Rising critical emission of air pollutants from renewable biomass based cogeneration from the sugar industry in India

In the recent past, the emerging India economy is highly dependent on conventional as well as renewable energy to deal with energy security. Keeping the potential of biomass and its plentiful availability, the Indian government has been encouraging various industrial sectors to generate their own energy from it. The Indian sugar industry has adopted and made impressive growth in bagasse (a renewable biomass, i.e. left after sugercane is crushed) based cogeneration power to fulfil their energy need, as well as to export a big chunk of energy to grid power. Like fossil fuel, bagasse combustion also generates various critical pollutants. This article provides the first ever estimation, current status and overview of magnitude of air pollutant emissions from rapidly growing bagasse based cogeneration technology in Indian sugar mills. The estimated emission from the world's second largest sugar industry in India for particulate matter, NOX, SO2, CO and CO2 is estimated to be 444 +/- 225 Gg yr(-1), 188 +/- 95 Gg yr(-1), 43 +/- 22 Gg yr(-1), 463 +/- 240 Gg yr(-1) and 47.4 +/- 9 Tg yr(-1), respectively in 2014. The studies also analyze and identify potential hot spot regions across the country and explore the possible further potential growth for this sector. This first ever estimation not only improves the existing national emission inventory, but is also useful in chemical transport modeling studies, as well as for policy makers.