SAMARTH (Sustainable Agrarian Mission on use of Agro Residue in Thermal Power Plants)
Part of: Prelims and GS-III Agriculture
Context: Recently, the Union Power Secretary chaired the second meeting of Steering Committee for SAMARTH i.e. Sustainable Agrarian Mission on Use of Biomass in coal-based thermal Power Plants.
About SAMARTH
It was created to address the issue of air pollution from stubble burning in farms and reduce the carbon footprint generated by thermal power plants which work on coal.
It is a government initiative to use agro-residue, which was earlier regarded as waste.
It is also regarded as National Mission on Use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants
Its objectives are:
To increase the levels of co-firing (combustion of two different types of materials at the same time).
To have a larger share of “carbon neutral power generation from the thermal power plants.
Take up research and development work in designing boilers to handle a greater amount of silica and alkalis in biomass pellets.
Work towards improving constraints in supply of such pellets and agro-residue to power plants.
Considering regulatory issues in biomass co-firing.
