Download - annual report 2014-15 spreri
1SARDAR PATEL RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15
SPRERIStriving for Excellence
Dr. Amrita Patel Ex-Chairman, NDDB, Anand (Chairman)
Prof. A.C. Pandya Ex-Director, CIAE, Bhopal, Ex-Director, SPRERI and Energy Consultant (upto March 13, 2015)
Prof. B.S. Pathak Ex-Director, SPRERI and Energy Consultant
Shri P.C. Amin Director, Elecon Group of Companies, M/s Elecon Engineering Co. Ltd., Vallabh Vidyanagar
Dr. Kanchan K. Singh Assistant Director General (FE), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi
Shri Deepak Joshi Head, Electronics & Controls Systems Division M/s Jyoti Limited, Vadodara Shri P.L. Panchal Dy. Secretary (NCE), Energy & Petrochemicals Department, GoG, Gandhinagar Dr. S.G. Patel Hon. Joint Secretary, Charutar Vidya Mandal, Vallabh Vidyanagar
Dr. Datta Madamwar Professor, B.R. Doshi School of Biosciences, S.P. University, Vallabh Vidyanagar
Dr. M. Shyam Director, SPRERI, Vallabh Vidyanagar(Member-secretary)
Members of the Board of Management
Acknowledgement
(As on 31st March 2015)
SPRERI gratefully acknowledges the financial support it continues to receive from:
• Department of Energy and Petrochemicals, Govt. of Gujarat, Gandhinagar
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Govt. of India, New Delhi
• Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi
-Department of Biotechnology
-Department of Science & Technology
• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India, New Delhi
1
Contents Page
Important SPRERI Technologies available for use/commercialization ... 2
The Organization
Vision and Mission … 3
Highlights of the Year … 4
Research and Development
Solar Energy … 5
Bio-Conversion … 9
Thermo-Chemical Conversion … 20
Training and Awareness Creation
Training and Demonstrations … 23
Business Meet … 25
Open House … 25
Hari Om Ashram Prerit Young Scientist Award … 26
Consultancy … 26
Memorandums of Understanding … 27
Technology Evaluation and Transfer
Regional Test Centre … 27
Technology Evaluation and Monitoring … 28
Technology Transfer … 31
Patent Filed … 31
Human Resource Development … 32
Participation in Meetings, Seminars and Conferences … 32
Papers Published … 35
Research Projects Pursued … 36
Visitors … 38
SPRERI Team … 39
Balance Sheet … 40
Abbreviations Inside Back Cover
2
Important SPRERI Technologiesavailable for use/commercialization
• Solar refrigerator
• Low tunnel solar drying system: grid connected/stand alone
• Forced circulation solar drying system
• Low cost solar tracker
• Roof integrated unglazed solar drying system
• Conversion of fruit and vegetable residue to biogas and manure
• Conversion of kitchen residue to biogas and manure
• Biogas generation from agro-industrial effluent
• Open core down draft gasifier systems for thermal and power applications
• Biomass combustor-cum-hot air generator
• Improved biomass cook stoves: batch and continuous operation
• Movable platform type wood cutter for preparing feedstock for gasifier
3
The OrganizationSardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute (SPRERI), established in 1979, is an
autonomous and not-for-profit organization managed by a Board comprising leading
technologists, scientists, industrialists and representatives of Central and State Governments.
It is recognized by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, GoI, as a Scientific
and Industrial Research Organization. It is also approved as a Research Association for the
purpose of clause (ii) of sub-section (1) of section 35 of IT Act, 1961. It generates most of
its operating funds through projects given to it on merit by government and non-government
organizations. SPRERI’s service activities like consultancy, technology evaluation, testing and
training supplement the project funds to make it self-supporting. It is a renowned renewable
energy (RE) research institution and is recognized for post graduate research by Sardar Patel
University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh and many other
academic institutions.
Solar energy, bio-conversion and thermo-chemical conversion of biomass are the three major
fields of specialization at SPRERI. Many renewable energy devices and systems developed at
SPRERI are now manufactured by selected industries and supplied to end users. In addition,
the promotion of renewable energy technologies is pursued through field evaluation and
demonstrations, training and entrepreneurship development, awareness programmes and
integrated development of selected tribal villages. The “Open House” organized by SPRERI,
primarily to create awareness about RE technologies, was visited by 3500 visitors, particularly
the youth.
SPRERI, a leading organization for research and development of renewable energy (RE)
technologies, focuses on sustainable biomass conversion and solar energy based solutions,
which are technically efficient, economically viable, environment friendly and which meet the
needs of society.
MISSION• To set-up a world class “Centre for advanced research in biomass conversion technologies”
• To develop environment friendly technologies for conversion of biomass into biofuels,
energy (including electricity) and useful chemicals
• To develop technologies for utilization of bioconversion waste
• To develop technologies for application of solar energy
• To develop business models for promoting use of RE technologies
• To provide knowledge based insights to influence policies and programmes of the governments
for utilization of biomass and solar energy technologies for meeting energy requirements
• To provide specialized training in RE technologies to engineers and scientists and guidance
and facilities to research students
• To provide extension support and consultancy to RE programmes
• To test and evaluate RE technologies
VISION
4
Highlights of the Year The Government of India has significantly enhanced the target of setting-up renewable
energy systems in the country by 2022. This calls for concerted effort to develop/adapt
renewable energy technologies suitable for various applications and sectors in the country.
SPRERI continues its research and development in renewable energy technologies. One of
the important projects it has been working on since 2010 which concluded during the year
was “Renewable energy intervention for rural development”. During the period, simple
renewable energy gadgets such as improved biomass cook stoves, solar home lights/
lanterns, solar cookers, solar dryers and low water requirement biogas plants were set-up in
around a few hundred selected farmer’s households in three tribal villages of Dahod district
and two tribal villages of Chhota Udaipur district. An innovative solution for providing
adequate natural day light in the tribal homes was also developed and demonstrated in 20
tribal homes. The socio-economic impact of introduction of these technologies has been
evaluated jointly with Agro-Economic Research Centre, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh
Vidyanagar.
A solar-biogas based refrigeration facility for storage of 6-8 tonnes fresh horticulture
produce upto a period of 4-5 weeks has been developed and is under evaluation. It is
also equipped with a small photovoltaic power plant to meet the electricity requirements
of the water pumps and fans. The information generated in the project will be used to
design similar stand-alone facilities for operation in production catchment areas. Work on
execution of the research projects “Integrated research and development of biogas off-grid power solution for aquatic feed by high rate biomethanation using effective mixing
technology” and “Efficiency enhancement of Scheffler dish solar concentrating technology”
have begun. Under these projects designs of the pilot plant for biomethanation of water
hyacinth have been prepared and a Scheffler dish solar concentrating system of 16 m2 area
with a receiver has been installed and development of an automatic system for N-S sun
tracking of the dish has begun.
The Institute’s BIS approved and NABL accredited Regional Test Centre completed testing
of 48 solar thermal devices during the year as per BIS/MNRE approved procedure. The
devices tested included 13 flat plate collector based water heaters, 31 evacuated tube
collector based solar water heaters and 4 solar box cookers. The Institute is working
with a few local firms for development of biomass cook stoves, prefabricated biogas plants
and other renewable energy gadgets, which meet BIS specifications. SPRERI contributed
its resource personnel in training programmes organized by NDDB at Anand and GEDA at
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Integrated Rural Energy Development, Amrol, Dist. Anand.
A patent “Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass” has been filed with Indian Patent office at
Mumbai.
The annual event “Open House” organized at SPRERI on January 30-31, 2015 received
overwhelming response with 3500 visitors.
The manufacturing and marketing rights of the SPRERITECH improved biomass cook stoves
were transferred to one more firm i.e. M/s Tanu Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Anand.
5
Research and Development
Solar EnergyDevelopment of solar-biogas refrigeration technology for on-farm safe transient storage of horticulture produce
The installation and commissioning of a
solar thermal refrigeration based cold
storage system has been completed. The
system has been set-up on the roof of an
existing building at Aanand Agricultural
University, Anand campus. Its front view
has been shown on the cover page of the
report. The facility consists of the following
sub-systems.
i. Vapour absorption machine: A lithium
bromide-water based VAM of 5 TR
capacity, developed by M/s Voltas
Ltd. especially for SPRERI, has been
installed. It uses hot water having 80-90°C temperature and chills the cooling
water to 6-9°C.
ii. Solar thermal collector: Forty five
modules of evacuated tubes collectors
(ETC) with heat pipe, each of 3.27 m2
area, have been installed to supply the
hot water to the VAM (Fig. 1). The
ETC with heat pipe offers the unique
advantage of raising the temperature of
the water upto 90°C in a far shorter time
than the common ETC water heaters.
iii. Cold chambers: Three prefabricated
cuboid cold rooms, each of 3 m x 3 m
area and 2.5 m height have been installed.
Approximately 3 ton of horticulture
produce can be loaded in each chamber.
iv. Solar PV power plant: A 10 kWp PV
power plant has been installed to meet
the auxiliary power requirement of the
pumps and fan coil units of the system
(Fig. 2).
v. Control panel: It has been programmed
to regulate the operations of the pumps and
recording various temperatures and energy
consumption data.
After completion of the preliminary trials
of all the sub-systems, the performance
evaluation of the VAM was carried out
with hot water inlet temperature varying
between 75 and 90°C and the coefficient
of performance (COP) was found to be in
the range of 0.57 to 0.72. It took around
2-4 h time to bring down the temperature
of 3 kL of the cooling water from 17°C to
8°C. Performance of the solar hot water
system was monitored for the hot water
outlet temperature varying in the range
of 80-95°C and the efficiency was found
varying between 37% and 47%. The cold
room temperature dropped from 27°C to
12°C in 40 min without VAM support while
the temperature of the chilled water (3 kL)
was found to increase from 8°C to 11°C. A
comprehensive performance evaluation of
the system is in progress.
A fixed dome type all brick masonry
cattle dung based biogas plant of 50 m3/d
capacity was designed, constructed and
commissioned (Fig. 3). The biogas plant
includes appropriate sub-systems for
preparation and charging of the cattle dung
slurry, removal and disposal of the digested
slurry and storage and supply of the biogas.
Fig. 1: Solar thermal field for hot water supply
6
34.0 134.0 425.0 21.7 28320 37.0
35.0 136.5 429.9 18.5 27180 34.3
35.5 133.5 464.9 22.7 27180 36.2
36.0 132.0 425.0 19.2 26880 35.8
Fig. 3: Fixed dome type biogas plant of 50 m3/d capacity Fig. 2: Solar PV power plant of 10 kWp capacity
Efficiency enhancement of Scheffler dish solar concentrating technology
A Scheffler dish of 16 m2 area was procured
and installed with a receiver. The dish
tracks the sun along E-W axis automatically
while tracking along the N-S axis is manual.
Pyranometer and pyrheliometer with dual
axis tracking system were procured and
installed to measure solar beam and global
radiations. The receiver has been provided
with appropriate instruments to measure
steam flow rate, temperature and pressure.
Ansys-CFD software was procured and
installed in the workstation for design
and analysis of the low convection and
radiation heat loss receiver. Performance
evaluation of the system (Fig. 4) began
with outlet steam pressure of about three
bars. Thermal efficiency of the system was
found to be 35-37% for the average beam
radiation of 430 W/m2. The performance
results are given in Table 1. Further work
on performance evaluation is in progress.
Table 1: Results of Scheffler dish solar concentrating system during March 2015
Fig. 4: Experimental set-up for the Scheffler dish solar concentrator
Temperature (°C)
Inlet water Steam outlet
Avg. beam radiation (W/m²)
Mass of the steam generated
(kg)
Time period
(s)
Thermal efficiency
(%)
7
Design and development of a PV module integrated forced convection solar drying system
Full load testing of the dryer was carried
out for drying fresh tomatoes and green
chillies (high bonded moisture products) and
the cost of drying was worked out. Twenty
kg of fresh sliced and blanched tomatoes
(initial mc 97.5%) were loaded onto the
drying trays and their moisture content
was reduced to 5.9% after 10 solar hours
of drying period (avg. solar radiation 790
W/m2). The mass of the dried tomatoes was
1.15 kg. Subsequently 25.3 kg of blanched
green chillies (initial mc 89.0%) were
loaded on the drying trays. The moisture
content reduced to 3.6% at the end of 12
solar hours (Fig. 5). Simultaneously, 3 kg
of fresh blanched green chillies were also
kept in open sun for drying. The mass of
the dried chillies was 1.9 kg for the solar
dryer and 0.28 kg for the open sun drying
process. The variation of moisture content
of the chillies placed in the solar dryer and
in open sun with drying time is shown in Fig.
