Dr. B. C. Meikap, Professor, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India.

Speech Title: Generation and Utilization of Bio-Energy from Waste Materials in Rural Areas

Abstract: Biogas is a renewable, as well as a clean, source of energy. Bio-gas generated through bio-digestion is non-polluting; it actually reduces greenhouse emissions (i.e. reduces the greenhouse effect). In rural India to supply the clean fuel, generation of bio-gas from different waste materials is out most important. In rural areas of India to meet the energy requirement in domestic sector in an environment friendly manner and also to improve the rural economy as well as quality of life, production and use of biogas from waste materials is a promising option. To demonstrate this idea, IIT Khargapur under its CSR program constructed few domestic Bio-Gas plants, using different waste material in rural areas of Kharagpur Sub-Division, Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur (WB) and nearby areas of IIT Kharagpur. In this paper a detailed results regarding generation of bio-gas and its characterization is presented and physical demonstration in rural areas. The feedstock – rice straw and cow dung was used as waste materials and daily Production rate was low initially and increased gradually. The daily production rate grows as microbial population grows and reaches maximum at day 12. It starts falling back as there is competition between microbes for resources and there is non-availability of enough feed to be decomposed. The results are quite encouraging.