Paddy Straw Pellet Units 

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Union Environment Ministry announced a ₹50 crore scheme to incentivise industrialists and entrepreneurs to set up paddy straw pelletisation and torrefaction plants.

Stubble Burning

• Stubble burning refers to the practice of farmers setting fire to plant debris that remain in farms after harvest.
• Stubble burning is practised predominantly by farmers in north India.
• It is to be noted that, before the 1980s, farmers used to till the remaining debris back into the soil after harvesting the crops manually.
• Paddy stubble burning is practised mainly in the Indo-Gangetic plains of Punjab, Haryana, and UP.
• The problem is that about 75% or 20 million tonne is from non-basmati rice, which cannot be fed to cattle as fodder because of its high silica content.

About the scheme

• Paddy straw made into pellets or torrefied can be mixed along with coal in thermal power plants. 
• This saves coal as well as reduces carbon emissions that would otherwise have been emitted were the straw burnt in the fields, as is the regular practice of most farmers in Punjab and Haryana.
• New units set up would be eligible for government funding in the form of capital to set up such plants. 
• The estimated cost of setting up a regular pelletisation plant, which can process a tonne per hour, is ₹35 lakh. 
• Under the scheme, the Centre will fund such plants to a maximum of ₹70 lakh subject to capacity.
• Similarly, the cost of establishing a torrefaction plant is ₹70 lakh and under the scheme, is eligible for a maximum funding of ₹1.4 crore.
• Torrefaction is costlier but can deliver a product whose energy content is much higher and theoretically substitute for more coal in a power plant.
• This would be a “one-time only” scheme and regular pellet plants would be eligible for ₹40 crore of the overall pie.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is a statutory organization, constituted in 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. 
• It is the apex organization in the country in the field of pollution control as a technical wing of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFC).
• It is also entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution Act 1981)
• It also serves as a field formation and also provides technical services to the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
• The functions of CPCB includes promote cleanliness of streams and wells in different States by prevention, control and abatement of water pollution and to improve the quality of air and to prevent, control or abate air pollution in the country.