New Delhi, April 29: A technique of making fuel from pine leaves (Pirul) has been developed by the scientists of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. They have built a special kind of portable machine for this with the help of which, a soap-shaped cake will be prepared. This cake can be used for preparing food in hotels and homes. This fuel will be completely eco-friendly.
Dry leaves causing forest fires
Nearly sixteen per cent of the forests in Uttarakhand are covered with pine trees. A total of 23 lakh 66 thousand metric tons of leaves are generated every year. This is also a major reason for forest fires in the summer season. Due to pine leaves that are quite flammable, the presence of any other vegetation is quite impossible.
IIT Roorkee working in collaboration with MHRD
Last year, IIT Roorkee commenced the Design Innovation Center at the cost of Rs. ten crores in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). With the aim to solve the problems of the Himalayan region, the IIT is studying scientific studies to stop the fire caused by pine leaves.
In the beginning, Almora and Nainital were selected in the state under the pilot project, Project’s Principal Investigator and Managing Studies Prof. Vinay Sharma and Prof. Rajat Agarwal shared. As many as two hundred villagers are getting training for this. Retired officers of the Forest Department, named as Master Trainers, are also helping for this purpose.
“In the initial phase, these portable machines will be installed in these two districts. The feature of this machine is that it is hundred percent manual. It does not need electricity and water to run it. By pressing the machine will be able to run. To make one fuel cake, 250 grams of pine leaves will be required. A cake burns for 15 minutes. This cake can be used in place of coal or wood. There is no use of any kind of chemicals in making this cake. Therefore, it will not even produce harmful gas like carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, etc.,” Prof. Vinay Sharma has been quoted as saying to a national daily.
Moreover, Prof. Agarwal shared that a portable machine will cost nearly ten thousand rupees.
