Pine needles to produce electricity in Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand is setting a new trend in clean bio-energy by generating electricity from pine needles. These items have been responsible for forest fires and a scheme has now been devised to make use of these needles because these will be processed to generate electricity and light up homes and lives across the state.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 October 2016.

Two 10 megawatt (MW) pine needles gasifier plants have been set up at Tripura Devi and Simalta villages in Pithoragarh district to process these needles. These gasifier plants have been connected with the grid of state electricity company of UPCL and, it is expected that by end of October, these will start sending electric power to UPCL grids.
One pilot 9 kilowatt hour (KWH) pine needle power station had been developed in the NGO's campus at Berinag in Pithoragarh way back in 2009. It employs local women to collect pine needles in large quantities and, for every Kg of pine needles collected, they receive Rs 2. These are then processed. Approximately 1.5-Kg of needles are needed to generate one KWH of electricity. These 1.5 kg of pine needles produce 150 gm of charcoal as a byproduct and this is used for household cooking.
The company has already entered into an agreement with the state government to sell electricity produced from pine needle gasifier at the cost of Rs 4.76 per unit. This could go up to Rs 7.20 per unit since it is clean bio-energy. Incidentally, this is the first time in the world that biological waste like pine needles are being converted into electricity. The technology is totally new and patent of the technology has been applied for and it is pending.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


Some more interesting links -

Calcutta Tramways Company to increase frequency of tram service at night from November

Tampara wetland, a tourist spot in Ganjam district, to get a facelift

Durga idol of 2016 to be preserved in Park Street metro station


Moody becomes moody after surgical strike (satire)

Lord Shiva in the world of deodorants (satire)

Three cheers for Didi – the Jill of all trades (satire)


Terrorist attacks and suicide bombing kill at least 46 in Iraq

21 school girls of Chibok, abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, return home

Indications are there that both United States and Russia are preparing for war


Power Rangers to return after a decade and hit the screens on March 24 next year

Bob Dylan, the 75-year-old American folk singer, wins Nobel Prize for literature

Antonio Banderas gifted a pair of monkeys to Salma Hayek on her birthday

Nevada to use goats to clean the eco-system of discarded Christmas trees

#ChristmasTree #pineneedles #ecosystem Goats eat everything and a man from Nevada has trained his goats to eat the pine needles of Christmas trees. This is to keep the eco-system clean because people are in the habit of discarding the trees in landfills or open space once Christmas is over and they do not realize the possible dangers fire hazards once the branches dry up.
His name is Vince Thomas, a longtime volunteer firefighter. He has come up with this novel idea of making use of the 40 goats in his family-owned goat herding business, "Goat Grazers" – he would be recycling the discarded Christmas trees.
Goats have the habit of eating all sorts of weeds and Vince tossed a piece of pine tree to the animals and they devoured it — with the pine needles. Subsequently, he did some research and came to the conclusion that while with cattle and some of the other animals, it can cause miscarriages, for goats, it is a natural dewormer. Moreover, pine is very high in vitamin C, so it is healthy for them also.
He is now launching a new program with his Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful – this group is one among a number of groups in the area that recycle trees and are glad to have the help from the goats. These animals are great employees because they love their job and they never complain.