FOCUS : RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

Project: Demonstration Of Leaf Litter Based Bioreactor

Funded By: Biomass Energy for Rural India Project (BERI)

Duration: 2003-2004

Biomass Energy for Rural India (BERI) is a joint project of many funding partners (UNDP/GEF, ICEF, MNES, and GoK) to demonstrate the potential of biomass energy for meeting the energy needs of villages in 25 select villages in Tumkur district. One of the biomass energy technologies identified for demonstration in this project is the bioreactor technology developed by Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore to generate biogas and compost from leaf litter.

The key project outputs are: 

• To construct two biogas plants (expected capacity 6 cum. and 8 cum.) in locations identified by the BERI project 
• To commission these plants and train local people identified by the project in operation and maintenance of the plants 
• To monitor gas yield for 60 days

Ajjenahalli and Obenahalli, two villages of Koratagere Taluk, Tumkur District, Karnataka, were identified for setting up of the 8 cum. and 6 cum. bioreactors respectively. BIRD-K, a unit of BAIF was identified as the partner agency for community mobilization in the Project.

The plants were operated for about a month (25 kg leaf litter per household per day fed, biogas generated and piped to the proposed 6-8 households). Past data from dung based biogas plants suggested a biogas requirement of 250 litres per capita per day. However as the community was not used to cooking with biogas in the initial few days, biogas consumption of 187 litres per capita per meal was recorded. Within a week of operation, the gas consumption reduced by about 30% and most households reported adequate  quantity of biogas, but at low pressure. 

 However, an experimental project of this nature was expected to throw up challenges and raise technology and societal issues that needed to be addressed for making the technology more robust. 

Issues faced 

• Storage and transportation of the gas to households when gas was stored in gas bags. 
• Collection of leaf litter and feeding the same to the plant
• Difficulty in feeding biomass to the plant 

See also Bio-reactor Technology