On feasibility of biomass power plant with agricultural waste processing

Agricultural waste is fast becoming a crucial fuel source to meet increasing energy demand. Coal fired co-generation of agricultural waste and power generation through bagasse are increasingly popular sources in India's renewable energy target of adding 175GW generation capacity by 2022 as per current policy. The question is whether burning of biomass for power generation is advantageous to agriculture or not. In this paper, adverse impact of biomass extraction on agricultural sector, is studied. Direct combustion technique which is the predominant method for biomass to electricity conversion, is used in this paper for analysis. We also analyze whether maintaining sustainability of soil health by adding chemical fertilizer is economical or not in the Indian perspective.