6. The quality of chillies dried in the solar
dryer was distinctly superior to the quality
of the chillies dried in open sun. Detailed
analysis for cost of drying was carried out
and compared with electric and PNG based
drying systems. The payback period for the
PV integrated solar dryer was worked out
to be 3.2 to 3.5 years and 3.9 to 4.2 years,
respectively, for replacement of electricity
and PNG based drying systems.
Fig. 5: Green chillies -Fresh, open sun dried and dried in the solar dryer
Fig. 6: Variation of the moisture content of the chilies placed in the solar dryer and open sun with drying time
Time (h)
8
Design, development and evaluation of an efficient solar ETC system with PCM to produce hot water for application in dairy plant
A sample of the paraffin as per our
specifications was procured and tested in-house. Its melting temperature was found
to be 68+2°C and the latent heat of melting
200 kJ/kg. The sample was filled into the
experimental prototype of the ETC of 10 L/d
capacity and performance was evaluated.
For the water flow rates varying in the range
of 5 L/h to 10 L/h, the average discharge
efficiency of the ETC collector was found
to be 80%. Based on the performance data
for the 10 L/d capacity system, a 100 L/d
capacity PCM filled ETC based solar water
heating system was designed and developed
(Fig. 7). The system consisted of 8 sets of
ETC and approximately 24 kg of the paraffin
was filled into the ETCs.
The system was first fully charged (wax
melted) by exposing to the sun and then
the water was allowed to flow through the
collector at a rate of 10 L/h throughout
the day. Variations of the water outlet
temperature and the solar radiation with
time for 20th Oct., 14 are shown in Fig. 8.
The outlet water temperature was found
above 60°C during 10:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The temperature of the water at the outlet
was, in general, in the range of 70-80°C.
Performance trials were conducted for
determining the hot water production ability
of the system at a preset temperature
during intermittent cloud conditions without
changing the mass flow rate. Temperature
drop tests were performed for 15 and 30
min cloud conditions. For a water flow
rate 10 LPH the maximum drop in outlet
temperature recorded was 2.0 to 2.5 and
3.0 to 5.0°C, respectively, for 15 and 30
min cloud conditions. During the long run
trials two of the ETCs broke, probably due
to the self-weight (wax and copper tube).
Besides, the highest temperature of the hot
water achieved in the PCM-filled ETCs was
found to be 65°C for average solar radiation
of 700 W/m2 and ambient temperature of
30°C. The ETC equipped with heat pipes
have provided hot water having temperature
upto 95°C. Those systems may be a better
option for hot water applications in dairy
plants.
Fig. 7: PCM filled ETC based solar water heater of 100 L/d capacity
Fig. 8: Variations of the outlet water temperature and the solar radiation with time for the PCM filled solar water heater for 10 L/h flow rate
9
Development of solar wax melting system
An industry sponsored research project on development of ETC with heat pipe equipped solar wax melting system for two ton per day capacity has been initiated. Initially a prototype of 100 kg/d wax melting system has been designed and developed (Fig.9). The performance evaluation of the prototype is in progress.
Bio-ConversionAnaerobic co-digestion of dairy waste scum with kitchen waste
The effect of co-digestion of dairy waste scum with kitchen waste was studied by setting up daily fed reactors each of 5 L capacity in duplicate for 1:0 and 3:1 and 1:1
mixtures of dairy waste scum and kitchen waste on dry mass basis. Dairy waste scum was collected from a nearby milk processing plant while the kitchen waste from a vegetarian dining hall at Vallabh Vidyanagar. Important characteristics of the dairy waste scum, kitchen waste and the inoculum are given in Table 2. The kitchen waste was ground to pulp using an electric kitchen blender. The substrates were stored at 4oC until used. Fresh digested slurry from a cattle dung based biogas plant was used as inoculum. Inoculum to substrate ratios tested were 10.0, 4.0, 2.0 and 1.0 on db. All the reactors were set up under ambient conditions.
Among the three treatments, the biogas yield of 657 mL/kgTS was the highest for the 100% dairy scum waste and the inoculum to substrate ratio of 4.0. Based on the results of the laboratory experiments, a scale up study was carried out for anaerobic digestion of the dairy waste scum for 10% TSC in 36 L and 900 L capacity reactors for 40 days. The average performance data are summarized in Table 3. A very high biogas yield of 55-60 L/ kg of fresh dairy waste scum and 630 L/kg TS was obtained. The methane content of the biogas was very high 71-72% compared to 50-60% for cattle dung. The methane production potential of the dairy scum was found to be 3.8 times of the methane potential of cattle dung. Methane (natural gas) production potential of the scum available in a plant processing 10 million litres of milk per day has been estimated as 178-356 m3/d, enough to produce 222 to 444 units of electricity per day.
Fig. 9: Prototype of ETC with heat pipe based solar system for wax melting
Table 2: Characteristics of the dairy waste scum, the kitchen waste and the inoculum
Parameters Dairy waste scum Kitchen waste Inoculum
Total solids (% db) 10.00-15.0 17.60-21.1 10.50-13.5
Volatile solids (%TS) 72.00-81.0 85.5-90.7 52.40-54.0
Organic carbon (% db) 46.00-48.0 42.00-49.0 26.0
Nitrogen (% ) 1.50-2.0 2.20-2.5 1.40-1.6
Crude fat (%) 6.00-9.0 - -
10
Table 3: Average performance of anaerobic digestion of dairy waste scum in daily fed reactors for 10% TSC and 40 d RT
Reactor volume (L) 36 900
Biogas yield (L/kg TS) 645 630
Biogas composition
• Methane (%) 70.50 71.70
• Carbon dioxide (%) 27.70 26.90
Development of biogas off-grid system for biomethanation of aquatic feed using effective mixing technology
The physico-chemical characteristics of
water hyacinth were determined and its
biomethanation potential was worked out
for mesophilic (ambient) and thermophillic
(55oC) conditions in batch type reactors for
40 days RT. The whole plant of the water
hyacinth was chopped to less than 25 mm
particle size. Reactors of 0.6 L of total
volume with 0.4 L effective volume were
used. The inoculum to substrate ratio was
1:1. The results are summarized in Table 4.
Water hyacinth being highly fibrous got
bonded together and formed a blanket inside
the reactor. Therefore, a floating dome
type reactor made of acrylic and having
effective volume of 200 L was constructed
to simulate the mixing through bubbling.
A 25 mm diameter pipe has been inserted
along the vertical axis of the reactor and
Fig. 10: Schematics of water hyacinth biomethanation process through bubbling
Table 4: Results of anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth in batch type reactors
Parameters Mesophilic Thermophilic
Average total biogas production (L) 1.95 2.32
Average final pH 6.87 7.14
Biogas yield (L/kg material)
• After 15 days 9.46 12.90
• After 30 days 12.90 19.20
• After 40 days 14.90 20.80
Development and evaluation of SPRERI odourless technology for biomethanation of water hyacinth
The biomethanation potential of water
hyacinth is being studied by employing
SPRERI odourless technology. Water
hyacinth was collected from nearby ponds/
lakes. Physico-chemical characterization
of the water hyacinth has been carried out.
Initially, water hyacinth was chopped to
≈1 cm size pieces and a juicer was used
to separate the leachate and the solid
residues. Physico-chemical properties
of the leachate and the solid residues are
summarized in Table 5. The leachate is
being used as the substrate for production
of biogas using a laboratory scale anaerobic
filter. Acclimatization is in progress.
the biogas produced was recirculated
using a foot pump. Mixing is proposed to
be carried out using biogas twice in a day.
Schematic of the process is shown in Fig.
10. Further work is in progress. An MoU
has been signed between SPRERI and M/s S
P Eco Fuel Pvt. Ltd, Vadodara primarily to
set-up a water hyacinth based biogas plant
at Makarpura, GIDC, Vadodara.
11
Development of an economically viable process technology for de-toxification of Jatropha de-oiled cake and simultaneous fuel gas production
In continuation of the work reported last
year, anaerobically digested slurry (DS)
was evaluated as manure under greenhouse
conditions. The results showed that the
plant height and chlorophyll content were
significantly affected by use of the DS over
the control. The dry shoot mass of maize
was found significantly increased for the
100% RDF+ DS@ 1 ton/ha over 100%
RDF and control. The data on soil analysis
revealed that organic carbon, available
P2O
5 and K
2O contents of the soil improved
significantly due to organic sources i.e.
Castor seed cake, Jatropha seed cake (JSC)
and DS over control. The digested slurry
was found non-toxic and an excellent
organic fertilizer for raising crops.
Jatropha seed cake obtained after oil
extraction is an excellent source of protein.
However, the presence of high levels of
major toxic component phorbol esters (PE)
restricts its use as feed. Studies were also
conducted to evaluate the nutritive quality
of DS obtained after anaerobic digestion
through feed trials with fish. Rohu fingerlings
were collected from Gujarat Government
Fish Seed Centre, Limbodi (Dist. Dahod),
acclimatized to laboratory conditions for
15 days and fed with 1:1 mixture of finely
powdered rice bran and groundnut oil cake.
The feeding trial was conducted in 50 L
glass aquaria (60 x 30 x 38 cm). Fish meal
(of Indian origin) was prepared from javla
procured from the local market, oven dried
at 50-60oC for 24 h and ground to powder.
The fish were fed with the formulated
feed twice a day at 9.00 and 15.00 h at
the rate of 3% of the body weight per day
for 30 days. Before diet formulation, the
proximate compositions of feed ingredients
of unprocessed JSC, DS along with fish meal
were worked out. Control diet was prepared
with fish meal as a complete protein source
and designated as ‘reference diet’ (RD).
The experimental diets include 25%, 50%
and 75% replacement of fishmeal with the
DS and were designated as DS25
, DS50
and
DS75
. On termination of the experiment,
the fish were killed from each aquarium
and analyzed for carcass composition and
histopathological parameters.
The general behavior of fish was observed
to be normal during the entire feeding trial
and, therefore, palatability of the feed was
taken as good. There was no mortality in
any of the dietary groups during the trial
period. Histopathological examination
showed that in the reference diet, the central
vein, sinusoids and normal organization of
hepatocytes were seen whereas in DS25
,
DS50
and DS75
clear necrosis, hypertrophy
as well as vacuolation of hepatocyte and
change in the organization of central vein
was seen clearly in dose dependent manner.
The studies on potential of digested
slurry as fish feed indicated that when the
feed substitution reached 25% it had a
detrimental effect on the health of the fish.
Thus, further investigations are required
at lower replacement of fish meal to check
the efficacy of detoxification owing to its
negative effect on fish population.
Table 5: Characteristics of leachate and the solid residue of the water hyacinth
Parameters Leachate Solid residue
Total solids (%db) 2.87 19.38
Volatile solids (%TS) 44.00 87.76
Organic carbon (%db) 37.75 38.10
Nitrogen (%) 01.40 01.62
Phosphorus (%) 0.116 0.902
Cellulose (%) 11.88 31.73
Hemicellulose (%) 14.28 22.82
Lignin (%) 03.96 09.62
Calorific value (cal/g) 2279.7 2888.9
12
Development and evaluation of laboratory scale pressure swing adsorption system for biogas up-gradation and carbon dioxide recovery
Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system,
developed jointly with M/s Air-N-Gas
and M/s Dintech Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad,
was evaluated for up-gradation of the
biogas (initial methane concentration of
66-68%) produced in an anaerobic filter
using dairy wastewater as the substrate.
The biogas was stored in 10 m3 capacity
balloon and compressed to a pressure of
4 bar after passing through a hydrogen
sulphide scrubber. The compressed biogas
is being upgraded (separation of methane
and carbon dioxide) using a two column
PSA process which consists of six step
cycle. The process flow diagram of the
biogas up-gradation system is given in Fig.
11. Trials were carried out for different
cycles varying from 30 + 30 s to 200 +
400 s. After completion of the six step
cycle, the separated methane fraction was
analyzed using gas chromatography for
the methane concentration and the results
are summarized in Table 6. The highest
methane concentration of 83.4% was found
for 45 + 45 s time cycle. Further trials are
in progress to optimize the cycle steps to
obtain methane content of more than 90%.
