Yearly, an estimated 7.47 million tonnes of pine needles fall throughout the Indian Himalayan area, creating a fireplace hazard that local weather change is making deadlier. A brand new research exhibits these needles might as a substitute grow to be gas, changing 4.7 million tonnes of coal and producing electrical energy to energy the area. Pine needle biochar could be co-fired with coal in energy vegetation throughout Himalayan states — to generate 6.4 terawatt-hours of electrical energy and lower carbon emissions by 5.8 million tonnes yearly, whereas lowering forest fires, in response to the research.

The findings are from a analysis paper printed within the journal Bioresource Know-how Experiences in March 2025 by researchers on the Indian Institute of Know-how (IIT) Delhi. The research addresses a severe concern throughout the area. Uttarakhand alone recorded over 11,000 forest fireplace incidents from November 2023 to June 2024.

The scientists discovered that pine needle biochar produced at 600°C with 10°C per minute heating price exhibits good potential for coal alternative, due to its excessive carbon content material. The findings of this research might be used to create new jobs and resolve frequent forest fires whereas drastically lowering the share of coal in energy vegetation, in keeping with India’s net-zero targets by 2070.

“The novel facet of the analysis is linking biochar manufacturing to energy vegetation and quantifying carbon advantages,” mentioned Priyanka Kaushal, professor on the Centre for Rural Growth and Know-how at IIT Delhi. She defined the twin advantages of utilizing pine needle biochar — “One is changing the soiled fossil coal with a inexperienced gas made on the energy plant web site itself. Second, had it not been moved to this energy plant, it most likely would have decomposed or precipitated forest fires,” she instructed Mongabay India.

This analysis might be related to Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Northeast India, which face recurring forest fires brought on by fallen pine needles. Local weather change is making these fires extra frequent, destroying forests and wildlife and inflicting air air pollution.

This analysis matches into the bigger world transfer in direction of exploring pine wooden and needles as biofuel. Since 2013, scientists in Spain, Tunisia, Poland and South Korea have studied pine biochar. Nevertheless, analysis within the subject continues to be rising and India seems to be main the way in which, after Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh introduced investing in power manufacturing from pine needles.

The way it works

The researchers first studied small samples of fallen pine needles collected from Uttarakhand to grasp their thermal behaviour after which used these findings to arrange the biochar manufacturing course of. The crew used laboratory methods together with thermogravimetric evaluation and kinetic modelling to foretell how pine needle biochar would carry out at a bigger scale. These methods confirmed them what temperature and heating price would work finest after which they utilized these learnings within the subsequent step known as pyrolysis which entails heating pine needles with out oxygen to provide biochar.

Think about a fuel range the place one adjusts the knob to manage the temperature when cooking meals. The researchers used a particular heating chamber or pyrolysis reactor to “cook dinner” floor pine needles at particular temperatures and heating charges. However they eliminated all oxygen from the chamber and pumped in nitrogen, creating an oxygen-free surroundings that stops the needles from burning into ash and as a substitute permits them to char right into a helpful stable known as biochar, which might now be used as gas together with coal at energy vegetation.

The crew calculated the carbon emission advantages and manufacturing price together with the payback interval for biochar making items. They discovered that after virtually 4 years of working a pine biochar unit, one can get well all of the setup prices and begin making income.

The challenges of scaling up

The research doesn’t tackle the logistics of pine needle assortment, scaling up manufacturing, the issue of dealing with pine oil (which is a byproduct of the method), and establishing a sturdy provide chain, mentioned Kaushal. “If I set up a plant, will I be getting pine needles all year long? If I get them seasonally, the place do I retailer them?” she mentioned. She defined that the research’s payback interval calculations targeted primarily on operational prices however didn’t totally account for the bills of amassing and storing pine needles for eight to 9 months, which might impression whether or not entrepreneurs can be prepared to spend money on such ventures.

Manish Kumar, principal scientist at CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Supplies Know-how, Bhubaneswar, mentioned in an electronic mail interview that the research’s energy lies in “pilot scale experimentation and customary analytical methodology” however cautioned that “techno-commercial replication in energy vegetation is all the time a problem like another lab-based research”.

Earlier makes an attempt to make use of pine needles have not achieved success. In 2021, Uttarakhand launched a scheme to generate electrical energy from pine needles however has achieved merely 1 MW from six pilot items, far wanting the deliberate 150 MW capability from 60 items, with officers citing pricey assortment, lack of transport and acceptable expertise as key obstacles.

Kumar really useful establishing pine biochar-based mini energy vegetation or conducting trials by co-mixing the biochar with coal in thermal energy vegetation. “Biomass-based renewable power is the necessity of the hour and pyrolysis can help it,” he mentioned. Based on Kaushal, future analysis ought to tackle the right way to deal with the pine oil byproduct, establishing a provide chain and introducing a coverage to incentivise biochar manufacturing.

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Banner picture: Himalayan pine. Consultant picture by Wendy Cutler through Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).