Yes. Engines specifically designed to run on producer gas are now available from various manufacturers. Until recently, only modified diesel engines or modified natural gas engines were available. The situation has changed now.

Yes. Examples are a 64MW biomass project in Mangalore by Clenergen, a 11MW project at Tuticorin, various 1 MW projects in industries such as Beach Minerals and Arasi in Tamil Nadu prove that biomass gasifiers are here to stay.

Yes. Biomass gasification plants are eligible for subisidies from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India. Upto 20% of the capital cost may be subsidized. 80% Accelerated depreciation is considered for the power plant so as to enable a faster payback period. 10 year tax holiday on the revenues.

A gasifier plant can completely replace grid provided redundant systems are in place to take care of maintenance downtimes.

Thermal energy is a natural output of any gasification system. Heat is obtained at 2 points: One at the gasifier itself and the other at the engine. These can be at temperatures as high as 650 deg C and can be used for various purposes: Process heat, steam generation, hot water, refrigeration, biomass drying etc.

Yes. Vapor absorption refrigeration systems can run on the excess heat and thus provide air conditioning. In fact, even a cold storage unit can be set up using the excess thermal energy.

Biomass gasification has a payback period on capital as low as 2 years. However, solar and wind with 5+ years of payback period are far off from biomass gasification. However, this short payback of biomass gasification depends heavily on the biomass fuel price, the selling price of electricity and also whether other benefits such as heat, CDM etc are exploited. As a result, a detailed feasibility study is extremely important.

A biomass gasifier designed for coffee husk for example would not work with fuel wood and vice versa. So, the technology itself ensures against misuse. However, if a gasifier is designed to work with fuel wood itself, then it will have to pre-ensured that this fuel wood is not being brought from rainforests. Enlen's operations ensure against such misuse.

A gasification plant typically has to be designed for a particular type of fuel. Slight change in characteristic of the fuel is acceptable. For example, a fixed bed gasifier designed to work with fuel wood may accept broken coconut shells too. However, it may not work with rice husk or cotton stalk.

Biomass Gasification is most suited in areas where - there is a surplus of biomass and - there is a need for off-grid small scale power generation Solar and wind too are good technologies for small scale power generation; However, both of these are not continuous in nature. Seasonal changes and even daily changes drastically affect solar and wind technologies. Moreover, the capital cost of solar is very high compared to biomass gasification. Most often, the location of the power requirement dictates which technology is better suited.

No diesel or petrol is required in case of 100% producer gas engines. The auxilliary power required to start the gasifier is typically a small 12v/24v battery.

About 15000 sq.feet of land is required per MW of a biomass gasifier plant.

This depends on both the type of gasification technology employed and also the biomass type. For example, a coconut shell fueled fixed bed gasifier may require about 1.1 kg of fuel per unit of electricity. Similarly, a spent-coffee fueled fluidized bed gasifier may require about 0.9 kg of fuel per unit of electricity.

Very less. Water is only required for ash removal, cleaning and cooling of gas. Moreover, it is most often recycled.

India has a severe power crisis and it is common to experience 3-4 hour power cuts per day in industrial areas and upto 16 hours power cuts per day in rural areas. Industries typically use diesel as substitution. The net power cost can be typically Rs.6 per KWh (considering diesel substitution as well). Biomass power on the other hand can be produced for as low as Rs.1 per KWh and typically is Rs.3 per KWh. Moreover, biomass is available in plenty in India if the right approach is taken. All these factors make biomass gasification an attractive option in India.

It is obvious that it is not useful and such plants are not sustainable too in the long run. Enlen Energy Systems installs plants by ensuring that the biomass can be long term basis.

Biogas is typically referred to anaerobic digestion which is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen to produce a methane and carbon dioxide rich biogas. Gasification on the other hand is a process that converts biomass into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the biomass at high temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen to produce wood gas (also called producer gas or syngas). While biogas production is a slow process which relies on biological reactions, syngas production is an online process which depends on physical and chemical reactions.

Yes. However, it must be noted that these systems are very large structures and will require considerable effort to relocate, both in terms of time and cost.

Ensuring a steady supply of fuel requires long term contracts with the biomass suppliers. We at Enlen have a business model evolved around ensuring such contracts thereby ensuring steady biomass.

Biomass prices rising so much that electricity production doesn't become feasible. If manually operated gasification systems are used, there are risks such as gas leakages, fire etc. We recommend semi-automated or fully-automated systems.