Fig. 11: Process flow diagram of biogas up-gradation systemTable 6: Details of different cycle steps tested and methane contents of the up-graded biogas
30 + 30 10 15 5 10 15 5 77.0
60 + 60 15 40 5 15 40 5 75.1
90 + 90 15 60 15 15 60 15 73.3
200 + 200 25 150 25 50 125 25 79.1
300 + 300 25 250 25 75 200 25 74.3
400 + 400 25 350 25 125 250 25 71.7
45 + 45 10 30 5 10 30 5 83.4
Pressuri-zation
Adsorption Depressuri-zation
Cycle stepsBlow down Purging Equali-
zation
Methane (%)
Operation time (s)
13
Feasibility studies on bio-hydrogen production from agro-industrial wastes
Bio-hydrogen potential of potato peels
and kitchen waste was studied at ambient
temperature at different loads (5, 10, 15 and
20 g) in batch reactors along with control
for 5 days RT. Control reactors were filled
up only with preheated inoculum (100°C for
15 min to deactivate the methanogens) and
water. The effective volume of each reactor
was 0.1 L. The results are summarized in
Table 7. Maximum hydrogen concentration
of 13.3% was found on the 3rd day in the
reactors having 20 g potato peels, whereas
maximum hydrogen concentration of 26.2%
was found on 2nd day in the reactor with
10 g kitchen waste. The hydrogen yield was
found to be very low. Therefore, further
studies were carried out in two phase
anaerobic digestion process. The acid phase
produced hydrogen and the slurry mixture
available from the acid phase was processed
in an anaerobic digester which produced
methane rich biogas. But no significant
increase in bio-hydrogen yield was found
and the hydrogen concentration was found
to be almost the same as in the single phase
batch reactor. Therefore, biomethanation
followed by steam reforming of methane for
hydrogen production may be a better route.
Potato peels (g) 5 10 15 20 ControlInitial pH 8.63 8.23 7.87 7.58 9.31Final pH 6.55 6.13 5.06 4.41 8.85Avg. total gas production (mL) 28.50 36.50 83.50 64.00 17.00Hydrogen yield (mL/g substrate) 0.02 0.08 0.11 0.12 -
Kitchen waste (g) Initial pH 6.45 5.72 5.58 5.24 7.91Final pH 5.25 4.13 4.09 3.99 7.42Avg. biogas production (mL) 61.20 99.60 57.60 22.40 17.00Hydrogen yield (mL/g substrate) 2.41 1.59 0.15 0.02 -
Table 7: Performance data of the reactors treating potato peels and kitchen waste
Table 8: The biomass yield and lipid content of the micro algal strains for 80:20 ratio of wastewater and the synthetic mediums
SBC 39 BG11 6 1.20 10 24.00 BBM 6 0.80 10 28.00
SBC 212 BG11 6 0.90 10 21.00 BBM 6 0.80 10 23.00
Strains MediumDays (g/L) Days (%)
Biomass yield Total lipid
Biomass and lipid accumulation of microalgae grown on distillery/dairy waste water
Suitability of cheese whey as enrichment medium for growing microalgae SBC 39 (Scenedesmus) and SBC 212 (Chlorella sp.) was evaluated by setting up experiments having cheese whey (CW) and BG 11 medium in the ratios of 0:1 (control), 1:99, 5:95, 10:90, 20:80, 40:60, 50:50 and
80:20. The other supportive conditions were: shaking at 150 rpm and incubation at 25±2˚C under a continuous photo-period light intensity of 35 μmol photon m2/s. The experimental flasks were inoculated with 10% (v/v) inoculum. Eighty percent replacement of the synthetic medium by CW was found feasible for both the strains. Results are summarized in Table 8.
14
Biochemical engineering of microalgae for enhanced lipid accumulation
The effect of different concentrations
of leucine, alanine, glycine, biotin,
thiamin, niacin and sodium pyruvate
(10 µM, 50 µM and 1mM) on the growth and
lipid accumulation of microalgae was studied
in the most promising mode of cultivation.
Experimental flasks were inoculated with 10
mL of SBC 19 (Chlorella sp.) and incubated
at 28°C for 25 days. Maximum biomass
concentration obtained for sodium pyruvate
(1mM) treatments was 1.2 g/L cell biomass
on the 24th day. The lipid accumulation was
found to be maximum of 13.0% on the 26th
day in 1mM sodium pyruvate concentration.
Minimum biomass concentration of 0.5 g/L
was obtained on the 26th day for 1 mM
glycine treatment. The lipid accumulation
was found to be the highest of 10.2% in
1mM glycine concentration on the 22ndday
than the other concentrations. The results
indicated that these amino acids do not
induce significant enhancement of biomass
compared to the control medium.
Further experiments were carried out using
low cost commercial grade fertilizers i.e.
urea, NPK (19:19:19), DAP and ammonium
sulphate, separately, in concentrations of
40, 60, 80, 100, 120 and 140 mg/L for
the growth and lipid accumulation of SBC
19 and compared with the control medium
i.e. BG 11. Maximum biomass and lipid
contents were found to be 0.6 g/L on the 6th
day and 13% on the 22nd day, respectively,
for the NPK (19:19:19) concentration of
140 mg/L. The corresponding values for
the control treatment were 0.40 g/L on the
6th day and 16% on 20th day.
Bioremediation of dairy wastewater by microalgae
Wastewater was collected from a nearby
dairy. A bench scale column aeration
photobioreactor of 86 L capacity was used
for bioremediation of the dairy wastewater
(back cover). The reactor was fed with
50% cheese water and 50% BG11 medium.
Physico-chemical properties of pre and
post-treatment effluent samples were
analyzed following the standard method.
There was a gradual reduction in various
parameters of the effluent treated with SBC
39 sp. On 15th day, the COD concentration
was reduced by more than 79%, the fluoride
reduction was 100% while the concentrations
of ammonia and nitrate gradually reduced
from 370 mg/L to 125 mg/L and 145 mg/L to
39 mg/L, respectively. The concentrations
of chloride, sulphate, and phosphate also
reduced considerably (Table 9). The algal
biomass production and lipid contents
were found to be 1.5 g/L and 15% on 15th
day, respectively. Further experiments
are in progress with replacement of 80%
synthetic medium with dairy wastewater.
pH 4.43 8.43 8.61 8.95
Chemical oxygen demand (mg/L) 18000 6350 5860 3730
Chloride (mg/L) 1473 886 837 738
Fluoride (mg/L) 43.00 1.50 1.46 ND
Sulphate (mg/L) 0.360 0.17 0.125 0.19
Nitrate (mg/L) 145 37 30 39
Ammonia (mg/L) 370 185 150 125
Total phosphate (mg/L) 340.0 31.0 17.5 10.0
Iron (mg/L) 12.50 4.25 2.60 2.50
Parameters Raw waste water 5thday 10th day 15th day
Table 9: Physico-chemical properties of pre and post-treatment effluent samples
ND- not determined
15
Lignocellulosic ethanol
A bench scale system was developed for testing the SPRERI cellulosic ethanol technology developed in the laboratory. Appropriate systems for bulk enzyme production, concentration, saccharification and fermentation were designed, developed, installed and commissioned (Fig. 12). Bulk enzyme production was carried out in trays each of 250 x 150 x 210 mm size using 250 g physically pretreated rice straw of 5 mm mesh size. The substrate was moistened with modified Mandels and Weber (MW) medium in the ratio of 1:6 and sterilized at 121°C for 15 min. The trays were UV sterilized separately for 1 h. After sterilization, 3% (v/v) of seed inoculum was added to the pre-sterilized mix. The trays were incubated at 45°C for 7 days (humidity 75%) in a temperature controlled humidity chamber. The crude cellulases were pre-clarified by centrifugation at 10000 x g for 10 min at 4°C. The clear supernatant was concentrated by using TFF unit (Pall
membrane, Mumbai) with a molecular weight cut off 10 kDa polyethylene sulfonate membrane. The concentrated enzyme was used for enzymatic hydrolysis studies.
Based on the laboratory findings the bench scale high solid saccharification reactor was operated for 48 h incubation period. The results revealed higher saccharification efficiency of 76% in 40 h with TFF concentrated enzymes in the scaled up system compared to the saccharification efficiency of 69.2% in the laboratory experiments. The horizontal orientation of the bench scale reactor might have provided free fall and thorough mixing of the contents inside the reactor. This might have minimized the particle settling and local accumulation of the products of the reaction within the reactor as well as ensuring better enzyme distribution, which might have led to higher efficiency in the scale up system compared to the laboratory system.
Fig. 12: (a) Humidity chamber for solid state fermentation for bulk enzyme production (b) Tangential flow filtration unit for concentrating crude enzyme (c) Solid state fermentor for saccharification studies (d) 5 L capacity submerged fermentor for ethanol fermentation
a
b
c
d
16
During the year studies were also
focused on simultaneous saccharification
and fermentation using newly isolated
thermotolerant Kluyveromyces sp. with
three different delignified lignocellulosic
biomass viz. rice straw (RS), wheat straw
(WS) and sugarcane bagasse (SB) for 5-15%
solids loading and 6-12 FPU/g substrate
enzyme loading for different time intervals
(0-72 h) at 42οC. Maximum ethanol yield
achieved from RS, WS and SB with in-house
crude cellulases from Aspergillus terreus was 23.23, 18.29 and 17.91 mg/mL at 60 h
with 10% solid load and 9 FPU/g substrate
enzyme loading. Tween 80 (1%,v/v)
enhanced the ethanol yield by 8.39, 9.26
and 8.14% in RS, WS and SB, respectively.
External supplementation of β-glucosidase
separately to the crude and commercial
cellulases produced maximum theoretical
ethanol yield of 71.76, 63.77, 57.15 and
84.56, 72.47, 70.55%, respectively for RS,
WS and SB. The utilization of both cellulose
and hemicellulosic sugars present in typical
lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate is
essential for economical production of
ethanol. Based on the results obtained in
the present study, 1 kg each of the raw RS,
WS and SB contained 410, 385 and 390 g
cellulose. These can theoretically produce
232, 217 and 220 g ethanol, respectively.
Considering the best % yields in the present
work, RS, WS and SB can yield 196 g (248
mL), 157 g (198 mL) and 155 g (196 mL)
of ethanol, respectively. Hemicellulose
accounts for approximately one third of the
total carbohydrates in native lignocellulosic
biomass. Fermentation of xylose in
the liquid fraction to produce ethanol
was conducted in the laboratory using
Pichia stipitis 3498 (NCIM, Pune, India) and
conversion efficiencies of 55.07%, 52.06%
and 58.95% were found for RS, WS and SB,
respectively.
Use of mutagenesis to improve economics of cellulases production by an in-house isolate
SPRERI has recently developed two
potential mutants of the indigenously
isolated in-house filamentous fungus
Aspergillus terreus by combined sequential
UV and chemical mutagenesis method.
These were named EMS1 and EMS2. The
prominent cellulase activities in the two
in-house strains were evaluated critically.
Besides, metabolic engineering studies
were performed using RS and SB as growth
substrates in different combinations and the
results are summarized in Table 10. The
mutants EMS1 and EMS2 showed 3.5 and
4.0 fold increase in total cellulase activity
(FPase).
Native RS 0.61 0.97 15.31 4.87 267
EMS2 2.07 (3.4) 2.31 (2.4) 33.11 (2.2) 5.12 (1.1) 266 (-)
Native SB 0.93 0.47 17.89 4.68 583
EMS1 1.74 (1.9) 0.91 (1.9) 38.00 (2.1) 9.43 (2.0) 646 (1.1)
Native RS75:SB25 0.52 0.50 6.21 4.0 138
EMS2 2.09 (4.0) 0.30 (-) 30.42 (4.9) 19.9 (5.0) 252 (1.8)
Native RS50:SB50 0.71 0.45 7.99 4.56 273
EMS2 2.01 (2.8) 0.48 (1.1) 32.20 (4.0) 12.37 (2.7) 268 (-)
Native RS25:SB75 0.67 0.30 9.15 3.93 292
EMS1 2.34 (3.5) 0.67 (2.2) 30.92 (3.4) 7.43 (1.9) 285 (-)
Table 10: Enzyme activities from the wild-type and mutant strains grown on RS, SB and mixed RS-SB growth substrates
Strain Growth substrate FPase Avicelase
Enzyme activity in U/mL (fold increase over native)
CMCase β-Glucosidase Xylanase
17
Identification of lignocellulosic degrading enzymes from the in-house isolate Aspergillus terreus
Different types of cellulase enzymes produced from RS, SB, RS50:SB50 and cellulose growth substrates are shown in Fig. 13. Native PAGE experiments detected 02 exoglucanases (Ex), 04 endoglucanases (Eg), 02 glucosidases (Bg), 04 xylanases in the RS-grown culture extracts (Lane A). While in SB-grown culture extracts, 02 exoglucanases, 05 endoglucanases, 03 β-glucosidases, 04 xylanases were detected (Lane B). In cellulose-grown culture extracts, 02 exoglucanases, 05 endoglucanases, 03 β-glucosidases, 04 xylanases were identified (Lane C) and in RS50:SB50 culture extract, 02 exoglucanases, 04 endoglucanases, 02 β-glucosidases, 05 xylanases were detected. From these results it is clearly
evident that the cellulase production varies with the type of growth substrate and this study is very useful in selection of a suitable growth substrate for production of optimized (all essential cellulase components) hyper-producing cellulases.
