India is currently facing a shortage of LPG cylinders. However, the main canteen at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is running without any problems. The institute has found a very smart and green solution to beat the fuel crisis. They are cooking food using fallen dry leaves gathered directly from their own campus.
This is possible because of a special, patented technology known as biomass gasification. This eco-friendly initiative is grabbing a lot of attention right now. Many people and organizations are interested in learning how simple leaves can easily replace traditional cooking gas.
A Vision for Commercial Use
Professor Sanjay Mahajani is the leading force behind this project. He works in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay. He is also the professor in charge of the institute’s Green Energy and Sustainability Hub. He recently gave a detailed tour of this impressive cooking facility.
Professor Mahajani believes this technology is not just meant for a college campus. He sees a high potential for it to be used commercially in the outside world. Because the pilot project is so successful, his team is receiving many phone calls and emails. Educational institutions from all over the country are reaching out to ask how they can set up a similar system.
How the Idea Started
IIT Bombay is known for having a very large and beautiful campus. It is filled with heavy green cover and thousands of trees. Because of this, huge amounts of dry leaves and twigs fall to the ground every single day.
Back in the year 2014, the institute wanted to find a better way to manage this daily green waste. So, they started this project as a basic waste management plan. Over the years, the project has grown massively. It has now transformed into a complete, full-fledged sustainability initiative that solves a real-world energy problem.
The Process: Turning Leaves into Fuel
How exactly do dry leaves turn into cooking fuel? Professor Mahajani explained the simple step-by-step process. First, workers collect the fallen dry leaves and small twigs from around the large campus. Next, they process this dry waste and press it tightly to create small, solid shapes called pellets. The research team has even experimented with adding unusable plastic materials into the mix to make these fuel pellets.
Once the pellets are completely ready, they go into a large cylindrical machine placed just outside the canteen. This machine is the actual gasifier.
Professor Mahajani pointed out a very important detail. If you simply set fire to a pile of dry leaves, it will create a massive amount of thick, dark smoke. The gasifier solves this exact problem. Inside this large metal setup, the pellets are heated to extremely high temperatures in a controlled way.
Generating Steam for the Kitchen
Because of the intense heat inside the gasifier, the biomass does not just burn up into smoke. Instead, a specific part of the heated biomass gets converted directly into gas. This gas then travels safely into a separate compartment of the machine.
In this second compartment, the system uses the gas to boil water and generate heavy steam. Finally, this hot steam travels through connected pipes right into the canteen’s kitchen. The kitchen staff uses this high-pressure steam to cook the daily meals. To make this work smoothly, the engineering team had to modify a section of the kitchen’s regular gas stoves so they could connect directly to the steam system.
The Team Behind the Technology
This successful project is the result of great teamwork and smart engineering. Professor Mahajani designed and officially patented the main gasifier setup.
Dr. Sujeet Deore also played a massive role in making the system work. He is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at IIT Bombay and the Co-founder of Infixen Energy Pvt Ltd. Dr. Deore created and patented a special premix burner that is used inside the gasifier.
Other key team members include Prabodh Gadkari, who is also a Co-founder of Infixen Energy Pvt Ltd. Professor Sandeep Kumar, a Faculty Advisor from the Energy Science and Engineering Department, also contributed his deep technical knowledge to the project.
Focus on Safety and Daily Testing
Bringing a completely new cooking technology to a large community is a serious task. Professor Mahajani noted that the team had to be extremely careful before making it permanent. The main idea was to run this gasifier continuously for almost one full year as a test.
During this trial year, the team conducted strict and regular safety audits. They checked to see if the machine was easy and convenient to operate on a daily basis. Most importantly, they monitored the kitchen staff to ensure the cooks were happy and comfortable using steam instead of regular LPG gas. After a year of hard work, Professor Mahajani proudly stated that they have successfully achieved all of these goals.
Big Plans for Campus Hostels
Now, the IIT Bombay team has very big plans for the near future. The campus is home to around 13,000 students. It also has a large staff, numbering about half the student population. To feed all these people every day, the institute currently requires an average of 200 regular LPG cylinders daily. The team wants to drastically reduce this number.
With the pilot project now declared a complete success, the team is full of confidence. The dean of the institute has officially given them permission to expand the project. Their next immediate step is to install a new gasifier in one of the campus hostels. This new machine will be at least three to four times bigger than the current one sitting outside the canteen.
The plan is to run this new, larger hostel gasifier for a few months to ensure it works perfectly. Once that test is clear, the institute plans to install six more of these large gasifiers across various other hostels on the campus. Professor Mahajani smiled and added that if they can manage to collect even more waste from the campus, they will be very happy to use it all.
Conclusion
The IIT Bombay biomass gasifier is a brilliant example of using local, everyday waste to solve large energy problems. By turning fallen campus leaves into clean cooking steam, the institute is bypassing the current LPG crisis and saving money. This project cleans up the campus, reduces heavy reliance on fossil fuels, and provides a safe cooking environment. As the institute prepares to expand this amazing technology to its large student hostels, it stands as a strong and practical model for other schools, hospitals, and large communities across the country.
