Biomass - Energy Toolbox

Technical Aspects of the Development of Dendro-power (continued)

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Household Energy

In this Section we look at some of the aspects relating to the use of biomass as a source of household energy. In many parts of Asia, wood and agricultural waste is still the main source of fuel for household use - for cooking and heating.

A great deal of work has been done on the improvement of cook stoves throughout the world, including India and Sri Lanka and we examine some of the improvements that have been made. A traditional "3-stone" open fire cooking arrangement is estimated to be only 8% efficient in terms of use of the heat i.e.. 92% of the energy is wasted. Simple designs of fire-based stoves can improve the efficiency to close to 30%.

Review the paper on "Biomass Energy for Cook Stoves and Other Energy Needs of the Off-Grid Household Sector"
View Paper [PDF 148Kb]

A potential use of animal waste is the generation of biogas, composed chiefly of methane. This can likewise be used for cooking providing a cheap and convenient and clean cooking fuel and can also be used as as source of light for rural households.

Biomass can be used for rural household energy needs through off-grid power generation units - using gasification technology. For information of the gasification process, view the attached paper [PDF 140Kb].

What is the process of gasification.

Reference to the particular issues associated with small-scale dendro-power systems are covered in a paper describing a case study of a village scale dendro-power system recently delivered by the Energy Forum at Wadakahakiula.

View Presentation [Powerpoint 780Kb]

A case study for a village electrification project at Jemara in Orissa, India is provided in the Annex 2 [PDF 1.2Kb]of the Renewable Energy Policy Section. For convenience the relevant pages are extracted here.
View the Orissa Project [PDF 555Kb]

At the Energy Conference (Colombo 2005) the paper "Some Recent Technological Advancements in the Efficient Use of Biomass as an Energy Source in Sri Lanka" [PDF 731Kb] by MW Leelaratne of the National Engineering Research and Development Centre of Sri Lanka provides further insights on the work being done of the household sector.

 

Technical aspects subindex

Technical aspects of dendro-power - page 1
Technical aspects of dendro-power - page 2
Technical aspects of dendro-power - page 3
Subsections
Grid and Off-grid power generation
Industrial Heat Energy
Household Sector
Transport Sector