Saccharification efficiencies for the mild alkali pretreated RS biomass residues using the crude cellulase enzymes obtained from the RS-, SB- and RSSB-grown cells was 79.6, 76.5 and 70.4%, respectively (Table 11).The corresponding values for mild alkali pretreated SB biomass residues were comparatively lower i.e. 37.1, 52.3 and 59.5%. For the acid pretreated RS biomass maximum reducing sugars were obtained with enzyme from RSSB- followed by RS-grown cells and vice versa when acid treated BG biomass was used.
Fig. 13: Detection of (I) exoglucanases (Ex); (II) endoglucanases (Eg); (III) β-glucosidases (Bg) and (IV) xyla-nases (Xy) by zymogram analysis using Aspergillus terreus crude cellulase cocktail produced from (a) RS (b) SB (c) cellulose and (d) RS50:SB50- growth substrates
I II
III
IV
RS Alkali 733 79.6 312 37.1 Acid 424 69.1 216 35.2 SB Alkali 702 76.5 440 52.3 Acid 352 57.4 112 18.2 RS50:SB50 Alkali 646 70.4 498 59.5 Acid 451 73.5 201 32.7
Enzyme produced
usingPre-treatment
condition
Rice straw Sugarcane bagasse
Reducing sugars (mg/g)
Saccharifi- cation (%)
Reducing sugars (mg/g)
Saccharifi- cation (%)
Table 11: Enzymatic saccharification of mild-alkali and dilute acid pretreated RS and SB using crude cellulase enzymes produced using different growth substrates compositions
18
Production of economically viable and low cost cellulases using cheaper lignocellulosic biomass or by co-culturing method
Different agricultural residues namely
wheat bran (WB), RS, WS, SB, saw dust,
rice husk, groundnut shell and oil cakes
etc. were evaluated individually as well
as in combinations with RS (100:0; 25:75;
50:50; and 75:25) for fungal growth and
enzyme production for 7 days incubation
period. Mandels and Weber medium was
used as a moistening agent. Experiments
were carried out with three in-house
fungal strains (parent and the mutants,
UV 15.4 and UV 9.0) using submerged
and solid state fermentation. The results
revealed that solid state fermentation
yielded higher enzyme activities compared
to the submerged fermentation. SB and
WB combination in the ratio of 25:75 gave
better enzyme activities. The second
best combination was RS and WB (25:75).
Further experiments are in progress.
Development of a semi fed-batch method for high-solids biomass saccharification for cellulosic ethanol production
Cellulose degrading enzymes were produced
using the in-house strain Aspergillus terreus and SB as sole carbon source for
growth. Batch and fed-batch experiments
were performed with mild-alkali pretreated
rice straw at 10, 20 and 30% solids loading
and at 9, 12 and 15 FPU/g of enzyme. For
batch the respective enzyme and substrate
were loaded at the start of the hydrolysis
reaction, while in semi fed-batch, the
final solids loading was reached at an
increment of 5% and 10% after 8 h and
24 h, respectively. The saccharification
yields and efficiencies for various treatments
are given in Table 12. For 30% solids loading
and 15 FPU enzyme, the total reducing
sugars production in semi-fed batch mode
was 244.2 g/L, i.e. nearly 13% more than
the reducing sugars production of 216.9 g/L
in the batch mode of saccharification.
Next generation green solvent for pretreatment of the biomass for cellulosic ethanol
Different acids (hydrogen bond donors) having varied melting points were tested in selected combinations and molar ratios (Table 13) for preparation of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES). A total of six lignocellulosic biomass residues i.e. rice straw, wheat straw, coconut shell
fiber, groundnut shells, sugarcane bagasse and saw dust were prepared for NADES pretreatment. The lignin contents of the selected residues varied over a wide range. Physico-chemical characterization of the pretreated biomass, NADES reagents and the lignin extract were carried out using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction,
9 FPU 10 86.4 0.64 73.2 77.6 0.58 63.4 20 166.2 0.54 58.9 173.1 0.56 61.3 30 199.9 0.33 36.3 171.2 0.22 24.8 12 FPU 10 93.6 0.70 76.5 94.9 0.71 77.5 20 173.1 0.56 61.3 174.7 0.56 61.9 30 206.9 0.34 37.5 156.1 0.26 28.3 15 FPU 10 101.2 0.76 82.7 82.4 0.61 67.3 20 187.8 0.61 66.5 233.1 0.75 82.6 30 216.9 0.31 39.4 244.2 0.40 44.3
Enzyme loading
Solids loading
(%)(g/L)
Reducing sugarsBatch mode Semi-fed batch mode
Reducing sugars
(g/g) (g/L) (g/g)Efficiency
(%)
Efficiency (%)
Table 12: Results of the enzymatic saccharification in batch and semi-fed batch processes
19
UV-vis spectroscopy, etc. The schematic representation of the technology is shown in Fig. 14. The liquid extract fraction after NADES pretreatment contained high purity lignin without cellulose or hemicellulose contamination (Fig. 15). The lignin extracts obtained from different types of biomass are shown in Fig. 16. A novel cost-effective green technology towards developing an integrated zero-waste process for biomass pretreatment, lignin extraction, solvent
recovery and re-use, cellulosic ethanol production using NADES reagent is being pursued at SPRERI.
A Committee comprising Prof. B.S. Pathak, Ex-Director, SPRERI, Dr. D.K. Tuli, Coordinator, IOC Bio-Energy Centre, Faridabad, Dr. P. Gunasekaran, Vice Chancellor, Thiruvallurar University, Dr. A. Lali, Professor , ICT, Mumbai, Dr. Datta Madamwar, Professor, S.P. University reviewed the work carried out at SPRERI on “Conversion of crop residues to cellulosic ethanol” on August 8, 2014 and guided the group for future R&D work.
A DBT, GoI expert team comprising Dr. A. Lali, Professor, ICT and Er. Ravi Prakash Gupta, Manager (R&D), IOC Bio-Energy Centre reviewed the work done in the DBT sponsored project “Developing an integrated process technology for conversion of crop residues into ethanol and methane for use as transport fuels and establishing a biotechnology R&D centre” on March 14, 2015 and identified the area for further work.
1 Malonic acid 1:1; 1:2 CMA 2 Malic acid 1:1 CM 3 1,2-propane diol 1:1 CP 4 Citric acid 1:1 CC 5 Tartaric acid 1:1 CT 6 Glycerol 1:1 CG 7 Ethanediol 1:1 CE 8 Lactic acid 1:5; 1:9 CL 9 Urea 1:1 CU 10 Oxalic acid 1:1 CO
Sr. No. Component 2 Molar ratio
( component1:2) NADES
Table 13: List of NADES developed at SPRERI using choline chloride as component 1
Fig. 15: UV-Vis spectroscopy analyses of the lignin extracts obtained from NADES pretreated lignocellulosic biomass residues
Fig. 16: Lignin extracted from pretreated lignocellulosic biomass residues (A) ground nut shells (B) saw dust (C) coconut shell fiber (D) rice straw and (E) sugarcane bagasse
A B C D E
Fig. 14: Schematic of NADES pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass
Biomass
Homogenate
NADES
Liquid(Lignin+NADES)
Solid(Holocellu lose)
Precip itate (Lignin)
Water
Liquid(NADES)
Distillat ion
Sacchari�cation/fermentation
Bioethanol
Liquid(Water)
Liquid(NADES)
20
Thermo-Chemical Conversion Catalytic cracking of tar in fluidized bed gasification of rice husk
The performance of the bubbling fluidized
bed gasifier had been studied with rice husk
as fuel for four different equivalence ratios
(ER) varying between 0.3 to 0.38 and was
found better for ERs of 0.3 and 0.33. The
corresponding fuel feeding rates were 35
and 32 kg/h, respectively, while the air
flow rate was 43 m3/h. During the year,
trials were carried out on use of dolomite
and olivine catalysts mixed separately with
the sand bed in varying proportions i.e. 0,
10, 20, 30 and 40% and the performance
was studied with particular reference to
reduction of the tar content of the producer
gas. Detailed trials carried out showed that
the tar and SPM content of the producer
gas was lower for the ER of 0.33 than 0.3.
The results of gasification of the rice husk
using mixtures of the dolomite and olivine
catalysts in the sand bed in different
proportions for 0.33 ER are shown in
Fig. 17. With the increasing proportion
of dolomite and olivine catalyst in the
sand bed, the tar and SPM contents of the
producer gas was found decreasing and the
higher heating value, thermal efficiency and
carbon conversion efficiency were found
increasing. The tar and SPM contents of the
producer gas was found the lowest for 40%
mixing of the dolomite with the sand bed. The
corresponding higher heating value, thermal
efficiency and carbon conversion efficiency
were also high. However, degradation of
the dolomite particles was found higher as
compare to olivine particles. The clinker
formation was also higher for the dolomite.
Although performance of the gasifier with
olivine catalyst was slightly lower than the
dolomite catalyst, the system required little
attention during the operation.
a) Tar + SPM contents and higher heating value
Fig. 17: Effect of mixing of dolomite and olivine with the sand on fluidised bed gasification of rice husk
b) Thermal efficiency and CCE
Performance evaluation of SPRERI vacuum pyrolysis system and stability study of the bio-oil
The SPRERI pyrolysis reactor (1kg/h
biomass capacity) was suitably modified to
work satisfactorily with powdered biomass
in semi-continuous mode. Sundried and
sieved (0.5 mm particle size) sawdust and
groundnut shell powders having volatile
matter contents of 79.4 and 69.4% (db),
fixed carbon contents of 10.4 and 15.5%
(db) and ash contents of 2.4 and 3.37%
(db), respectively, were used for the study
carried out at 400, 450 and 500°C reaction
temperatures and 6±1°C gas condensation
temperature. For sawdust, the highest
yields of the bio-oil (48% wb) and bio-char (37% wb) were obtained at 400±10°C
reaction temperature. At 450 and 500°C
temperatures, the yields of oil obtained were
44 and 40%, respectively. The maximum
yield for the groundnut shell bio-oil of 40%
21
on mass basis and bio-char of 50% mass
basis were obtained for 400±10°C. While,
the yields of bio-oil obtained at 450 and
500°C were 38% and 36%, respectively.
The calorific value of the bio-oil was around
27±1 MJ/kg. Density, viscosity and pH of
the bio-oil were measured and were found
ranging from 0.9 to 1.2 g/cc, 30 to 40 cSt
and 2.5 to 3.5, respectively. The quantity of
CH4 and H
2 in the pyrolysis gas was found
higher in the case of groundnut shell than
sawdust.
An accelerated aging test was performed to
study stability of the sawdust bio-oil. Glass
bottles of 100 mL capacity filled with the raw
bio-oil were placed in an oven at 80°C for
24 h and the changes in viscosity, calorific
value and density of the bio-oil samples
were measured. The viscosity and calorific
value of the raw bio-oil were found to be
39 cSt and 22.22 ± 2 MJ/kg, respectively.
The viscosity of the oil was found increased
by 24% and the CV decreased by 7-8% at
the end of accelerated aging test. Effect of
methanol addition to the bio-oil on stability
was also studied by accelerated aging test
and the results are summarized in Table 14.
The increase in the viscosity of 1:20 (v/v)
mixture of the bio-oil and methanol was
found to be 2% as against 24% for the raw
bio-oil.
Preliminary pyrolysis trials using agro-residue pellets were carried out at 450°C
temperature of in the SPRERI pyrolyser.
