COVID-19 - a Stepping Stone for a Sustainable Bio-Economy

The Economic shutdown has had two types of impact on our lives - negative & positive. the negative impacts meant loss of jobs, reduction in income, loss of business and in a few cases, complete closure of certain business models. On the other hand, the positive effects are rather long lasting and long awaited such as drastically reduced pollution levels, significantly improved air & water quality, saving of fuels, shift of focus from unhealthy foods to healthy ones, less wastage and an overall contained life. Ofcourse, the pandemic has proved to be a great tribulation to various sectors of society especially the policemen, doctors, administrators, migrant laborers and gig workers, but what we got in return was nothing less than phenomenal - a worldwide detox.

What we need to do now is to take these change of events in our stride and start a new way of life. We need to let go off the previous state of toxicity and adopt a new one - one where emphasis is placed on necessity over extravagance. Now that we have been given an opportunity to amend our ways, one of the key areas for a rethink would be the dependence on fossil fuels. We already know that fossil fuels greatly contributes to environmental pollution and exploitation of nature, yet we continue to do so offsetting health hazards. One should remember that Covid-19 has been known to exacerbate existing respiratory and other health conditions often caused due to toxic air. In fact, according to a research, the death toll in China could have been more had their pollution levels been regular which are way beyond acceptable levels.

Promote Bio fuels

According to a report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s (IISD’s) Global Subsidies Initiative and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (Ceew), 56% of India’s energy comes from coal, 36% comes from oil & gas, while a mere 3% comes from renewable energy. The study urges the Union government to use the pandemic as an excuse to calibrate wasteful subsidies and target investment towards renewable fuel schemes to balance our fuel consumption and give an impetus to the ethanol industry. By concentrating more on enhancing and promoting the ethanol production process in India, we will achieve our target of 20% blending in the next 10 years. Not only will using ethanol reduce the cost of procurement and our reliance on imported crude oil, but will also reduce carbon emissions, carbon footprint, create more rural jobs, make good use of sugar mills, and make us self sustainable in the long run.

Turn Waste into Wealth

On the bio-energy front, we can use solid waste that is bio-composted, vermin-composted or anaerobically digested, based on bio-recycling methods. The Bio-energy plant would provide a cost-effective means of generating organic manure and megawatts of bioenergy, respectively. Successfully running biogas programs across our villages and nearly 100MW worth of biomethanation plant across cities such as Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad are proof of their success for Indian conditions. A mandatory drive for household-level waste segregation across urban India would thus be an essential first step.

Just like an occasional fast helps our bodies purge out toxins and regenerate, the This economical detox brought down by COVID-19 will have scrubbed our environment clean and handed us the opportunity for a restart.

Zero Liquid Discharge System and Its Importance

Zero Liquid Discharge or ZLD is one of the industrial water treatment systems where all the contaminants are converted into solid waste while separating the water. This process helps to decrease the waste quantity & recover fresh water which can be reutilized. Although ZLD is a noble approach, it is not at all an easy process and requires a high investment of money & machinery. Extraction of water from waste means dealing with a higher concentration of salinity, scaling compounds, and organics, which means increased cost.  But there are various benefits of ZLD which makes it an optimum choice for an industrial facility.

Several methods of waste management are classified as zero liquid discharge, despite using different boundaries to define the point where the discharge occurs. Usually, a facility or site property line that houses the industrial process is considered the border or ‘boundary condition’ where wastewater must be treated, recycled, and converted to solids for disposal to achieve zero liquid discharge.

Certain facilities which send their liquid waste for off-site treatment, deep well disposal or incineration, consider this to be akin to zero liquid discharge. While this approach actually avoids discharge of liquids into surface water or sewers, it can significantly increase the cost.

Some designs describe themselves as near zero liquid discharge or minimal liquid discharge systems which do not completely eliminate complete waste but may be more economical than ZLD.

An optimum ZLD treatment system should be able to:

● manage fluctuations in waste contamination and flow

● support required chemical volumes adjustments

● recover about 95% of the liquid

● treat and retrieve valuable byproducts from your waste

● produce a dry, solid cake for disposal

What makes ZLD important

Undeniably, freshwater is a scarce yet important resource in the industrial processes. Reusing the water becomes highly beneficial and economical too. Not to mention additional benefits like less damage to the environment.  On a broader scale, heavy contamination of rivers and water bodies have forced the government to make regulatory reforms in wastewater treatment. The severe consequences of water pollution have led to the rise in consideration of methods like zero liquid discharge system to tackle the issue on a large scale. For example, The Gainesville Renewable Bioenergy plant which is expected to power 70,000 homes in Gainesville, required setup of a complete zero liquid discharge system before granting the permit. One more notable perk of considering zero liquid discharge is the scope to recover the lost resources from wastewater.

The Future of BioFuel in India

Since the time we have heard the word ‘fuel’, we have always been taught to think of it as a highly valuable resource, forever on the verge of extinction. Hence our brains have been auto-wired to use fuel conscientiously. Be it in a vehicle, in a cooking stove, for automobile, or simply for burning things, a fuel contains all the fire we ever need. Certainly then, man has always been striving to devise various ways to develop alternate fuel in the lab, fearing the day when we run out of fossils!

