gasifiers. The producer gas contains up to 40% of inflammable gases like carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Res-E-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-E-1.jpg\") <\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | ![\"Res-E-2\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-E-2.jpg\") <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Biomass based power generation system (11 kVA)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The producer gas which is very convenient to handle, can be used for various thermal applications such as air heating, baking, roasting, boiling, etc and also as a fuel in IC engines to produce mechanical & electrical power. Biomass gasifiers are now available both for thermal as well as power applications. The gasifier utilizes fuel wood and crop residues as a fuel. The gas produced in the gasifier has high temperature of around 400\u00b0C and contains tar and dust particles. For power applications in IC engines, the gas is required to be cooled down and clean of tar and dust particles to a prescribed level to ensure satisfactory operation of the engine.<\/span><\/p>\nF. Biogas Plants for Power supply<\/span><\/p>\nCattle rearing and poultry keeping are being practiced on commercial scale in the country. As such large quantities of cattle dung and poultry litter are available from such units. Mature technology is now available for conversion of cattle dung and poultry litter into biogas and manure. Besides thermal applications, the biogas can be combusted in IC engines to produce electricity.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Res-F-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-F-1.jpg\") <\/td>\n | \u00a0<\/td>\n | ![\"Res-F-2\"](\"http:\/\/www.pdkv.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Res-F-2.jpg\") <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n\nModified Janta Biogas plant (20 m3) & genset for power generation at University campus<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n | | | | |
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