Success Story Of Bio Gas Production And Transportation At 400M By 16 Mm Drip Irrigation Lateral Pipeline

SUCCESS STORY OF BIO GAS PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTATION AT 400M BY 16 MM DRIP IRRIGATION LATERAL PIPELINE

P.P.Shelke

Subject Matter Specialist (Agril.Engg)

Background:-

          Shri Shyamrao Vinayakrao Deshmukh is a Farmer residing at Village Tandulwadi in Risod Tahsil of Washim District.  His village is about 12 Kms from Tahsil Place.  It is situated on the bank of River Painganga.  The soil is medium to heavy well drained and mostly made up of silt and loam carried by the river.  Village is gifted with good soil, round the year water availability and green grassland near the riverbank. 

Shri Deshmukh has about 40 acres of agriculture land distributed at two places near the village.  Mr. Deshmukh is matriculate and is active since the beginning of his career as agriculturalist.  He has tried to develop the agriculture of his own and his neighbors and relatives on the scientific lines and therefore, KVK Karda has selected his for the position of Chief Volunteer of the Technology Transfer Club Established in village Tandulwadi during the year 2001-02.                       

Problem:-

Mr. Deshmukh is cultivating Soybean as a major crop in Kharif season and Gram and Wheat crops in Rabi season.  He has also cultivated Sugarcane, Mulberry , Wheat etc. during past few seasons.  However, he has faced lot of problems in irrigation due to low availability of electric power during the peak period of irrigation in Rabi season season.

Intervention:-    

Once Mr. Deshmukh visited to KVK and discussed the problem with Shri P.P.Shelke, Subject Matter Specialist and the then Programme Coordinator of KVK during the year 2007.  It was thought that the problem is genuine and is a general problem faced by many of the farmers in his village.  Mr,. Deshmukh has diversified activities like Dairy farming, Goat farming and has supporting activities like vermy composting, Giriraja poultry farming, Mulberry cultivation for Goat farming, Subabul cultivation for fodder for the Goats, Forest plantation of Teak etc.  At present Mr. Deshmukh owns about 32 cattle’s of which bullocks, Cows and Buffaloes are there and One Horse has also been maintained for transportation of Milk from his village to Dairy Collection Center.

Planning:- 

After carefully studying the resources availability with the farmer it was planned to have a biogas plant and generator set for generation of electricity for operating the electric motors.  The idea was discussed with Shri Shaymrao Deshmukh.  He agreed in principle but requested Shri P.P.Shelke to show the successful unit on Biogas based electricity generation.  Mr. Deshmukh was suggested to visit Malshiras Village in Solapur Tahsil where One of the farmers is using this technology.  Mr. Deshmukh visited the unit and was convinced with the technology.

          Finally the calculation was done to have the total requirement of electricity during the period of irrigation.  It was found that about 10to 15 H.P. energy is required for irrigation pumping work.  The requirement of about 20 Cubic Meter capacity Biogas is suggested.  Mr. Deshmukh then discussed the idea with his family members and they altogether finally agreed to have such a system within a period of next 5 years.  Meanwhile it was decided to have a family size biogas plant of 2 Cubic meter.  The small biogas will help to understand the concept of Biogas Production from available cattle dung and the gas can be used for the domestic purposes.

Action:-     

Keeping these points in view the biogas plant (Dinbandhu Type) of 2 Cum was developed at the Dairy Farm and cattle shed area which is situated about 0.5 Kms from the residential area of village.  The site was selected for easy availability of dung and water at the site. It was decided that the biogas will be transported by Balloons or other similar methods which will be explored after the generation of biogas (March 2008).

          Biogas was constructed and the benefit of the existing scheme from Panchaytat Samiti was also taken.  The total cost of construction was Rs. 8000/-.  Out of which subsidy of Rs. 3000 was received from Panchayat Samiti, Risod.  After construction of Biogas the dung was fed as per the requirement by making slurry by use of 1:1 proportion cattle dung and water.  Family member of Shri Shyamrao Vinayakrao Deshmukh were trained to prepare the slurry and feeding it to the  Biogas Plant.  They regularly fed the slurry during the month of April 2008.  The biogas started to produce during the month of May 2008.  Trial cooking was done at the site of cattle shed.  The cooking was successful and regular use of Biogas was done for testing purpose. 

