Page 1 of 5. 07-01-2013. Atma Nirbhar & The self reliance projects. The Biomass
Chulha [oven] utilising Waste Materials. 'Atma Nirbhar – Ek Challenge', ...
Atma Nirbhar & The self reliance projects The Biomass Chulha [oven] utilising Waste Materials
‘Atma Nirbhar – Ek Challenge’, meaning ‘Self Reliance – a Challenge’, is a small NGO for the economic rehabilitation and empowerment of the disabled in Guwahati, Assam, India. At present, 38 disabled persons work in the unit. It is simple and repetative work like packing tea and grocery items, making ornamental potted plants, paper shopping bags etc. The workers get a monthly stipend and are offered a heavily subsidised lunch at `1,00 ( $ 0.02per day ). Besides, wherever applicable, educational sponsorship is given to their children.. For cooking purpose LPG cooking gas cylinders are used. Recently, the Indian government increased the prices of the LPG cooking gas cylinder from `413 to `1,196 per cylinder for the institutional category of consumers. To save cooking expenses on LPG gas, Atma Nirbhar made a prototype of a simple chulha. The fuel for the oven is generated from waste materials like tea and grocey sweepings, torn tea sample packets, dry leaves, twigs etc. Atma Nirbhar has been using the chulha since November, 2012. This is a simple solution to gainfully make use of waste materials. Biomass Chulha: 1.
The biomass chulha is a simple oven made from two discarded tin drums --- a large outer drum, a small inner drum, with clay insulation inbetween the two drums, a steel grate and a chimney.
Figure 1 Biomass "chulha"| oven
2.
One of the the advantages of the chulha is that it is smokeless. The smile on the face of a worker says it all --the first time we lighted the chulha.
Figure 2 Smokeless chulha
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3.
The main innovation in the chulha is the fuel used! It is made of sweepings at the end of a work day ( spillage on the floor while packaging ) of tea ( left ), grocery items (right ), torn tea sample packets ( at the back ,on the right side ), biomass (dry leaves, twigs ) etc. This way, wastage is reduced.
Figure 3 The fuel for the chulha is tea, grocery, paper waste etc. mixed with dry leaves, twigs.
4.
Cake patties are made from mixing tea and grocery (flour, rice, lentils, soya powder) sweepings and torn sample packets with a little bit of water.
Figure 4 Fuel patties are made from mixing tea & grocery (flour, rice, lentils and soya powder)
5.
The fuel patties, leaves and twigs etc are dried in two solar driers for 4 - 7 days.
Figure 5 The fuel patties and leaves and twigs etc
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6.
Food is cooked in a 22 ltr. pressure cooker for about 45 persons. The cake patties are dried in a net basket around the chimney, shortening the drying time to ± 3 hours. To cook a lunch of 3 dishes also requires the same time. The solar driers are presently used only for drying the leaves and twigs.
Figure 6 Food being cooked in a 22 ltr. pressure cooker for about 45 persons. The cake patties are dried in a net basket around the chimney, shortening the drying time immensely.
7.
