British project: bioenergy to boost food, income and energy security amongst poor in arid India

Engineers from Aston University in Birmingham are part of a British consortium to investigate enhanced biomass production and energy conversion for use in water-scarce areas of India. The project will demonstrate the strong synergies between food and biofuel production.

The £859,193 (€1.3/US$1.7 million) project is funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and could improve the living conditions of many Indian people as well as having long-term benefits to academic research.

Dr Philip Davies and Dr Jason Hill from Aston will begin work on the project in June and it will last for 36 months. They will join colleagues from the universities of Warwick, Leeds, Bristol and Coventry with assistance from WRc (previously called the Water Research Centre) and in close collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.

The project demonstrates many of the points made by the Biopact, namely that biofuel production can boost the food and income security of the world's poor, reduce internal migration and poverty, and restore and protect the environment.

The specific objectives of the project are:

1. To implement plantations for energy and other useful produce in village communities where the groundwater is brackish, with the assistance of combined solar stills and rainwater harvesters.
2. To investigate the feasibility and optimum method of combining secondary or tertiary sewage treatment with energy crop plantations (ie. 'fertigation').
3. To develop tri-generation systems in which small-scale biomass-powered electricity generators are integrated with ice-making machines and low-temperature thermal applications such as crop drying and water purification.
4. To produce quantitative models of the energy systems, thus enabling prediction of their probable performance according to location and scale. This will include the use of soft-systems modelling i.e. taking into account the inherent uncertainties generated by the interaction of people, agriculture and climate.
5. To determine the factors affecting the success of such technological interventions, from a socio-economic viewpoint.

Bioenergy boost to food security
The overall aim of the consortium is to provide improved means of cultivating biomass resources in water-scarce areas of Northern India and of locally converting them into useful energy services such as cooling for food preservation and ice production, electricity and applications using low-temperature heat such as food processing. There will be a high emphasis on the teaching of practical skills to local people.

"The provision of modern energy services is an essential part of alleviating poverty in India and the developing world. Traditionally, biomass from trees and shrubs has been and remains the principal source of energy for many people and it is likely to be a major energy resource of the future. However, the distributed and low-grade nature of the biomass fuel makes it essential to introduce more effective means of production and use." - Dr Philip Davies, Principal Investigator, Aston University.

Biomass production requires water and land which are also needed for other purposes. The project's approach therefore is to introduce technologies having multiple benefits. The engineers will set up a plantation in the village of Manpura (which is an isolated community in Rajasthan) to grow crops which can yield not only energy but also food, fodder, soap and botanical pesticides:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: energy crops :: biomass :: water :: poverty alleviation :: arid :: India ::

In Faridabad (which is a small town in Haryana state) they will grow energy crops and at the same time treat sewage. A small scale tri-generation system, fuelled by biomass, will be developed to provide electricity, ice for food preservation, heat for drying crops and/or pure water for drinking.

Strengthening local livelihoods
The lack of basic services requiring energy and water contributes to the pressures on rural people in India to abandon their way of life and join the drift towards the country’s growing cities.

"Often they end up living in slum conditions on the edge of escalating property markets, leaving behind them a kind of rural wasteland", continued Dr Davies. "We would like to counter this trend by setting up models of livelihood and local enterprise based on sustainable land use coupled with technology for the local provision of energy and related services."

A key element of the work will be the identification of socio-economic success factors in the project through interviews, focus groups and observations in India, facilitated by the partners at IIT-Delhi.

‘This socio-economic study will measure the project’s success in the areas where it has been implemented. We will also carry out modelling, taking into account both the physical systems (for example engines or refrigerators) and the human participants. This modelling will enable us to investigate a variety of future scenarios in which the technologies could be introduced."

Professor Julia King, Vice-Chancellor of Aston University, said: "Aston’s involvement in this project is another excellent example of how our researchers’ engineering knowledge base is being translated into practical solutions for improving people’s lives. I am delighted that the University is involved and look forward to receiving news of the project’s progress."

ICRISAT's pro-poor biofuels
The British project resembles that of the pro-poor biofuels initiative by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is also linking up poor and marginal farmers of the drylands of the developing countries with the global biofuel revolution while strengthening their food and income security.

The Andhra-Pradesh based scientific institute, which is a partner of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) that helped achieve the 'Green Revolution', is working with governments and industry leaders to develop partnerships that can result in economic benefits for the poor and marginal farmers of the semi-arid tropics, even while retaining the strong economic competitiveness for the industry. The idea is to develop partnerships that link ICRISAT's innovative research directly with farmers and markets.

Under the pro-poor biofuels initiative, ethanol will be made from a high-yield sweet sorghum variety developed by the ICRISAT and that smallholders in drylands can cultivate with ease. The crop yields food, fodder and fuel. Likewise, cooperatives run by women make biodiesel from crops such as jatropha and pongamia and use the fuel to power diesel generators for rural electrification, tractors and farming equipment, with positive effects on farm productivity.

More information:
Aston University: Aston’s expertise helps develop energy solutions for India - June 5, 2007.