Agni Energy Services (P) Ltd
G.S. Varma, Hyderabad, India, September 2005
Single gasifier unit of 5,00,000 kcal/hr. This is one among the five units installed to replace LDO as fuel for drying. The plant has 17 dryers and these gasifiers now replace LDO from the plant.
Burner at Down Draft Kiln at clay pipe manufacturer 1100 C.
Our Company has been in the business of providing Energy Services (using bio mass gasifiers) for various industries for 10 years. We implement these projects on shared savings basis; wherein we install, operate the gasifiers at our cost and share a portion of the resulting energy cost savings with the client. We have been working primarily with industries that use liquid and gas fuels (Furnace oil, Light Diesel Oil, High Speed Diesel and Liquid petroleum gas) to fuel furnaces, kilns, dryers, etc. with temperatures
ranging from 80 C to 1200 deg C. We try and replace these fuels with the gas generated from biomass gasification. In order to give an idea of the cost benefits, I am listing the present cost of various sources of fuels in India.
Furnace Oil - Rs. 18.oo / litre
LDO - Rs. 32.00 / Litre
HSD - Rs. 32.00 / Litre
LPG - Rs. 27.00 / Litre
Biomass Gas - Rs. 8.00 / Litre.
Assuming a 50 Litres / hr system operating for 5000 hrs / year, the difference in energy cost to replace furnace oil (the cheapest of the fuels listed above) would work out to Rs. 25,00,000 per year. At Rs. 46.00 per U. S. dollar, this works out to be $ 54,347 per year . Our present cost of such a system ex Indian Port would be roughly 60,000 resulting in a simple payback of 1.1 years or 13 months.
With pay back periods being as low as this I am of the opinion that cost / kw is not such a big issue. Ensuring that the system operates on 24 x 7 basis with plant availability of more than 90% would go a long way. The environmental benefits are the icing on the cake.
I am sure that with rising oil prices worldwide, the cost benefits would more or less be in the range indicated above. One reason why most Indian manufacturers may not be keen on projects outside may be due to the fact that most gasifier manufacturers in India may not be aware of the environmental regulations in different countries and these might have a great impact on cost of water and waste treatment equipments. There is also a very vast market within the country.
G.S. Varma
President
Agni Energy Services (P) Ltd
B-76 Madhuranagar,
HYDERABAD - 500 038.
Phone /Fax: +91 40 2381 7927
mobile: +91 98662 48384
e-mail: hyd2_agniesco@sancharnet.in