Electricity from tapioca leaves : CTCRI scripts success story

Amid growing concerns over the energy crisis, one of the foremost research institutes of the country claimed that it has achieved experimental success by generating electricity from tapioca leaves.

Thiruvananthapuram: Amid growing concerns over the energy crisis, one of the foremost research institutes of the country claimed that it has achieved experimental success by generating electricity from tapioca leaves. The Central Tuber Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram under the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has come up with the new invention that can offer new impetus to India's initiative for clean energy sources.

The efforts of the team led by Dr. C A Jayaprakash, Principal Scientist, CTCRI have borne fruit under the project funded by the Department of Atomic Energy. The experiment was presented before a group of journalists from Himachal Pradesh, who visited CTCRI on Friday under the aegis of Press Information Bureau under the 'Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat' project, an official release said here on Saturday.

"Wastage after the mechanical extraction of insecticidal molecules from tapioca leaves was subjected to Methanogenesis. Subsequently, pure methane was segregated from the gas complex by scrubbing off unwanted gases", it said. As the electricity was generated from cassava (tapioca), the end product has been christened as CASSA DIPAH.

"Approximately 5 tons of leaves and twigs are wasted per hectare of tapioca harvest. This shows the potential of generating electricity from the success of this experiment," it added.

PTI