White coal becomes a popular fuel source in Rajasthan - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The production of white coal (Briquettes made of Biomass) using agricultural and forest waste has become popular in Rajasthan, with more then 50 units devoted to produce it with a low level emission of carbon. Around fifty units have been setup during last few years, around Ganganagar, Kota and Jaipur cities that produce white coal. Mukesh, a white coal producer, said the mixture of agricultural wastes like mustard sticks and the sesame seeds oilcake are used as bio-fuel. "Bio-fuel is the residue from the agricultural yield which the farmers get from their agricultural yield. Till now they did not even used to get paid for this. The waste product like mustard sticks which animals don't even eat, and the sesame seeds oilcake, after grinding them together, we sell the mixture as a bio-fuel. This fuel is used in boilers and Brick Kilns," said Mukesh. According to environmentalists, white coal is the future fuel as it has very low-level of carbon emission and has higher calorific value compared to regular fuels. "This is an agriculture residue and there is no Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from it, which is harmful to the environment there fore it does not pollutes the environment," said V.K.Parikh, an environmentalist. Rajasthan has great potential to produce white coal as Kota , Swaimadhopur, Tonk, Ganaganagar and Bharatpur towns have enormous production of mustard, which provides lot of agricultural residues. During last three to four years, an investment of around 200 million rupees has been made in the white coal production from the bio waste.