The moisture content, volatile matter, fixed
carbon and ash contents of the pellets
were 9.66% (wb), 67.3% (db), 31.08% (db)
and 1.62% (db), respectively, with CV of
18.2 MJ/kg. The yields of the bio-char
and bio-oil obtained were 30% and 40%,
respectively. The overall throughput of
the SPRERI pyrolyser was found increased
from 1 kg/h for the powdery material to 4
kg/h for the pelletized biomass. Besides,
blockage problem encountered in feeding
the powdery material due to poor flow-ability was resolved. Further optimization
of the process parameters and detailed
experimentation is in progress.
Development of torrefaction process for selected biomass
The agro-residue pellets of 6 mm diameter
which are commercially available were
selected for the study (Fig. 18). SPRERI
1 kg/h capacity fixed bed type reactor
suitable for powdered biomass was adapted
for torrefaction of the biomass pellets. The
feeding line was suitably modified for semi-continuous mode of feeding so as to avoid
the blockage and repeated poking of the
powdery biomass during the trials. The
effect of selected process temperatures
was studied on the product distribution
and the results are given in Table 15. The
torrefaction of the agro-residue pellets
yielded 85% bio-coal having calorific value
varying between 24 and 25 MJ/kg.
Table 14: Results of the accelerated aging test on vis-cosity of the bio-oil of the sawdust
Raw bio-oil 39.00 48.35 24Bio-oil and methanolblend (1:20) v/v 27.31 27.87 2
Sample Initial(cSt)
Kinematic viscosity
Final(cSt)
Change (%)
Fig. 18: Biomass pellets of 6 mm diameter used for the study
22
Table 15: Results of the torrefaction of the agro-residue pellets
300±10 120 85.8 14.2 22.6 19.5 325±10 120 79.9 20.1 24.0 24.0 350±10 120 73.0 27.0 25.8 21.5
Reaction temperature
(°C)
Total retention time
(min)Bio-coal(solid)
Yield (%)Liquid and gas
Calorific value of bio-coal (MJ/kg)
Average condensation
temperature (°C)
Pyrolysis of leather waste
Pyrolysis study of three different samples
of leather waste namely leather finished
trimmings (LFT), chrome shaving (CS) and
filter pressed sludge (FPS) received from
Central Leather Research Institute was
carried out. The calorific value of FPS was
found very low (5-6 MJ/kg) and therefore,
it was not found suitable for pyrolysis. LFT
were cut into small pieces of approximately
1cm x 1 cm size, while the CS was used
without any pre-treatment. The process of
pyrolysis was carried out at a temperature
of 500±10°C. The yields of each of the
three output streams for the two waste
samples are given in Table 16.
The CVs of the bio-oil were found to
be 27.8 and 28.0 MJ/kg for CS and LFT,
respectively, while the CVs of the bio-char were 20.53 and 23.05 MJ/kg for CS
and LFT, respectively. The results of the
product yield and their CVs and other
important physico-chemical properties
measured in the laboratory suggests that
both the leather wastes are good feedstock
for deriving useful products through thermal
degradation. Bio-oil, however, requires
upgradation for use as a fuel and synthesis
of several fine chemicals. The bio-char can
be used for synthesis of activated carbon
or charcoal and for soil amendment. The
non-condensable gases can be used for meeting the thermal energy requirement of
the process.
Development of a high performance forced draft biomass community cook stove
The performance of the biomass stove is significantly influenced by effectiveness of its thermal insulation. Keeping this in view a few insulation materials were selected and their effectiveness evaluated using a double jacket air insulation type domestic cookstove of 200 mm ID reactor and 40 mm thick air-insulation all around the curved surface. The performance of the stove was first evaluated using oven dried wooden blocks as per the BIS procedure and thereafter by packing vermiculite into the air jacket. The bulk density of vermiculite was 559.4 kg/m3. The mass of the stove increased from 7.15 kg to 10.11 kg i.e. 41.3% due to packing of the vermiculite. Important performance parameters for the stove having air-insulation and vermiculite packing for a fuel consumption rate of 1.5 kg/h are given in Table 17. The thermal efficiency of the stove with vermiculite packing was found 18.5% more than the efficiency of air-insulation stove. Besides, in general, the temperature of the stove surface (around the top end) was found lower by 82°C and the flame temperature higher by 117°C for the vermiculite insulation stove. Evaluation with other insulation materials such as insulate-7 and
expanded perlite is in progress.
Table 16: Product yield for pyrolysis of the leather waste samples
LFT 52±0.3 27±0.5 21±0.2 CS 49±1.0 30±2.0 21±3.0
Feed-stock
Bio-oil yield (% db)
Bio-char yield (% db)
Gas yield (% db)
Efficiency (%) 28.69 34.02 18.58Power rating (kW) 2.13 2.52 18.31
Rate of rise of thewater temperature(oC/min) 1.40 2.70 92.86
Paramenter/ Type of insulation
Air insulation
Vermiculite insulation
Increase (%)
Table 17: Average performance of air and vermiculite insulation stoves
23
Training and DemonstrationsSPRERI scientists worked as resource personnel in training programmes organized by other organizations.
Date Topic of lecture Participants/training programme
Training and Awareness Creation
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Integrated Rural Energy Development, Amrol, Dist. Anand
23.07.2014 SPRERITECH efficient biomass Stakeholders of biomass
cook stove cooking stoves in Gujarat
state
19.12.2014 Lecture-cum-demonstration on SPRERI ITI students
improved biomass cook stoves
22.01.2015 Lecture on SPRERI improved biomass ITI students
cook stoves for “unnat chulha abhiyan”
07.02.2015 Biomass cook stove particularly SPRERI Environment engineering design students
SPV system for power supply to meet
domestic and industrial/commercial
requirements
12.02.2015 Biomass cook stove and biomass based Mechanical engineering
power generation students
National Dairy Development Board, Anand
12.08.2014 Bioconversion technologies and visit to Environmental and social
the SPRERI anaerobic filter working at management under NDP-I
Vidya Dairy for the designated environ
mental and social officers of
various End Implementing
Agencies
19.11.2014 Applications of bio-energy in dairy Energy conservation and
industry management with focus
on renewable energy
08.01.2015 An overview of renewable energy Environmental and social
technologies in dairy sector (E&S) training programme
(solar and bio-conversion) for officials from various
Milk Unions of states
09.04.2015 Bioconversion technologies for dairy
sector
Charotar University of Science & Technology, Changa, Dist. Anand
11.11.2014 Renewable energy technologies for Students of class XI
rural applications and their effect on and XII standards
global warming
24
An awareness programme each was
organized in Chillakota and Dageria
villages of Dahod districts on 4th and
6th June, respectively. RE technologies
such as improved biomass cookstoves,
portable solar lights, enhancement of
natural day light in the houses and low
water requirement biogas plant were
included in the programme. About 50
people participated in the programme at
Chillakota (Fig. 19) while about 40 people
participated in the programme at Dageria
(Fig. 20). The participants included a
large number of women. Salient features,
method of operation and maintenance,
important benefits etc. were explained to
the participants. Many participants evinced
keen interest in the RE devices.
Demonstration and training programmes
for improved biomass cookstoves and solar
light were organized in Simal Faliya and
Raysingpura villages in Chhota Udaipur
districts on October 6-7, 2014. About 60
users took part in each of the programmes
and actively interacted with SPRERI
personnel (Fig. 21).
A three day training programme on solar
photovoltaic lighting systems, which have
been set-up in the selected villages under
the DST core project, was organized during
8th –10th September at SPRERI. Twenty
skilled/practicing young men from Chillakota
and Dageria villages participated in the
programme (Fig. 21). The manufacturer
of the PV lighting system, M/s Sun Energy,
GIDC, Vitthal Udyognagar, extended
technical support for the training. During
the programme the participants were given
hands on training in repair and maintenances
Fig. 19: Awareness programme for various RE gadgets at Chillakota village of Dahod district
Fig. 20: Training programme for improved cook stove at Simal Faliya village of Chhota Udaipur district
Fig. 21: Training programme on the solar photovoltaic lighting system
25
of solar lanterns, solar home light units and
solar power packs and also lessons about
the theoretical concepts of these systems.
Four of the trained youths at SPRERI have
started providing repair services for the
solar lighting systems in their respective
villages. Minor spare parts like fuses,
switches etc. were stocked in small quantity
with those youths to provide prompt service
to the villagers right in their villages.
Business MeetA Business Meet on “Solar drying
technologies for food processing industries”
was organized at SPRERI on March 31, 2015.
Sixty participants including Shri Anand
Narvane, Scientist, MNRE, manufacturers
of the solar air heating/drying equipment
and professionals belonging to various
user industries, academic institutions
and development organizations attended
the Meet (Fig. 22). Shri Anand Narvane
in his opening remarks said that thermal
applications of solar energy is the focus of
MNRE for the current year and appealed
to user industries to take initiative for the
same.
Dr. V. Siva Reddy, Pr. Scientist and In-charge of RTC made a presentation on
overall status of solar air heating and drying
technology. Two prominent solar drying
system manufacturer (M/s Steel Hacks
Industries, Anand and M/s NRG Technology,
Vadodara) also made presentations on solar
drying technology and the systems put up
at various locations in the country. All the
lectures were followed by useful discussion.
A large number of queries were raised
by the user industries. Mr. R.P. Gopal, a
representative of NABARD observed that
it is important to prepare specifications
and guidelines for important solar drying
systems. Commercial bank could use these
guidelines to financing such systems. All the
participants were of the opinion that MNRE
should formulate and announce a suitable
policy for promotion of solar air heating/
drying systems which may include capital
subsidy and/or liberal interest subsidy.
Besides, a standard for solar air heating
systems is needed to be prepared at the
earliest. In the afternoon, all the participants
were taken around various solar air heating
and drying systems installed at SPRERI as
well as solar-biogas thermal energy based
refrigeration facility for storage of nine ton
of horticulture produce, which has been
set up by SPRERI at AAU, Anand campus.
Proceedings of the Business Meet were
forwarded to MNRE for consideration and
suitable necessary action.
Open HouseThe seventh “Open House” was organized
at SPRERI on January 30 - 31. The objective
of the Open House was to create awareness
among citizens, particularly the youth,
about the importance and usefulness of
RE technologies in the present scenario
of energy crisis and impact of the climate
change the world over. Dr. M. L. Gaur,
Dean & Principal, College of Agricultural
Engineering & Technology, AAU, Godhra,
inaugurated the Open House. Dr. Gaur
advised the students to interact with the
scientists and technical personnel of SPRERI
and representatives of the manufacturers
and develop a fairly good understanding
Fig. 22: A view of the technical session of the Business Meet
26
about various RE technologies on the
display. He also advised the youth to try
to adopt suitable RE technologies at their
homes/schools and help fight the energy
crisis and climate change. Approximately
3500 participants, mostly students and
their teachers from science, engineering,
management and other disciplines belonging
to different institutions spread all over
Gujarat participated in the Open House.
Visitors also included more than 300
farmers from different villages. Scientists
and technical staff of SPRERI explained
various technologies to the visitors and also
provided clarifications to their queries (Fig.
23).
Besides SPRERI, M/s S. P. Renewable
Energy, M/s Arihant Distributors, M/s
Super Nova, and M/s Nilkanth Industries
also displayed their RE gadgets in the
Open House. These were also on sale
to the interested visitors. Forty visitors
purchased one unit each of BIS compliant
“SPRERITECH biomass cook stove”
from M/s Nilkanth Industries, Vitthal
Udyognagar, who had put-up their stall
in the “Open House”. SPRERI provided
a special incentive of 25% on each of the
stove sold during the Open House.
Hari Om Ashram Prerit Young Scientist Award Dr. Pravakar Mohanty, Scientist–C,
Science and Engineering Research Board,
Department of Science & Technology,
New Delhi has been selected for the Hari
Om Ashram Prerit Award for Research
in the area of renewable energy for
the period 2011-2014 for his work on
“Thermocatalytic conversion of ligno (hemi)
cellulosic biomass to green fuels” carried
out at IIT Delhi.
Consultancy• A large number of solar and eclectic
gadgets available at GEDA’s Training
Centre at Amrol, Dist. Anand were
tested and the report was submitted to
GEDA. The gadgets tested included 340
PV modules, 537 electric luminaries, 10
solar lanterns and 21 DC fans.
• Selected renewable energy devices were
fabricated/constructed, commissioned
and demonstrated at GEDA Training
Centre, Amrol. The RE devices set-up at the Centre included 3 different
models of SPRERI natural draft improved
biomass cook stoves, PV integrated solar
tent dryer and SPRERI biogas plant for
kitchen and dining hall waste and low
water requirement biogas plant for cattle
dung.