The biomass chulha is giving good service till now. However, the cooking time is marginally more than in a conventional gas burner and the fire needs frequent tending -- but the food certainly tastes better. The primary aim to make the biomass chulha was to cut expenses on LPG gas, and, put to good use the waste materials generated in the unit. With the installation of the chulha instead of two gas cylinders per month, now only one gas cylinder is required for cooking. The gas burner is used for making tea for 40 persons, twice in a day and whenever anything needs to be cooked quickly. At the present rate, it is a saving of `1,196 per month. Another advantage of using the smokeless chulha is disposing-off the daily garbage generated from packing of tea and grocery items --- the spillage on the floor at the end of the work day. It is no longer a botheration as it is converted into cooking fuel. The waste is being recycled by making good use of it. Sweeping the floors at the end of the work day takes about 15 - 20 minutes and the waste, as mentioed earlier, is used for production of fuel patties. There are several areas to improve the efficiency of the chulha. Ideally, there should be two burners [a primary and a secondary burner], the chimney should be made of clay1 pipe for reasons of safety, and fuel burning space can be increased by decreasing the space of the
1
Use of asbestos is not considered. Asbestos was once common in a variety of building materials and other products and valued as a fireproofing and insulation material until it became clear that it presented a significant health hazard. The diseases it can cause—asbestosis, mesothelioma and others—can take decades to present themselves, so new cases continue to emerge many years after people were exposed. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324907204578185224076122106.html
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residual ash area at the bottom of the chulha. Possibility should be explored to mix saw dust or paddy husk [or other cereal husk] in the cake patties to make them more combustible etc. Some of the improvements will be incorporated in the chulha which will be made of bricks and clay. For this, Atma Nirbhar is already in contact with specialists from Assam Science and Technology Department. The biomass chulha is a lesson in finding simple solutions to changing needs. We thank Mr. Wahid Saleh of the Netherlands for his continuous motivation and input of information to take up this project. The seed money provided by him supported us to design and develop the biomass chulha. 8.
Future Plans/Projects:
8.1
Design and development of a disability-friendly quadri-rickshaw Atma Nirbhar - Ek Challenge engages the services of only disabled persons in its tea and grocery packaging unit. Presently, 38 disabled persons are working here. The target is to increase this number to 100 disabled persons. Many of the disabled persons working at Atma Nirbhar-Ek challenge live within a radius of 1 2 kms our unit. Due to their various disabilities, reaching the work unit itself is a challenge for them. Some of them literally have to drag themselves to reach their workplace. Atma Nirbhar - Ek Challenge would like to facilitate their mobility from their homes to their workplace without incurring any daily expense. It is now working on a design and development of a disability-friendly quadri-rickshaw, a four-wheeler for 2 - 4 persons. For their mobility they will be paired as per their abilities. For example, a mentally challenged person ( low IQ ) will be paired with a speech and hearing impaired person --- both of them can pedal, but the controls will be held by the deaf person. They may be able to carry ( pedal ) 2 or more passengers in the rickshaw. Similarly, a deaf person and a person whose legs were affected by polio can be paired. The person with the polio can pedal with hands. We would like the rickshaw to be very basic and low so that the users feel comfortable and making it easy for them to embark and disembark, more stable due to lower centre of gravity etc. The rickshaw should be small (as small as possible) in size so that there is no parking difficulty in their homes at night. As the innovative product is not locally available, the design has to start from scratch which will need some time to come-up with a suitable model.
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8.2
Renewable energy and green technology Atma Nirbhar - Nirbhar Ek Challenge is passionate about renewable energy and finding solutions to global warming. Unfortunately, there is very little knowledge and information available of renewable energy and green technology in this part of India. In order to create awareness amongst the lay public, construction of a ‘Working Model of Renewable Energy’ in this NGO is a strong desire of this organisation. In an urban setting this prototype will have two parts: -
Modern equipment available for renewable energy (solar powered water heater, cooker, generation of electricity [3 KW], small wind turbine to work a small pump, etc. ) Traditional and simple methods of green technology (rainwater harvesting, shade of trees to protect a building from direct sunlight to keep it cooler etc.).
Atma Nirbhar is in contact with a German consultancy firm to utilize renewable energy by installing reflector type of solar cooker to cook food for 45-50 persons and is waiting for site inspection by the specialists of the supplier/manufacturer. To implement the above projects, it is estimated that a financial support of about US $16,000 will be needed. We seek generous support from socially-conscious individuals and organizations to implement these planned projects.
Kaushik Das. Atma Nirbhar – Ek Challenge, ‘MAMATA’, 120, Gopinath Nagar, Guwahati – 781 016, Assam. INDIA. E Mail : atmanirbhar [at] sify.com Web: www.atmanirbhar.org
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