Abellon CleanEnergy India
Abellon won a 2011 Ashden Award for its achievement in replacing coal with pellets made from locally-sourced biomass residues.
Background The state of Gujarat in North West India is the richest and one of the most industrialised in the country, producing about 16% of India’s industrial output. Major industrial products include cement, petroleum products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. This industry is heavily dependent on lignite and coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. The land is relatively flat and fertile, so the state has a strong agricultural base with over half of its land area under crops. Major agricultural products include cotton, groundnuts, dates, sugar cane and milk products. However the use of groundwater irrigation has contributed to a significant fall in the water table, leading to saltwater intrusion and increased salinity of soils. This, along with erratic rainfall patterns widely attributed to climate change, makes production and therefore incomes less reliable for small
farms.The founders of Abellon CleanEnergy owned a thriving pharmaceutical business and were keen to diversify into clean energy. They saw the potential of using local agricultural residues from small farms to substitute for lignite and coal in local industries. They also wanted to help farmers use more sustainable techniques, in order to adapt to the changing pressures on agriculture and improve yields, thus helping to ensure a long term supply base of crop residues.
The programme Poornakumbha provides agricultural advice and training to more than 8,500 farmers in about 100 panchayats (village committees) within a 50 km radius of the pellet plants. It negotiates agreements for the supply of crop residues, and sets up contracts with the panchayats. Farmers gather the raw material (including cotton stalks, cumin waste, castor bean husks, mustard stalks and sugar cane bagasse: the mix varies with season) and take it to a Poornakumba collection centre. Here it is shredded and transported in trucks to the pellet plants. Abellon currently has two pellet plants that convert loose biomass into small, dense pellets. The plant in Changodar started operation in 2009 and uses mainly crop waste. The plant in Gandhidam started in 2010 and uses 80% sawmill waste from a nearby sawmill, and 20% crop waste. Abellon sells the pellets under the brand name ‘Pellexo Green’, principally to factories in Ahmedabad and neighbouring industrial areas. They are used as a boiler
fuel to replace lignite and sometimes black coal, or else used in combination with them. No boiler modification is required to burn pellets.
The technology How does it work? In the pellet plant the loose biomass is sieved to remove debris, and then dried. The dry biomass is compressed between rollers to a temperature that melts the lignin in the woody material. The pressure extrudes the hot material through dies at a controlled rate. As the pressure decreases, the lignin cools and re-solidifies, binding the biomass powder into solid rods, 8mm in diameter. These rods are cut into pellets between 10 and 40mm long. The pellets are cooled and air-dried, then put into bags and sealed. The process yields about 500 kg pellets per tonne of raw material, mainly because of moisture removal. About 80 kWh of grid electricity is used in the plant per tonne of pellets produced. The ash residue from the pellet plant is reclaimed and used for various purposes, including in brick manufacturing and soil improvers.
How much does it cost and how do users pay? US$1 = INR 45 (Indian Rupees) [April 2011] Abellon pays farmers INR 500 (US$11) per tonne for the raw material. It sells pellets at around INR 4,100 (US$90) per tonne to its industrial customers, under standard commercial supply contracts. Pellets cost slightly more than the fuel they replace, but for many users the price difference is offset by their advantages in operation: they are ready-to-use, don’t retain moisture and burn more cleanly and efficiently.
Training and support Abellon technical advisers talk to boiler operators; check how pellets are being used; and advise on maintenance routines and operational details such as reducing stack temperature to improve efficiency. They can also link users up with potential customers for pellet ash. Poornakumba starts work with a group of villages about one year before crop waste collection begins. Its advisers give farmers one-to-one or communal advice on topics such as improving soil fertility; introducing
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CASE STUDY
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