LAHORE: As the agriculture department estimates 12 million tonnes biomass in the province surplus, the Punjab government has given it the go-ahead to get a pilot project for power generation launched finally.

Before launching the “Biomass Power Generation Project”, the department is currently in process of short-listing international consultants having expertise on conducting feasibility, designing and planning of such projects.

Officials say nine consultancy firms, including three from India, Turkey and China, had shown their expression of interest after the government sought services of such firms through advertisements appeared in the foreign print media some time ago.

“As soon as the process is completed in coming days, work related to the project feasibility, planning and designing etc will start.

And once this work completes within timeframe, the quarters concerned will launch the project finally,” a senior official of the agriculture department told Dawn on Saturday.

Talking about background of the project, the official said the first study on biogas power-generation mode in Punjab had been conducted and compiled in 2011, which revealed that the province generates about 30 million tonnes biomass (waste of crops such as hay of wheat, cotton buds and dead-plants, maize leaves and hay and other crops waste) annually.

“Around 50pc of the total available biomass is consumed as animal feed and the rest goes waste. Later, another study was conducted that showed availability of 22 million tonnes of biomass in the province of which 10 million tonnes is consumed as animal feed and the rest is either of no use or waste,” the official said.

He said the plan and launch of the project was envisaged after the government came to know that various countries were successfully generating power through biomass. “The European Union members are on top in this regard, as they have planned to produce 50pc of power from biomass till 2024.”

Talking about biomass power generating experience by private sector of the country, the official said the first power plant on biomass was installed by a leading business group (Nishat). “It is the first plant having power generation capacity of 16MW.

Since the intensity of heat in biomass is some less than other modes, they are also mixing some quantity of coal while burning the biomass for power generation purpose.

Since the plant is being run successfully, we also desire to do so,” the official said.

Speaking of identification of areas for installing the biomass plants, he said the department had initially visited some sites in Multan, Faisalabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Khanewal and Sheikhupura.

“Since we are planning installation of three of the total 12 plants in phase-1, we see these sites suitable for the project. However, the selection of sites by the consultants will be the final one,” the official said.