Energy is the key factor in economic development and as we approach the dream year of 2020, when India will be a developed nation, our requirement of energy will increase rapidly. It is expected that approximately 669 million tones of Coal, 234 million tones of Crude oil and 223 million tones of firewood and 67 Billion cubic meters of Gas will be required at that time to meet the domestic demand.

It is unlikely that we can meet this requirement of firewood or coal if we have to stop the already deteriorating ecology. Denudation of forests and green cover has resulted in precarious imbalance, threatening the very root of our existence.

Developments in recent years have demonstrated our dependence on fossil fuel with their uncertainties of prices, availability, transportation and other difficulties. Reserves of fossil fuels are also limited, which has resulted in the universal recognition of the need to tap energy from non-conventional sources.

Among the non-conventional forms of energy, agricultural/industrial waste and municipal solid waste offers vast potential under Indian conditions, due to the wide spectrum of residues available in different Agro-climatic regions of the country. It is estimated that presently around 500 millions tones of agricultural and forest residues are generated annually and about 50 million tones of industrial waste consisting of Press mud, food & fruit processing waste, willow dust DGDS, spent wash and others.

Earlier most of these were dumped as waste or burnt to reduce fire hazards or used inefficiently. Handling and transportation of these materials is difficult due to their low bulk density and irregular sizes. These wastes are being converted after processing into high density fuel pellets/briquettes and be efficiently used to replace firewood, coal, liquid fuel and gas.