Renewable Energy Centre

MITHRADHAM - Chunangamveli, Aluva

Kerala, India

Energy from Biomass

The Renewable Energy Centre Mithradham is an education and training centre dedicated to the promotion of Renewable Energy, especially solar energy in India. The centre functions with only renewable energy sources and is the first one of its kind in India. The Centre has also a solar drying unit consisting of a tunnel dryer developed in Hohenheim University, Germany, which can be used for large scale drying and a mini dryer for ordinary drying.

Biomass is an important energy source for developing countries like India. The centre is promoting the use of biomass and has its own generator which run with bio-diesel.

The centre is associated with the Sacred Heart College, Thevara, and the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences , Kalamassery, and offers various training programmes in renewable energy technologies.

Extension Station for Farm Machinery and Farm structure, University of Hohenheim.

The agriculture University of Hohenheim which was founded in the year 1816 is a world renowned institution for agriculture engineering. In 1982, a tropical institute was started in the University for cooperation with developing tropical countries. The tropical centre is now working hand in hand with institutions in 81 countries.

Since several years in the face of increasing ecological damage and of limited mineral oil resources cold-pressed vegetable oils are used in the field of technology. There are 680 million cars and trucks today, many more are to come. Motor vehicles could add 2 gigatonnes of carbon to the atmosphere each year within 20 years, accelerating air pollution and global warming. The modernization of the biomass energy sector, which started with the energy crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, is now starting to mature.

Biomass has moved from being merely a proposed energy to being an advanced and modern one. Demonstrations of short-rotation wood crops as fiber and enery sources are reaching large scales. Technology demonstrators for both electricity and liquid fuels production are also widespread. Major biomass and bioenergy and value-added-materials implementation programs are underway or about to start in many areas of the world.

Renewable Energy Centre Mithradham offers a four day training programme in Biomass. Engineer Karl Maurer of the University of Hohenheim who is the father of Raps Oil production as bio-diesel for use in vehicles in Germany is guiding the training programme. A certificate by Engineer Karl Maurer will be issued at the end of the training programme. The following are the areas of the training programme

• Introduction and overview
• The potential of biomass in India
• Biogas: Preparation, production, cost evaluation, use in motors and vehicles
• Plant oil:preparation, production, plant oil motors, resetting old motors to bio-diesel motors
• Alcohol for vehicles ?
• Oil press and bio-diesel motors