Biomass power plant set up with Chinese help

Plant converts agricultural waste into electricity via gasification process

FAISALABAD: Pakistan is producing huge quantities of biomass and crop residue every year that could be converted into electricity to help lessen the energy shortfall in the country, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan.

Inaugurating an energy plant established at the Punjab Bio Energy Institute, Postgraduate Research Station UAF, in collaboration with China, he said the UAF had installed the 100-kilowatt (KW) biomass gasification power plant meant for the promotion of alternative energy to overcome power shortfall touching 5,000 megawatts.



He called the project a solution to the electricity needs, especially at the village level. It was an initiative of the Punjab chief minister who invited China to set up the biomass plant to promote the technology and for which the UAF was selected.

“The plant converts agricultural waste into power via the gasification process. Although it is a 100KW plant, we can provide power to at least 50 households from it,” he said.



He stressed the need for adopting the model in every village and added the combination of biogas, biomass and solar energy would help the country become self-sufficient in the energy sector.

Chinese expert Dr Hai Bin Li from Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion said China was producing 650 million tons of agricultural waste, of which 50% was being used for the production of energy.

“Over 40 million rural household biogas digesters are built in China, producing 15.4 billion m3 rural biogas annually.”

Hai further said out of the 270 million tons of forest waste produced in China, 30% was used for energy purposes and this way they were meeting 10% of the country’s power demand from bioenergy.



UAF Agri Engineering faculty Dean Dr Allah Buksh said fossil fuel reserves could end after half a century, therefore, there was an urgent need to find alternative ways to generate energy.

“The university has launched a programme of energy system engineering that will help fight such challenges with the help of trained manpower.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2016.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.