BioFuel is one such advancement in the field of fuel production. They are regarded as cleaner and greener alternatives to fossil fuels. They can be produced in a Bioenergy plant. Whether BioFuel will be able to fully replace the non-renewable fuel sources effectively, is a matter of time. Technically speaking, Biofuel is a universal term used for fuels derived from biomass, such as plants and organic wastes. They are mainly classified as first generation & second generation biofuels.

The first generation biofuels include sugar and starch-based ethanol, oil-crop based biodiesel, vegetable oil, as well as biogas derived through anaerobic & aerobic treatment plants. The second generation biofuels are an upgrade to the production of first-generation biofuels. In that, the raw materials are derived from the feedstock of lignocellulosic, non-food materials that include straw, bagasse, forest residues and purpose-grown energy crops on marginal lands. There are also third and fourth generations which are still undergoing heavy research. These technologies look fairly far fetched to become a practical and commercially viable reality as they insist on using algal biomass and solar energy to produce fuel.

Current Challenges

As of 2014, India’s biofuel production accounted for less than 2% of global production. Bio-ethanol and bio-diesel are the two biofuels that are commercially produced. In India, ethanol is predominantly produced from sugarcane molasses which is a byproduct of sugar production. The Ethanol production process in India, therefore, depends largely on the production of sugarcane. Sugarcane being a seasonal crop in India, the production is cyclical. Hence, ethanol production also keeps fluctuating from one year to another, often falling short of demand. This also affects the cost of ethanol.

 Regulatory Measures to tackle challenges

In spite of the production hurdles, biodiesel can provide a major boost for the energy security of our country. The govt. of India has come up with the National Policy on Biofuels 2018, which includes harnessing of biodiesel to meet the energy needs of the country. The purpose of this policy is to enable availability of biofuels in the market to increase its blending percentage. Currently, the ethanol blending percentage in petrol is around 2.0% and biodiesel blending percentage in diesel is less than 0.1%. The government has approved 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel in diesel is proposed by 2030. Additionally, on World Biofuel Day, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched RUCO – Repurpose Used Cooking Oil, an ecosystem that will enable the collection and conversion of used cooking oil to biodiesel.

The Policy aims to increase bioethanol production and usage of biofuels during the coming decade. The biodiesel can work as an effective and great alternative for a growing country like India. It is indeed the future if we want to move towards becoming a clean and green nation.

DDGS: A Nutritious Yet Inexpensive Addition to Poultry Feed

The rising cost and declining supply of conventional grains have made way for researching newer methods of poultry food production which are cheaper but have better nutritional value. As such, Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles  (DDGS) is a significant alternative.  DDGS is a co-product of Bioenergy plant which uses grains for bioethanol production. The ethanol production requires yeast fermentation as one of the processes. In this process, the corn is ground and mixed with water. It is then cooked to generate liquified starch. This starch is fermented to produce ethanol and CO2. The non-fermentable components of this process which are rich in essential nutrients such as protein, fat, fiber, vitamins and minerals are recovered in a highly concentrated form as Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles or more commonly, DDGS.

Benefits of DDGS

As demand for animal stock increases, it becomes important to employ all possible and feasible options for DDGS production. Corn by-products which are considered waste in the ethanol industry can be used as one of the animal feed ingredients. There are many benefits of DDGS as explained below

l High Nutritional Value:

The DDGS obtained from different sources such as corn, rice, wheat, sorghum is highly nutritious for livestock and poultry, out of which corn DDGS is the most preferred for poultry. Corn DDGS has high nutritional consisting of protein, amino acids, phosphorus, and other nutrients.  Poultry fed with DDGS has a better feed intake, feed conversion ratio, body weight, and body weight gain. DDGS also improves the nutrient content of meat and egg by adding omega-3 fatty acids to it, which are good for heart patients. Also, since DDGS contains phosphorous, the consumption of phosphorous increases, in turn, decreasing the need to dump it into the earth, thus reducing pollution.

l Easy availability: 

Since ethanol is now produced on a large scale, the availability of DDGS is abundant throughout the cycle. Since it is a waste, it is cheaply and readily available. Besides, it is an effective replacement of soya and corn in the poultry diet as the price of soya is very high and often fluctuates. Plus, corn is available throughout the year.

l A healthier diet for chickens:

The use of high-quality corn DDGS in layer hens diets is an excellent partial replacement for corn, soybean meal and inorganic phosphate and encourages excellent layer performance and egg quality. When added to the diet of laying hens, it accounts for 30% of the egg protein content eliminating the need for synthetic supplements.  The high xanthophylls content in DDGS improves egg quality including the color of the egg yolk and regulates the oleic and linoleic acid content. For broilers, it provides them with better performance when added to their diet. Reportedly, the weight of broilers was increased by up to 5% after consuming small but regular quantities of DDGS.

A Few Constraints:

Ethanol byproducts are high in sulphate which risks toxicity when fed large amounts of DDGS. Also, the high concentration of sulfate may result in central nervous system disorders. However, chemical treatments can be performed to detoxify. Also, the DDGS procured from distilleries may contain copper. However, Copper is not an issue in the industrial ethanol production. The only challenge now is to prevent industrial contamination for safe usage of DDGS in poultry.