Overview | SREPL

Overview

India is the second largest producer of sugarcane in the world. Well-established sugar factories exist in 18 of India’s 26 States. There are approximately 600 million farmers in India. Of these 600 million, 50 million are sugarcane farmers, who deliver sugarcane to nearly 400 sugarcane factories for crushing and processing. After proving the technology in sugarcane waste, now SREL can utilise their expertise to process any organic waste to produce Bio CNG and organic Manure.

Currently, India’s agricultural industry faces a two-fold challenge: accessing inexpensive energy (both electricity and fuel) and managing the tons of agricultural waste that arise from their agricultural practices. As a result, India’s sugar industry, along with other food processing industries and municipalities, stand to benefit greatly from biogas technology, a technology with economic, social and environmental benefits.

SREL, in order to solve these challenges, is currently running a large-scale biogas projects that converts sugarcane waste into compressed natural gas (Bio-CNG) and organic fertilizer for the sale and use in local markets. Apart from the sugarcane waste, in the projects that are in the pipeline, SREL is setting up plants that deal in a variety of Organic Waste, from oil cakes, food waste, municipal waste, cow dung, to exploring other material that can be used to generate Bio CNG. SREL plans to develop multiple large-scale biogas projects utilizing a mixture of these wastes in the near future.

Technology

SREL employs a tested-and-proven technology called anaerobic digestion to cleanly convert organic waste into biogas, a form of renewable energy, and organic fertilizer. Biogas is a renewable gas consisting primarily of methane and
carbon dioxide, and can be used as natural gas, converted into electricity, or further processed into compressed natural gas (CNG) for use in motor vehicles.

Conversion of Organic Waste into Biogas

Organic, biodegradable waste, or feedstock (pressmud), enters the system for digestion where an anaerobic process using bacteria ferments the wastes and produces biogas as a gaseous bi-product. Several times a day, waste, fresh water and recycled water (over 30% water is reused during plant operations) is fed into digesters, which serve to treat the feedstock, eventually turning it into biogas consisting of mostly methane, as well as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

Biogas Conversion into CBG

Biogas Conversion into CBG

The biogas produced at our plant will contain approximately 60% to 70% methane, 30% to 40% carbon dioxide and trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide.

This biogas produced is further processed so that the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide gases are removed. The result is a gas consisting of mostly methane. This is very similar to natural gas obtained from the oil & gas fields.

By using compressors in our bottling plant, the methane and carbon dioxide gases will be stored under high pressures in cylinders. These gases can then be utilized in industrial applications, for fuel in vehicles, electrical power generators and for other heating purposes.

With an onsite combined heat and power (CHP) unit, electrical power generation is also viable. The Warana CBG project is using a portion of the gas for auxiliary power consumption to run the plant. The waste heat from the CHP unit is being used to maintain the temperature of the digesters.

Organic Manure/Soil Conditioner Use and Storage

Organic Manure/Soil Conditioner Use and Storage

The remaining non-digestible solids exit the digester in the form of a liquid slurry. The liquid slurry is further processed by a separator/decanter where solids (dry) are separated and sold as a organic manure/soil conditioner. The liquids from the separation process is sold to local farmers and the remaining portion is stored in an adjacent storage lagoon and eventually recirculated back into the digesters with the feedstock at the beginning of the anaerobic digestion process.

SREL is now sourcing different organic additives that can be used to make this Organic soil conditioners even more effective. A new development has also been in developing a liquid manure that has <1 solids and can be applied through drip irrigation.

Biogas Projects

Spectrum Renewable Energy offers organic waste producers a comprehensive spectrum of services including project management, plant design, construction, as well as maintenance and technological support.

Warana CBG Project

Warana CBG Project

District of Kolhapur, Maharashtra India

In partnership with one of Maharashtra’s largest sugarcane cooperatives, Warana Sugarcane Cooperative, SREL has developed a first-of-a-kind project that converts a sugarcane waste called pressmud (filtercake) into renewable CBG and organic manure/soil conditioner. The CBG is a clean and inexpensive fuel that is being sold to industrial customers, and the nutrient-rich organic manure/soil conditioner is being sold to the cooperatives’ sugarcane farmers and in the local agricultural markets.

Highlights:

. Developed on a BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) basis
. Daily capacity of approximately 100 tons, or 35,000 annual tons, of sugarcane waste (pressmud)
. Daily production of approximately 4,000 to 7,500 kg’s of CBG per day
. PESO (Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization) License for storage and filing of CBG in high pressure cylinders
. Daily production of organic manure/soil conditioner after further processing for commercial sale
. NOCA (National Organic Certification Association) approved organic manure for further sale to farmers
. MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) approved investment subsidy received in early 2013
. Substantial cost savings for industrial customers due to low-cost CBG use
. Climate friendly – CO2 negative: Biogas-to-CNG conversation is the most productive use of agricultural waste

Barkhera CBG Project

District of Barkhera, Uttar Pradesh India

In partnership with India’s largest sugar producer, Bajaj Hindustan Limited, SREL will convert approximately 30,000 to 50,000 tons of pressmud annually into renewable energy and organic manure/soil conditioner. Construction is expected to start in mid-2015. An agreement has been formalized to develop the project and land has recently been purchased for the construction of the facility.