Paddy husks to be used for electricity production

Patna, Jul 10 (UNI) The Bihar government has decided to use paddy husks as an alternative mode of electricity production, keeping in mind the rising prices of petroleum, and also instructed scientists to undertake research for inventing alternative sources of energy.

Bihar Cooperative Minister Giriraj Singh said here today that the state government was seriously working on the plan to use paddy husks to generate electricity for running powerlooms, cold storages, rice and wheat mills and makhana processing centres.

Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) had been identified to bring about the change, he said, adding that on an experimental basis, a cold storage was already being run by a PACS at Laguraon Bilandpur village under Rajapakar block of Vaishali district.

This unit had reported 75 per cent saving on the cost of diesel by mixing the diesel with the gas produced from paddy husks, Mr Singh said, adding that about Rs six to eight lakh were being saved there.

The whole idea was coined by the chairperson of the PACS Rekha Singh and impressed with the efforts, a visiting team of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) praised the successful running of the cold storage on the gas-diesel mixture.

Mr Singh said that it was just a beginning and two more such units were likely to be set up soon in Gopalganj and Siwan districts.

A third unit will also come up at Jhanjharpur, he said, adding that the power would be used by the makhana processing units being set up there.

He said 100 Panchayats had been identifed under the first phase to set up husk gas-based power plants during the current fiscal while in the subsequent phases the government had a plan to set up 3,000 plants in the rice producing Panchayats of the state.

The minister said the electricity produced from the rice husks would be used to run mills and for other activities of the PACS during day hours while the electricity would be supplied to the households of the members at night.

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