Assessment of Hydrogen Generation Potential from Biomass and its Application for Power Generation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A Review

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands located southeast of Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean comprises of several small islands separated by sea over large distances which makes it impractical for electrifying all the islands by a single grid. A population of 380,581 (Census, 2011) living in these group of islands get their electricity demand catered through Diesel Generator Sets from 34 power houses with an aggregate capacity of 67.8 MW. Unavailability of any form of conventional fossil fuel reserves in the islands makes the diesel supplied in barges from southeastern coast of India as a sole lifeline for its power generation. Hence there is an urgent need for the development of a self sustainable model from non conventional energy resources to not only cater for the power demands but also to reduce the GHG emissions related with diesel powered generator sets. This paper discusses a self sustainable model for Andaman and Nicobar Islands that would cater the electrical demand through hydrogen produced from waste biomass resource which has a potential of replacing 86.65% of the diesel utilized in the diesel generator sets. The reduction in both the GHG emission and the cost of power generation would be evaluated to understand the impact of the self sustainable model on the environment and the livelihood of the local population of Andaman and Nicobar Islands