• Fifty units of ceramic-lined and 45 units
of air insulation type SPRERI domestic
improved biomass cookstoves, 5 units of
dhaba size SPRERI biomass cookstoves
Fig. 23: Views of the farmers from tribal villages and students visiting the “Open House”
27
and 5 units of solar tent dryer were fabricated and supplied to Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Centre of AICRP on EAAI for ORP trials.
• Third party inspection of unused equipment of biogas plant available at Sursagar Dairy compound, Vadhwan, Dist. Surendra Nagar was carried out and the report submitted to the Gujarat State Rural Development Corporation, Gandhinagar.
• Field evaluation of pre-fabricated biogas plant of M/s Akshar Technology, Gondal was pursued and the report is under preparation.
• A feasibility study for anaerobic digestion of effluent samples received from M/s Transpek-Silox Industry Private Ltd., Vadodara is being pursued.
Memorandum of UnderstandingMoU were signed between SPRERI and
various parties:
Name and address of the party
M/s Varmora,Plastech Pvt Ltd.,Ahmedabad
M/s ARTANA, Vadodara
M/s SP Eco Fuels Pvt. Ltd., Vadodara
Aravali Public School, Jhirka Haryana
Purpose
Development of floating dome type prefabricated biogas plants of 2 and 3 m3/d biogas generation
Collaboration for bio-waste management and renewable energysolutions
Setting up water hyacinth based biogas plant of SPRERI design at their complex
Supply of technology for generating biogas from kitchen waste
Technology Evaluation and TransferRegional Test CentreA Regional Test Centre (RTC) for solar thermal devices has been supported by MNRE, New Delhi, GoI and approved by the BIS since 2000. Mr. Sunil Mukul, Lead Assessor and Mr. Ramakrishnan, Technical Assessor from NABL completed re-assessment of our laboratory on July 12-13, 2014. Four minor non-conformities were observed during the re-assessment. Necessary action was taken and the compliance report submitted to NABL on August 2. NABL has accredited our RTC upto September 11, 2016. Mr. G.M. Bakshi, BIS auditor completed renewal audit of our laboratory on August 19. Only one minor non-conformity was observed during the renewal audit. Necessary action was taken and the compliance report was submitted to BIS on the same day. BIS approval has been renewed upto August 15, 2017.
In keeping with the instructions received from MNRE, inspection of three manufacturers of ETC based solar water heating systems for empanelment with MNRE was completed
and a consolidated report was submitted to MNRE. Information on solar thermal devices received for testing and the devices for which testing was completed during the year is summarized in Table 18. The Test Centre also provided technical back-up support to industries in maintaining quality standards in manufacturing solar thermal devices.
Solar flat plate collectors • BIS 3 5• Manufacturer 6 8
ETC based solar hot water systems 16 31
Solar concentrating cooker • SK14 1 0
Solar box cooker • BIS 2 3• Manufacturer 3 1Total 31 48
DevicesReceived
for testing (Units)
Testingcompleted(Units)*
* Includes a few devices which had been received during the previous year
Table 18: Statement of the solar thermal devices received and tested during the year
28
Technology Evaluation and Monitoring Performance evaluation of biomass cook stoves
Three biomass cook stoves received from
National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad
were tested using rice husk as fuel and their
performance report submitted to the NIF.
Testing of bulk milk chiller
Solar Energy Division carried out on-site
testing of a 1000 L capacity bulk milk chiller
of M/s Krishna Allied Industries Pvt. Ltd,
Halol, Gujarat, during Oct.-Nov. The test
report included results of cooling test (2
milking and 4 milking), thermal insulation test
and hot water generator performance.
User level survey of ceramic linear based improved biomass cookstove in tribal villages
One unit each of the SPRERI ceramic lined
biomass cook stove had been set–up in more
than 200 tribal households of selected villages
during 2011-12 under a project sponsored by
Department of Science and Technology, GoI
(Fig. 24 (a)). Shallow ‘C’ type Chulhas having
low efficiency of around 10-12% and high
smoke emissions were used for cooking in
all the houses (Fig. 24 (b)). Performance data
of all those stoves was monitored by visiting
each of the houses once every month and
feedback of all the users was collected. The
results of the study are summarized below:
• All the beneficiaries were using traditional
chulhas which emitted a lot of smoke. The
heat utilization efficiency for such chulhas,
generally, varied between 8 and 12%.
• Villagers used fuel wood, crop residues
and dung cakes as fuel.
• The operation of the improved biomass
cook stoves was found easy.
• The fuel consumption, in general, was
reduced by 20-30% compared to the fuel
consumption for the traditional chulhas.
• Average time periods for collection and
preparation of the fuel and various cooking
activities reduced from 2.31 h/d to 1.78 h/d
and 3.22 h/d to 2.46 h/d, respectively.
• About 70% users reported negligible or
significantly lower smoke problem and
about 30% users reported some smoke
problem in the improved biomass cook
stoves.
• The time saved in collection and preparation
of the fuel and cleaning of the utensils and
the kitchen by women and young girls was,
in general, used in income generation or
other domestic activities.
An important feedback was that the ceramic
lined cook stove was too heavy (mass ≈ 14
kg) and it did not have provision for use of long
fuel wood sticks for continuous operation of
the stove. The important feedback has been
taken care of by developing air-insulation
type top feeding and side feeding improved
biomass stove designs.
Fig. 24(a): Ceramic lined improved biomass cook stove
Fig. 24(b): Traditional chulha
29
Renewable Energy Intervention for Rural Development (DST core grant)
The aim of the project is to provide RE support
in underdeveloped tribal areas to reduce
drudgery and improve the quality of life of
the rural people living in selected village(s).
The project is under operation in Chillakota,
Chediya and Dageria villages in Dahod
district since May 2010 and Simal Faliya
and Raysingpura villages in Chhota Udaipur
districts since December, 2011. So far, 436
improved biomass cook stoves, 275 solar
lanterns, 39 low water requirement biogas
plants, 11 dhaba size improved biomass cook
stoves, a community cook stove, 20 box solar
cookers and a solar water heater have been
set-up in the selected villages. Besides, a
simple, low cost, easy to practice innovative
method for illuminating the tribal houses
with abundance of natural sunlight during
day time was developed and successfully
demonstrated in three villages of Chhota
Udepura and Dahod districts.
During the year, one hundred units of the
air-insulation stoves were fabricated and
one unit each was set up in 100 selected
households in a participatory mode in
Chillakota and Dageria villages (Fig. 25). The
feedback collected from the users of the air-insulation top feeding biomass cook-stove
revealed that the average time period spent
for collection and preparation of the fuel and
various cooking activities reduced by 20-24% and the fuel consumption reduced by
20-30%. The results of monitoring over a
period of more than six months revealed that
the stove is easy to handle (shifting/moving)
due to much lower mass (app. 8.0 kg) and that
all the users were fully satisfied with their
stoves. However, many women expressed
their preference for a stove that burns long fuel wood-sticks for continuous operation. Such a stove should not require periodic recharging of the fuel.
In keeping with the requirements of the target
group, another design of the air-insulation
top-cum-side feeding domestic biomass
cook stove was developed. It weighed 8.5
kg and could be operated either in batch or
continuous mode of operation and met all the
BIS parameters. One unit each of the side-feeding stove was set-up in selected 50
households of Chillakota, Dageria and Simal
Faliya villages during 2014 (Fig. 26).
The feedback collected in respect of a few
“side-feeding stoves” set-up in the village
Simal Faliya revealed that its performance
was almost same as the performance of the
top-feeding stove and long wood sticks as
well as small wood pieces were used as fuel.
Two farmers, who have a biogas plant and
the side feeding improved biomass cook-stove, have abandoned their traditional “C”
type chullas. Many more farmers have shown
interest in the side feeding air-insulation
improved biomass cook stove. The main
advantage of side feeding improved biomass
cook stove was that cutting of the fuel wood in
small pieces is not required. Preliminary data Fig. 25: Top-feeding air insulation biomass cook stove in use in a house of Chillakota village
Fig. 26: Side-feeding air insulated biomass cook stove in use rural kitchens
30
on the effect of emissions on concentrations of CO
2, CO and SPM in the indoor air of the
rural kitchens, which used different types of fuels/combustion devices, were collected and are summarized in Table 19. It will be seen that concentrations of CO and SPM was around 45% lower for the SPRERI air-insulation improved biomass cook stove than the common “C” type stove. Fifty solar home lighting systems were procured and one unit each was set-up in 50 different households in Chilakota, Dageria, Raysingpura and Simalfaliya villages (Fig. 27). Each system, in general, consisted of a PV panel, a battery bank and two LED lamps. All the systems were found working satisfactorily. Many more farmers have shown interest in the solar home lighting system. Almost all the houses in the selected tribal villages have very
low indoor natural light. A simple technique has been selected to improve indoor lighting in the selected houses. The technique involves replacing 2-4 opaque clay tiles of the roof with glass tiles of the same size (395 x 230 mm), shape and configuration but having 67% light transmittance (Fig. 28). Average thickness and mass of the clay tiles are 20 mm and 1.90 kg and that of the glass tiles are 25 mm and 2.91 kg. The base data were first collected for each of the selected 20 houses and then 2 to 4 glass tiles were replaced in each of those houses in place of the existing clay tiles. This system altogether changed the lives of the occupants, particularly women and the children. The light intensity during the day (9:00 to 16:00 hours), which was less than 4 lux, increased upto 400 times i e. 200 to 1300 lux (Fig. 29).
*Figures in the brackets are the average concentrations over a time period of 8 hours
CO2 (ppm) 544.1 605.9 476.7 453.2 486.8
(418.4)* (405.6) (415.4)CO (ppm) 4.19 40.63 2.21 2.33 2.70 (2.14) (1.38) (1.94) SPM (mg/Nm3) 2.50 – 2.85 4.33 0.94 – 1.56 0.88 - 1.42 0.39 - 0.54 (0.3) (0.16) (0.16) (0.13)
PollutantsFuel wood Dung cake Top feeding Side feeding
SPRERI air-insulated stove (fuel wood)
Existing “C” type stove Biogasstove
Table 19: Concentrations of CO2, CO and SPM in the indoor air during cooking period for the cooking devices used in the selected rural house-holds
Fig. 27: Solar light is set up in Simal Faliya village
Fig. 28: Glass roof tiles and interior view of the house in Dageria village after two roof clay tiles were replaced with the glass tiles
31
Feedback collected from the houses where
the glass roof tiles had been retrofitted
revealed that use of the kerosene lamp/
electricity/solar lantern was not required
during the day time for household activities.
Cleaning of the food grains and other
household activities were now performed
within the house instead of outside in the
hot sun. The women reported that they
feel more comfortable with the natural light
compared to the kerosene lamp primarily
because of much lower illumination and
very high emissions. All the beneficiaries,
particularly, women were very happy and felt
more comfortable performing their routine
jobs. They are sharing/disseminating the
information with their neighbors/relatives
from other villages. Many more farmers are
interested in having the same type of glass
roof tiles in neighboring villages around.
Technology Transfer“SPRERITECH portable air-insulation top-feeding and side-feeding biomass cook-stoves” technology had been transferred to
M/s Nilkanth Industries, Vitthal Udyognagar.
The commercial units of both the stove
designs (designated as No. 170-NDT-L and
No. 190-NDS-L, Fig. 30), manufactured
by the firm were evaluated at SPRERI and
subsequently tested at the MNRE approved
test centre located at MPUAT Udaipur. The
stoves of both the designs satisfied the BIS
prescribed norms in respect of the thermal
efficiency, power ratings, emissions, etc and
have since been approved by the MNRE,
GoI for sale throughout the country.
Manufacturing and marketing rights of
the technology “SPRERITECH improved
biomass cook stove (natural draft)” were
transferred to a third firm i.e. M/s Tanu
Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Anand for a period of
five years on non-exclusive basis.
Model No. 170-NDT-L; top feeding
Model No. 190-NDS-L; side feeding
Fig. 30: Commercial units of air-insulation biomass cookstoves
Patent Filed Patent entitled “Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass” was filed during the year.
Reference: Indian Patent application No.
