Biomass co-firing
Also called: Co-firing, Biomass pellets co-firing · Topic: Energy Resources of India: Conventional and Non-conventional · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Biomass co-firing means burning biomass together with coal in the boiler of a thermal power plant. Biomass is plant material such as crop residue. It is usually pressed into small pellets first so it burns evenly. Each pellet that burns replaces some coal, so the plant uses less coal and gives off less carbon dioxide. It also gives farmers a buyer for paddy straw they might otherwise burn in the field. This is called ex-situ crop residue management, which means the residue is collected and used somewhere else.
Example
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) ordered 11 coal-based thermal plants around Delhi to co-fire biomass pellets. Coal plants in the NCR must co-fire at least 5 per cent pellets. NTPC trials showed that plants can handle 5–10 per cent pellets without changing their boilers. By March 2022, co-firing had started in only 7 of the 11 plants. The main bottleneck was the supply of pellets and the slow growth of aggregators, the middlemen who collect straw from farms.
Don't confuse with
- Ethanol blending: ethanol made from cane, molasses or grain is mixed into petrol for vehicles. Co-firing mixes solid biomass with coal in power plants.
- Waste-to-energy plant: a plant such as Okhla in Delhi burns only city waste to make power. Co-firing adds biomass to a coal-fired plant and does not replace the coal fully.