Biomass in Thermal Plants

Theme: Green Excellence

Expected Pilot Duration - 3 months

Challenge Summary

Department of Power, GoI has mandated all coal power plants to adopt Biomass as a fuel for power generation(5%-10% of overall power generation) from the year 2023. Power plants find it difficult to source biomass as there is a significant shortage of biomass and the technology to efficiently derive biomass from agriculture is still in its nascent stages of development.

Challenge Scenario

Agricultural waste post harvesting needs to be processed into pellets, which can be fed into the power plants for power generation. Lack of efficient infrastructure/technology to mass produce biomass suitable for power plants has created a huge supply demand gap leading to increase in the cost of biomass. Power plant managers also face challenges in identifying right fuel types, logistics & predictability of costs (sourcing raw material - biomass) making the adoption to biomass difficult.

Thermal power plants are looking for an integrated supply chain optimisation solution with efficient processing plants that shall enable the adoption of biomass to meet the government norms & create a sustainable impact in reducing greenhouse gas emission and carbon footprint.

Profile of the end users

Coal Oven Team

Director- ESG, Carbon, Social Performance,Jharsuguda - The challenge here is to meet the necessary sustainability requirements, otherwise it will incur penalty for the company

Procurement Team

Directors of Lanjigarh, BALCO, HZL, and TSPL Power Plants

Solution Requirements

Pellets processing for Ball and Tube mill feeders in Boilers

Quality control to check moisture content and heating/calorific values

Faster procurement of Raw Material/Biomass

Preprocessing of the biomass to fit the existing infrastructure capabilities of the boilers

Ease of transport of biomass and utilization from storage

Total Cost of Ownership - Biomass utilization is costlier than coal due to its less supply against demand

Integration - Using Biomass as fuel in Coal plants affects boiler parameters like Temperature & Ash

Raw Material - Quality of the processed biomass fit to be used in the boilers

Expected Outcomes

1. Quantified Metrics & Outcomes:

Operational KPIs/Metrics	Current Value	Expected Target Value
Biomass Adoption	0%	5%

2. Qualified Outcomes:

Operational KPIs/Metrics	Current State	Expected Target Value
Adoption of Biomass based on Power Rating	80MW capacity power plants	Should attain sustainable supply to run 300MW power plant

3. ESG Impact:

ESG Metric	Target State (Expected)
Meet the Government Standards	5% of Total Fuel Utilization
Reduced GreenHouse Gas Emission	16% from 2016 Baseline

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