573/MUM/2015 dated February 20, 2015
Fig. 29: Effect of clay and glass roof tiles on the light intensity inside the selected home
Time
32
1. Er. Gokul Raj, Er. Farha Tinwala and
Dr. V. Siva Reddy underwent a training
programme on Ansys Fluent, CFX &
Mechanical” organized by M/s Innovent
Engineering Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,
Bangalore, January 19-23, 2015.
2. Er. Farha Tinwala participated in
a training session on Advanced
Instrumental Method of Analysis held
at Dharmsinh Desai University, Nadiad,
February 9-13, 2015.
3. Er. A. Gokul Raj participated in a
training programme “Laboratory quality
management system and internal audit
as per ISO/IEC–17025 at National
Institute of Training in Standardization
(NITS), Noida during August 11–14,
2014.
Human Resource Development
Participation in Meetings, Seminars and Conferences
1. Solar Vaccine Refrigerator’s Technical
Assessment meeting, Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare-Lecture title “Solar Vaccine
Refrigerators”
2. Annual Day Function of College of
Agricultural Engineering and Technology,
Anand Agricultural University-Chief Guest
and addressed the participants
3. 9th National Conference on Indian Energy
Sector “Synergy with Energy”, Ahmedabad
Management Association
- Lecture title “Role of Solar Energy to
Enhance Agriculture Production”
4. Meeting of Expenditure Finance Committee
(EFC) of Engineering Division, ICAR
5. Advisory Committee Meeting of the
National Fund project “Solar-hybrid
refrigeration cool chamber facility”, CIAE
6. National Workshop on “Eco-Friendly
Structural Innovations for Sustainable
Development”, NIT- Lecture title “Solar
thermal power generation”
7. Interactive meet on Solar Thermal &
Concentrated Solar Technologies, Mahatma
Gandhi Institute for Integrated Rural Energy
Planning & Development
- Lecture title “Development of solar dryer
and tracking system”
April 2, 2014
New Delhi
April 22, 2014
Godhra
May 23-24,
2014
Ahmedabad
June 9, 2014
New Delhi
June 20, 2014
Bhopal
July 18-19,
2014
Warangal
July 25, 2014
Amrol (Anand)
Dr. V. Siva Reddy
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. V. Siva Reddy
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. V. Siva Reddy
Er. A. Gokul Raj
Sr.No. Details of the programme Date and place Scientist
33
8. “Conclave on R & D in New and
Renewable Energy”, MNRE
9. “Workshop on Energy Efficiency
for MSME – Dairy Cluster”, CII
10. NBMMP program meeting
at Gujarat Agro Industries
Corporation, MNRE
11. 23rd meeting of the ICAR Regional
Committee (VI) at AAU.-
Made a presentation on solar,
biogas cold storage facility
12. Brainstorming Session
on “Renewable Fuels for
Engine Power (Stationery &
Automobile)”, National Academy
of Agricultural Sciences
- Presentation on “Renewable
fuels for engine power (stationary
and automobile)”
- Presentation on “Liquid fuel
production (bio-oil, ethanol, bio-diesel)”
13. Scientist Selection Committee
Meeting of Electrical Research &
Development Association (ERDA)
- External Expert
14. National Seminar on Algae
for Sustainable Agricultural
Production, TNAU
- Presentation on “Biomass and
lipid accumulation of microalgae
grown on dairy wastewater as a
possible feedstock for biodiesel”
15. 18th Workshop of All India Co-ordination Research Project of
Renewable Energy Source,
GBPUAT
16. Meeting for evaluation of the
Core Subject presentation of
Ph.D students of GTU, CSIR-CSMCRI,
August 5, 2014
New Delhi
August 6, 2014
Ahmedabad
August 21, 2014
Gandhinagar
September 12,
2014 Anand
September
15-16, 2014
New Delhi
New Delhi
September 22,
2014 Vadodara
September 29-30,
2014 Madurai
October 29, 2014 to
November 1, 2014
Pantnagar
November 20, 2014
Bhavnagar
Dr. A.K. Kurchania
and Er. Velmurugan
Er. Samir Vahora
Dr. A.K. Kurchania
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. Pravakar Mohanty
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. G. Mahendraperumal
Dr. M. Shyam, Dr. A.K.
Kurchania, Dr. V. Siva Reddy,
Dr. Pravakar Mohanty, Er. B.
Velmurugan, Er. Samir Vahora
and Er. Jignesh P. Makwana
Dr. M. Shyam
Sr.No. Details of the programme Date and place Scientist
34
17. International Conference on
Environmental and Energy
(ICEE-2014), Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University,
- Presentation on “Natural
Deep Eutectic Solvent Mediated
Pretreatment of Rice straw:
Bioanalytical Characterization
of Lignin Extract and Enzymatic
Hydrolysis of Pretreated Biomass
Residue”
18. 29th Meeting of the Academic Council
of Sardarkrusinagar Dantiwada
Agricultural University
19. Expert Committee Meeting, DST,
Govt. of India. Presented the
proposal for core grant – 2nd phase
20. Agricultural Engineering & AIT Sub-Committee meeting of AAU
21. Annual Review Meeting of National
Agricultural Science Fund Projects
(ICAR)
22. 2nd Workshop on “Dehydration of
Food and Agricultural Products:
Principles, Practices and Prospects”,
National Institute of Food Technology
Entrepreneurship and Management
- Lecture title “Design and
development of PV module
integrated forced convection solar
drying system for standalone
operation”
23. Faculty Selection Committee Meeting,
Junagadh Agricultural University –
Expert member
24. Research Advisory Committee
Meeting of CIAE - Member
25. 15th Meeting of Non-conventional
Energy Sources Sectional Committee
MED 04, BIS
26. RTC’s Principal Investigators
meeting, MNRE
December 15-17,
2014 Hyderabad
January 15, 2015
Sardarkrushinagar
January 27, 2015
New Delhi
February 27, 2015
Anand
February 20, 2015
New Delhi
February 25-27,
2015 Sonepat
March 7, 2015
Junagadh
March 23-24, 2015
Bhopal
March 23, 2015
New Delhi
March 24, 2015
New Delhi
Dr. Adepu Kiran
Kumar
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. M. Shyam and
Er. Samir Vahora
Dr. A.K. Kurchania
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. V. Siva Reddy
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. M. Shyam
Dr. V. Siva Reddy
Dr. V. Siva Reddy
Sr.No. Details of the programme Date and place Scientist
35
1. Asim K Joshi, Pravakar Mohanty and
Farha Tinwala. 2014 “Bio-oil Production,
processing and utilization”, Technical
Bulletin No: CIAE/RES/2014, CIAE,
Bhopal, October.
2. Gokul Raj A, Siva Reddy V, Avipsa
Dey. 2014 “A low-cost indigenous
solar tracker”, Akshay Urja, 8(3): 32-35,
December.
3. Mahendraperumal Guruvaiah, Deval
Shah, Ekta Shah. 2014 “Biomass and lipid
accumulation of microalgae grown on
dairy wastewater as a possible feedstock
for biodiesel production”, International
Journal of Science and Research, 2: 909-913, December.
4. Madhuri Narra, Jisha P James, Velmurugan
Balasubramanian. 2015 “Simultaneous
saccharification and fermentation of
delignified lignocellulosic biomass at
high solid loadings by a newly isolated
thermotolerant Kluyveromyces sp.
for ethanol production”, Bioresource
Technology, 179: 331-338, January.
5. J.P. Makwana, Asim Kumar Joshi, Gaurav
Athawale, Dharminder Singh and Pra-
vakar Mohanty. 2015 “Air gasification of
rice husk in bubbling fluidized bed re-
actor with bed heating by convention-
al charcoal”. Bioresource Technology,
178: 45-52, February.
6. Siva Reddy V, Kumar S, Raj AG, Chawada
T. 2015 “Solar refrigeration technology
for on-farm transient storage”. Cooling
India, 10 (7): 54-56, February.
7. Samir Vahora, S.N. Singh, M. Shyam and
S. Mohana. 2015 “Tribals in Gujarat use
improved biomass cook stove”, Akshay
Urja, 8(4): 38-41, February.
8. Chapla DK, Bhumi JP, Lui ZL, Cotta MA,
Kumar AK, 2015 “Enhanced cellulosic
ethanol production from mild-alkali
pretreated rice straw in SSF using
Clavispora” NRRL Y-50464. Journal of
Biobased Biomaterials and Bioenergy (in
press).
9. Madhuri Narra, Velmurugan Balasubra-
manian, Jisha P James, 2015 “Comparison
between separate hydrolysis and fermen-
tation and simultaneous saccharification
and fermentation using dilute acid pre-
treated lignocellulosic biomass”. Biomass
and Biofuels (in press).
10. Madhuri Narra, Velmurugan Balasubrama-
nian. 2015 “Utilization of solid and liquid
waste generated during ethanol fermen-
tation process for production of gaseous
fuel through anaerobic digestion – A zero
waste approach”, Bioresource Technol-
ogy, 180: 376-380, February.
11. Kumar AK, Bhumika SP. 2015 “Cellulose-degrading enzymes from Aspergillus
terreus D34 and enzymatic saccharification
of mild-alkali and dilute-acid pretreated
lignocellulosic biomass residues”,
Bioresources and Bioprocessing, 2: 1-7,
February.
12. Kumar AK, Mohanty P, Bhumika SP. 2015
“Natural deep eutectic solvent mediated
pretreatment of ricestraw: Bioanalytical
characterization of lignin extract and
enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated
biomass residue:, Environmental Science
and Pollution Research (doi: 10.1007/
s11356-015-4780-4), May (in press).
13. F. Tinwala, P. Mohanty, S. Parmar, A.
Patel and K. K. Pant. 2015 “Intermediate
pyrolysis of agro-industrial biomasses
in bench-scale pyrolyser: Product yields
and its characterization”. Bioresource
Technology, 188: 258-264, July.
Papers Published
36
Solar Energy
“Development of solar-hybrid refrigeration technology for on-farm (or in production catchment) safe transient storage of horticultural produce” (NASF-ICAR), Investigators: V. Siva Reddy,
A. Gokul Raj, Samir Vahora and M Shyam (SP-2013-ST-36)
“Efficiency enhancement of scheffler dish solar concentrating technology” (SERI-DST), Investigators: V. Siva Reddy and A. Gokul Raj
(SP-2013- ST-37)
“Design, development and performance evaluation of dual axis sun tracker” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: A. Gokul Raj and V. Siva Reddy
(SP-2013-ST-38)
“Optimization of design parameters of grid independent hybrid solar/biogas refrigeration system for transient storage of horticultural produce” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Asim K. Joshi,
A. Gokul Raj and Sampath Kumar (SP-2013-
ST-39)
“Carry out energy audit and integration of solar concentrator based process heat system in a dairy industry” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: A.
