Reassessing the availability of crop residue as a bioenergy resource in India: A field-survey based study

Taveen S Kapoor; Chimurkar Navinya; Gupta Anurag; Pradnya Lokhande; Shubham Rathi; Anubha Goel; Renuka Sharma; Rahul Arya; Tuhin K Mandal; K P Jithin; Shiva Nagendra; Mohd Imran; Jyoti Kumari; Akila Muthalagu; Asif Qureshi; Tanveer Ahmad Najar; Arshid Jehangir; Diksha Haswani; Ramya Sunder Raman; Shahadev Rabha; Binoy Saikia; Yang Lian; G Pandithurai; Pooja Chaudhary; Baerbel Sinha; Abisheg Dhandapani; Jawed Iqbal; Sauryadeep Mukherjee; Abhijit Chatterjee; Chandra Venkataraman; Harish C Phuleria

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118055

Reassessing the availability of crop residue as a bioenergy resource in India: A field-survey based study

J Environ Manage. 2023 Sep 1:341:118055. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118055. Epub 2023 May 2.

Authors

Taveen S Kapoor¹, Chimurkar Navinya¹, Gupta Anurag², Pradnya Lokhande¹, Shubham Rathi³, Anubha Goel⁴, Renuka Sharma¹, Rahul Arya⁵, Tuhin K Mandal⁶, K P Jithin⁷, Shiva Nagendra⁷, Mohd Imran⁸, Jyoti Kumari⁸, Akila Muthalagu⁹, Asif Qureshi¹⁰, Tanveer Ahmad Najar¹¹, Arshid Jehangir¹¹, Diksha Haswani¹², Ramya Sunder Raman¹², Shahadev Rabha¹³, Binoy Saikia¹³, Yang Lian¹⁴, G Pandithurai¹⁴, Pooja Chaudhary¹⁵, Baerbel Sinha¹⁵, Abisheg Dhandapani¹⁶, Jawed Iqbal¹⁶, Sauryadeep Mukherjee¹⁷, Abhijit Chatterjee¹⁸, Chandra Venkataraman¹⁹, Harish C Phuleria²⁰

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India.
² Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India; Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India.
³ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India.
⁴ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India; Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, 208016, India.
⁵ Environmental Sciences and Biomedical Metrology Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, 110012, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India.
⁶ Environmental Sciences and Biomedical Metrology Division, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, 110012, India.
⁷ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India.
⁸ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, 110 016, India.
⁹ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, 502284, India.
¹⁰ Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, 502284, India; Department of Climate Change, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, 502284, India.
¹¹ Department of Environmental Science, School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, 190006, India.
¹² Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal, Bhopal, 462066, India.
¹³ Coal & Energy Division, CSIR North-East Institute of Science & Technology, Jorhat, 785006, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India.
¹⁴ Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, 411008, India.
¹⁵ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Mohali, 140306, India.
¹⁶ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, 835215, India.
¹⁷ National Facility on Astroparticle Physics and Space Science, Bose Institute, 16, A.J.C. Bose Road, Darjeeling, 734101, India.
¹⁸ National Facility on Astroparticle Physics and Space Science, Bose Institute, 16, A.J.C. Bose Road, Darjeeling, 734101, India; Environmental Science Section, Bose Institute, Kolkata, 700054, India.
¹⁹ Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India; Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India.
²⁰ Interdisciplinary Program in Climate Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India; Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India. Electronic address: phuleria@iitb.ac.in.

PMID: 37141725
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118055

Abstract

Second-generation bioenergy, a carbon neutral or negative renewable resource, is crucial to achieving India's net-zero emission targets. Crop residues are being targeted as a bioenergy resource as they are otherwise burned on-field, leading to significant pollutant emissions. But estimating their bioenergy potential is problematic because of broad assumptions about their surplus fractions. Here, we use comprehensive surveys and multivariate regression models to estimate the bioenergy potential of surplus crop residues in India. These are with high sub-national and crop disaggregation that can facilitate the development of efficient supply chain mechanisms for its widespread usage. The estimated potential for 2019 of 1313 PJ can increase the present bioenergy installed capacity by 82% but is likely insufficient alone to meet India's bioenergy targets. The shortage of crop residue for bioenergy, combined with the sustainability concerns raised by previous studies, imply a need to reassess the strategy for the use of this resource.

Keywords: Bioenergy potential; Crop residue; Multivariate regression; Prescribed fires; Survey.

MeSH terms

Agriculture*
Carbon
Environmental Pollutants*
India

Substances

Environmental Pollutants
Carbon