National Mission on use of biomass in coal based power plants

The Power Ministry is going to set up a National Mission on use of biomass in coal based thermal power plants to address the issue of air pollution due to farm stubble burning and to reduce carbon footprints of thermal power generation.

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The objectives of the National Mission given are increasing the level of co-firing from present five per cent to higher levels to have a larger share of carbon neutral power generation from the thermal power plants and to take up take up R&D activity in boiler design to handle the higher amount of silica, alkalis in the biomass pellets.

Also, the National Mission will facilitate overcoming the constraints in supply chain of biomass pellets and agro- residue and its transport upto to the power plants and will consider regulatory issues in biomass co-firing.

The proposed National Mission on biomass will also contribute to the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

The Mission would have a Steering Committee headed by Secretary (Power) comprising of all stakeholders including representatives from Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG), Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) etc.