Gokul Raj and V. Siva Reddy (SP-2012-EM-1)
“Regional Test Centre for Solar Thermal Devices” (MNRE), Investigators: A. Gokul Raj, Akash
Modh and V. Siva Reddy
Bio-Conversion
“Conversion of crop residues into ethanol and methane for use as transport fuels”, Investigators:
Madhuri Narra and B.Velmurugan (SP-2009-AT-30)
“Development of an economically viable process technology for detoxification of Jatropha de-oiled cake and simultaneous fuel gas production” (DST, GOI),
Investigators: Madhuri Narra, B.Velmurugan
and Mahendraperumal (SP-2011-AT-35)
“Biochemical engineering of microalgae for enhanced lipid accumulation” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Mahendra Perumal and Madhuri
Narra (SP-2012-AT-37)
“Biomass and lipid accumulation of microalgae grown on distillery/diary wastewater as a possible feedstock for biodiesel” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators:
Mahendraperumal and Madhuri Narra (SP-2012-AT-38)
“Use of mutagenesis to improve the economics of cellulase production by an in-house isolate” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Kiran Kumar and
Mahendraperumal (SP-2012-AT-39)
“Anaerobic co-digestion of dairy waste scum with kitchen waste for biogas production” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: B.Velmurugan and
Madhuri Narra (SP-2012-AT-40)
“Development and evaluation of laboratory scale pressure swing adsorption (PSA) system for biogas up gradation and carbon dioxide recovery” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: B. Velmurugan and
Samir Vahora (SP-2013-AT-41)
“Feasibility studies on bio-hydrogen production from agro-industrial wastes” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: B. Velmurugan and Madhuri
Narra (SP-2013-AT-42)
“Identification of lignocellulosic degrading enzymes from the in-house isolate Aspergillus terreus”, Investigator: Kiran Kumar (SP-2014-AT-43)
“Integrated research and development of biogas off-grid power solution for aquatic feed by high rate biomethanation using effective mixing technology” (MNRE, GoI), Investigators: B.Velmurugan
and Madhuri Narra (SP-2014-AT-44)
“Bioremediation of dairy wastewater by microalgae”(GUJCOST),Investigators:Mahendraperumal
and Madhuri Narra (SP-2014-AT-45)
Research Projects Persued
37
“Production of economically viable and low cost cellulases using cheaper lignocellulosic biomass or by co-culturing method” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Madhuri Narra and Kiran Kumar
(SP-2014-AT-46)
“Performance evaluation MLT on development of humic acid and fulvic acid extraction pilot plant from biogas spent slurry to be used for use in crop production” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators:
Madhuri Narra, A.K. Kurchania and S.P. Singh
(SP-2014-AT-47)
“Evaluation of biomethanation potential of dairy effluent scum from dairy industries in Gujarat” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: B. Velmurugan,
Madhuri Narra and A.K. Kurchania (SP-2014-AT-48)
“Development and evaluation of SPRERI odourless technology for biomethanation of water hyacinth” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: B. Velmurugan,
S.P. Singh and Jignesh Makwana (SP-2014-AT-49)
“Development of a semi fed-batch method for high-solids biomass saccharification for cellulosic ethanol production” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators:
Kiran Kumar and Madhuri Narra (SP-2014-AT-50)
“Studies on development of next generation green solvent for cellulosic biomass pretreatment” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Kiran Kumar and
Prabhakar Mohanty (SP-2014-AT-51)
Thermo-Chemical Conversion
“Development of a technology for treatment of wastewater from producer gas wet scrubbing unit for reuse and final disposal” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Asim K. Joshi, Farha Tinwala
and Devendra Pareek (SP-2010-PG-52)
“Adaption of SPRERI fluidized bed gasifier for rice husk fuel” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators:
Jignesh Makwana and Asim K. Joshi (SP-2013-PG-54)
“Development of a high performance domestic cook stove with provisions for smooth and continuous
operation with fuel wood sticks” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Jignesh Makwana and Asim K.
Joshi (SP-2013-PG-55.)
“Development of a vapour condensing system for SPRERI vacuum pyrolysis unit and performance evaluation of the integrated system including stability studies of the bio-oil produced” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Farha Tinwala and Asim Joshi
(SP-2013-PG-56)
“Tar contents reduction of the producer gas from SPRERI fluidized bed gasifier by catalytic cracking and its thermal application in a selected industry” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Jignesh
Makwana and Pravakar Mohanty (SP-2014-PG-57)
“Automation of operational systems associated with biomass combustor for ease of operation and maintenance at user level” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Jignesh Makwana, Samir
Vahora and P Mohanty (SP-2014-PG-58)
“Development of a forced draft community cook stove using mixed fuel wood and biomass densified fuels” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Asim K. Joshi,
Jignesh Makwana and Samir Vahora (SP-2014-PG-59)
“Process intensification of SPRERI pyrolysis unit for adaptation with agro residue fuel pellets” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Farha Tinwala and
Pravakar Mohanty (SP-2014-PG-60)
“Development of torrefaction process for selected biomass and performance evaluation of the cookstoves with torrefied fuels” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Farha Tinwala and Jignesh
Makwana (SP-2014-PG-61)
Technology Transfer
“DST Core project on Renewable Energy Intervention for Rural Development” (DST, GoI), Investigators:
Samir Vahora and Jignesh Makwana (SP-2010-TT-1)
“ORP of SPRERI design improved and upgraded system of 10-16 kg/h capacity biomass combustor based hot air generator and drying system of 250 kg/
38
batch capacity for high value fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators:
Samir Vahora, and Jignesh Makwana (SP-2011-TT-3)
“Field performance analysis of family size solid-state biogas plants set up in Anand and Kheda districts of Gujarat” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Samir
Vahora, (SP-2013-TT-4)
“Set-up demonstration biogas plant of 20-100 m3 capacity cattle dung based PAU design modified Janta fixed dome type biogas plants in gaushala/farmer’s field for power/thermal application” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Samir Vahora and
Hitesh Prajapati (SP-2013-TT-5)
“User level survey of ceramic linear based improved biomass cookstove in tribal villages” (ICAR-AICRP).
Investigators: Samir Vahora, and Jignesh
Makwana (SP-2013-TT-6)
“Operational Research Demonstrations of SPRERI improved biomass cookstove (air insulation)”
(ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Samir Vahora
(SP-2013-TT-7)
“Operational research demonstrations and field performance analysis of dhaba size forced/natural draft improved biomass cook stove” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Samir Vahora and Jignesh
Makwana (SP-2014-TT-8)
“ORP on SPRERI single axis sun tracker” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Gokul Raj and Samir
Vahora (SP-2014-TT-9)
“ORP on photovoltaic module integrated solar forced convection drying system” (ICAR-AICRP),
Investigators: Asim Joshi and Samir Vahora
(SP-2014-TT-10)
“Energy auditing of the rural households in Gujarat and scope for RE for cooking and illumination” (ICAR-AICRP), Investigators: Samir Vahora,
A.K.Kurchania and Hitesh Prajapati (SP-2014-EM-2)
1. Dr. G.V. Gogari, Asstt. General Manager (CD), Sumul Dairy, Surat visited SPRERI on April 18, 2014.
2. Dr. K. Srinivasa Murthy, Director & Head, Gujarat Knowledge Applications and Facilitation Centre, CII, Ahmedabad along with his colleagues visited SPRERI on May 2, 2014.
3. Shri J.N. Karamchetti, Power & Energy Division, Engineering Staff College of India, Hyderabad visited SPRERI on May 8, 2014.
4. Dr. C.S. Thomas, Head, Dairy Farm Services, NDDB visited SPRERI on June 10, 2014.
5. Shri Sanjeeb Tripathy, President- Technology & Product Development, M/s Kirti Solar Limited, Kolakata visited SPRERI on June 16, 2014.
6. Prof. P.K. Srivastava, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering & Post
Harvest Technology, Central Agricultural University, Ranipore and Dr. Murthy, NAARM, Hyderabad visited SPRERI on June 17, 2014.
7. Shri V. A. Vaghela, Director, Shri S.J. Ruparel, Sr. Project Executive and Shri A.K. Chauhan, Sr. Project Executive from Gujarat Energy Development Agency, Gandhinagar visited SPRERI on October 9, 2014.
8. Dr. P.K. Agrawal, Asst. Director General (NASF), ICAR visited SPRERI on November 23, 2014.
9. Shri R. Venkataramanan, Executive trustee, Tata Trust, Mumbai along with three colleagues visited SPRERI on March 13, 2015.
10. Shri K.H. Baraiya, Asstt. Conservator of Forest and Shri K.S. Yogi, Project Consultant of Gujarat Medicinal Plants Board, Gandhinagar visited SPRERI on March 27, 2015.
Visitors
39
Director
Dr. M. Shyam
Scientists
Solar EnergyDr. V. Siva Reddy, I/c Head
Er. Asim K. Joshi
Er. A. Gokul Raj
Er. A. Sampath Kumar
Er. Arun Bollavarapu (w.e.f. 1.9.2014)
Er. Nandan Varia (upto 29.11.2014)
Mrs. Hiraben Mistry (upto 31.8.2014)
Er. Akash Modh
Mr. Hasmukh Herma
Bio-Conversion
Dr. A.K. Kurchania, Head (w.e.f. 21.7.2014)
Er. B. Velmurugan (upto 16.3.2015)
Dr. Madhuri Narra
Dr. Mahendraperumal
Dr. A. Kiran Kumar
Dr. S.P. Singh
Er. Shakil U. Saiyed
Ms. Deval Shah (upto 31.7.2014)
Ms. Jisha P. James
Ms. Bhumika S. Parikh
Ms. Ekta V. Shah
Thermo-Chemical Conversion
Dr. Pravakar Mohanty, I/c Head (upto 22.1.2015)
Dr. Vaibhav Shinde, (w.e.f. 30.3.2015)
Er. Jignesh Makwana
Er. Farha Tinwala
Mr. Harshad Suthar
Mr. Anant Patel
Extension
Er. Samir Vahora, Activity I/c
Er. Dinesh Rangapara (w.e.f. 20.3.2015)
Mr. Jitendra Suthar
Er. Hitesh Prajapati
Administration
Mr. P. Amar Babu
Ms. Pragna Dave
Mr. Rajendra Shah
Mr. Hitesh Dalwadi
Mrs. Aida Mascarenhas
Mr. Hasmukh Vaghela
Technicians and Drivers
Mr. Jayesh Parmar
Mr. Bhupendra Prajapati
Mr. D.M. Harijan
Mr. Ramesh Bhoi
Mr. Rajesh Machhi
Mr. Minesh Suthar
Mr. Mahendra Padhiyar
Lab Attendant and Helpers
Mr. Parsottam Harijan
Mr. Ashok Harijan
Mr. Prakash Machhi
Mr. Bhupat Parmar
Mr. Ishwar Harijan
Mr. Harman Parmar
Mr. Ashok Patel
Mr. Vijay Vasava
Ms. Manjula Vadhel
SPRERI Team
40
Balance sheet as on 31.03.2015
Abbreviations
AAU - Anand Agricultural University AC, DC - Alternating current, direct currentAICRP - All India Coordinated Research Project AU - Arbitrary unitAvg - AverageBBM - Bold’s basal mediumBG11 - Blue green medium BGP - Biogas plant BIS - Bureau of Indian StandardsBOD - Biochemical oxygen demandCCE - Carbon conversion efficiencyCFD - Computational fluid dynamics CFL - Compact fluorescent lampCIAE - Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering CLRI - Central Leather Research InstituteCMCase - Carboxy methyl celluloseCNG - Compressed natural gasCO - Carbon monoxide CO
2 - Carbon dioxide
COD - Chemical oxygen demandCS - Chrome showingcSt - Centi stokeCV - Calorific valueCW - Cheese wheyDAP - Diammonium phosphateDBT - Department of BiotechnologyDC - Direct currentDS - Digested slurryDST - Department of Science and TechnologyEAAI - Energy in Agriculture and Agro- Industries ELISA - Enzyme linkded immuno sorbent assayEMS - Ethyl methane sulfonateER - Equivalence ratio ETC - Evacuated-tube-collectorFBG - Fluidized-bed-gasifier FPC - Flat-plate-collector FPhase - Filter paper acturityFPS - Filter pressed sludgeFPU - Filter paper unitGEDA - Gujarat Energy Development Agency GoI/GoG - Government of India/ Government of GujaratHRT - Hydraulic retention timeICAR - Indian Council of Agricultural Research IIT - Indian Institute of Technology
JSC - Jatropha seed cake (deoiled)kDa - kilo DaltonkWp - Kilo watt peak LED - Light emitting diodeLFT - Leather finished trimmingLPG - Liquefied petroleum gasLPH - Liter per hourMNRE - Ministry of New and Renewable Energy MoU - Memorandum of understandingMS - Mild steelMTT - 3 – (4,5 – dimethylthiazol-2-yl) – 2, 5 – diphenyltetrazolium MW - Molecular weightMW - Mandels and weberNABARD - National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development NABL - National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories NADES - Natural deep eutatic solvents NCIM - National collection of industrial microorganism NPK - Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassiumOD, ID - Outer diameter, inner diameter OLR - Organic loading rateORP - Operational research projectsPAU - Punjab Agricultural UniversityPCM - Phase change material PE - Phosphat ester PIC - Programmable interface controller SPRERI - Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute SPV - Solar photovoltaicSS - Stainless steelSTC - Standard test conditions TCD - Thermal conductivity detector TDS - Total dissolved solidsTFF - Tangential flow filtrationTR - Tonne refrigeration TS /TSC - Total solids/total solids concentrationTSS - Total suspended solidsUV - Ultra violetVAM - Vapour absorption machine VS - Volatile solidsWB - Wheat branWb, db - Wet basis, dry basis (mass)RS - Rice strawSB - Sugarcane bagasse
42
Contact for further information:Ms. Pragna B. DaveSr. PA to Director
Sardar Patel Renewable Energy Research Institute
Post Box No.2, Vallabh Vidyanagar 388 120, Gujarat, IndiaPhone : 02692 - 231332, 235011Fax : 02692 - 237982E-mail : [email protected]; [email protected] : www.spreri.org
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ign
& P
rinte
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: Ak
aaish
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+91
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