Refinement and Further Assistance:-

After about a month of Biogas production, there was need to solve the problem of transportation of Biogas from cattle shed to Kitchen of Shri Deshmukh which is situated at Village residential area which is about 500m by road and at about 400m straight distance.  Mr. Deshmukh again approached Shri P.P.Shelke ( SMS Agril.Engg) and discussion was made on the situation.  It was decided to discuss the matter with Dr.P.D.K.V. Akola and Arti (Pune) who have worked on Biogas and have developed different models and Balloons for transportation of biogas.  Initially The head Department of Non Conventional Energy, Dr.PDKV Akola was contacted for discussion of the problem.  It was suggested to Talk to Prof. Gadge.  The contact could not be established in the beginning.  Therefore, ARTI Pune was contacted.  The telephone No of ARTI was taken from the Internet by opening the website of ARTI.  It was suggested to use the Balloon for transportation of Biogas as the distance of 400m was high and the pipeline transportation of Biogas will not be feasible due to heavy losses in pressure due to long distance transportation.  Also the possibility of entrapping of Water vapor was discussed.  It was suggested that the pipeline transportation should be supported by blower of suitable capacity.  However, idea was in vein due to non availability of electric power due to load shading during the hours of cooking in kitchen.  Therefore, once again the idea was dropped and contact was established with Prof.Gadge of Department of Non Conventional Energy Sources.  Prof. Gadge suggested that the pipeline will not be able to maintain the pressure due to long distance and entrapping of water vapor will also be there. 

It was then very troublesome situation for both Shri Shyamrao Deshmkh and Shri P.P.Shelke (SMS) as the cost of using Balloon was as high as the cost of Biogas plant.  Farmer was also discouraged that the Technology is good but the limitations are more for its use. 

After continuous thinking for few more days and discussion on telephone  Shri P.P.Shelke and Shyamrao Deshmukh came to a conclusion that the Biogas can be transported by use of Drip Irrigation Lateral Pipeline of 16 MM Diameter.  The cost of the experiment will be about Rs. 3000/- and in case the experiments fails the same material could have been used for drip irrigation work.  The idea was also useful for removing the entrapped water as the complete drip line could be coiled back and total entrapped water can be removed by gravity itself. 

Use of Drip Irrigation Pipeline:-   

The day came when Shri Shyamrao Deshmukh purchased 16mm drip lateral supplied by M/s Jain Irrigation.  The connections were carefully made and the pipeline was carried on stakes and tied perfectly to resist the wind and other possible obstructions.  The pipeline was carried in such a way that there could be minimum disturbance from the children and cattle.  After successful establishment of the pipeline, the testing of Biogas stove in Kitchen was undertaken.  The stove was lit.  It was surprise that the gas was coming with desirable pressure and the first day cooking was successful.  Later on it was thought that there could be some obstruction due to water vapor but till date there is no need to clean the pipeline for removal of water vapor.

Publicity:-

The success was discussed with many people and people are visiting to the site and Media people from Daily Sakal published a story about the success of the Transportation of Biogas.  Many telephone calls from different farmers were replied by Shri P.P.Shelke (SMS) , Shri S.K.Deshmukh(Programme Coordinator) and farmer Shri Shyamrao Deshmukh.  The story further was highlighted on television private channel “Star Maza”.  The work came to limelight and the farmer is happy with the performance of Biogas as well as the publicity brought by the work.

Conclusions:-

Finally it was concluded that the biogas from 2 Cum Dinbandhu type plant can be successfully transported and can be used for household purposes at a distance as long as 400m from the Biogas plant.  The pipeline should be laid in straight line and preferably from a silent area where there is no disturbance of children’s and cattle’s and is safe from point of view of fire hazards by nuisance. It is also suggested to keep the biogas closed from supply point when not in use to avoid accidental leakage of the gas.  Monitoring during the day hours will be good and will keep the system free from leakage.

Future Plans:-

Farmer Shri Shyamrao Deshmukh is now happy and has pronounced to expand the biogas use and to have the system sufficient for generation of electricity for irrigation.  However the cost of the system is high and he is trying to get financial assistance and benefit of some suitable Government Schemes.  The KVK is also exploring the possibility of incorporation Shri Shyamrao Deshmukh and some more farmers for such a pilot project in this area.  Efforts are being made to support the farmer from ATMA.