Focus Areas

Biogas

We believe that it is our responsibility to develop renewable energy solutions to reduce anthropogenic effect on environment.

How is Biogas produced?

Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occurring process through which organic matter such as manure, kitchen waste, feed spills, waste produced while making jaggery, meat processing waste, sericulture waste and crop residues are stabilised by microorganisms strictly in the absence of air. Biogas is produced from an anaerobic digestion of biodegradable organic matter or biomass. This technology has enormous potential for meeting the demand of fuel for millions of households in India. Biogas consists of 60-70% methane (CH₄) and 40 to 30% carbon dioxide (CO₂), it may also have small traces of hydrogen sulphide (H₂)S, moisture and siloxanes.

Biogas as a renewable energy source

Biogas now is developing into a significant alternative energy source. India is having the highest cattle population In the world. There is a massive potential in India to set up millions of biogas digesters and it could replace the use of some petroleum products and chemical fertilizers as well. Moreover, it will free women from the ordeal of walking to far off places for collecting fire wood while also relieving them from the hazards of toxic smoke which burning wood generates. This will also lessen the burden on the rapidly depleting forests as more and more rural households switch to biogas for cooking. Biogas also has the potential to generate electricity, when properly treated, thus helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well.

With the proper application of anaerobic digestion (AD) and biogas technologies, developing economies can stand to benefit not only from low-cost carbon energy and bio-fertilizers but also through the reduction of harmful methane emissions from food and farming wastes thus protecting the environment. Additionally, it leads to improvements in waste management and sanitation, reduction in poverty and hunger owing to employment opportunities being created while also instilling the comfort of food security. It improves the health of women and children by avoiding Indoor Air Pollution.

How SKGs Helps?

We take delight in the fact that we are one of the oldest and most experienced organizations in the field of power generation from renewable energies in India.
With the sole purpose of providing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, we have pooled our resources, expertise and capital to facilitate the installation of more than 160,000 biogas plants and counting, across eight states in India and around the globe.
Additionally, through the development of biogas plants in rural areas, we also work towards skill development and employment generation thus providing a platform for growth at the rural level as well as the expansion of biogas energy across the country.
Our plants are indigenously designed to meet the toughest and extreme weather conditions and every single plant helps save about nine tons/year of carbon dioxide(CO₂) by replacing, firewood, fossil fuel-based energy sources and chemical fertilizers with biogas. By substituting firewood with biogas as a domestic fuel, we have also helped arrest deforestation.

Additionally, We have assisted several projects abroad:

To protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems; we have created a biogas programme in Egypt in conjunction with the Government of Egypt and UNDP.
To take urgent action and to combat climate change and its detrimental impacts, we have taken up biogas projects in the African countries like Mali, Madagascar, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana etc.
To reduce the impact on water bodies and to ensure proper treatment and recycling of organic wastes, reduction in odours and check the spread of diseases, we have undertaken pilot projects to treat the human faecal matter in Madagascar; and kitchen waste and human faecal matter in Ghana.
With an attempt to capture emissions from landfills, we have set up MSW treatment processes in Africa for solid waste processing and recycling.
We have presence in Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile and Pere; and had developed capacity, to implement our sustainable energy, agriculture and waste management solutions.

Vermicompost

Vermicompost is a nutrient rich organic fertilizer excreted by the earthworms after eating the compost material. These castings are mixed with other chemicals like iron to enrich the compost. It is essentially a technology which entails composting various forms of biodegradable wastes with the help of earthworms. Considered as bio-gold by farmers, this compost is perfectly balanced and extremely rich in plant nutrients. Vermicomposting technology is helpful in proper treatment and disposal of bio-wastes. Here are few of the various benefits of vermicomposting.

Vermicomposting helps better plant growth and crop yield while also improving the physical structure of soil by greatly enriching the soil with micro-organisms.
It helps attract deep-burrowing earthworms already present in the soil which indirectly enhances soil fertility. Moreover, soil fertility can be restored by replacing chemical fertilisers with vermicompost.
Vermicompost helps soil aeration, increases the water-holding capacity of soil and enriches the soil with plant hormones such as auxins and gibberellic acid.
It promotes germination, plant growth, and crop yield while improving root growth of plants.

In addition to the aforementioned reasons, vermicomposting is also ecologically responsible as it massively helps reduce waste in landfills and sewage treatment plants. Garbage disposal is the most serious environmental problem that is being faced by the mega cities all over the world. Vermiculture biotechnology helps convert waste into a useful product at an exceedingly low cost, thus offering the eco-friendliest solution to our problem. More over, adopting vermiculture has become paramount for farmers to maintain sustainable agricultural practices and also to ensure their economic prosperity.

Our Initiatives and Achievements

Our experts in the field of vermiculture are conducting a successful study on “Vermicompost impact on soils and on crops” in 20 plots in Mandya District to demonstrate the usefulness of vermicompost to the world in general and farmers in particular.
To reduce the impact of air pollution and the burden on solid waste management in villages, we have installed several thousands of domestic vermicomposting units across the country.
Thanks for the initial partial financial support provided by CAPART, a Government of India organization with which we kicked off our vermicompost initiatives and now we are grateful and glad to announce that we are scaling up the initiative with VER revenues.

Eco Cook Stoves

At SKG Sangha, we strive hard to make a positive impact in rural India through our various social initiatives. After years of dedicated research and organized efforts, we have tried to transform the way cook stoves are used in rural areas by introducing Eco Cook stoves, also popularly known as wood saving or improved cook stoves.

These stoves not only create less cooking smoke but also have the added advantages of using less fuel, lower emissions of soot and most importantly, saving women and children from making tedious and long journeys to fetch firewood. Moreover, they have no moving parts and manufactured at cheap costs thus helping save a lot of time and money as well.

Our well designed and highly efficient cook stoves are the perfect replacement for the traditional and highly inefficient mud and stone stoves. These improved stoves have a life span of over seven years. The basic construct of this stove comprises of two pans with a vent pipe to assist with the removal of smoke safely and securely through the rooftops of the house thus negating the need for extensive cleanups as well.

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of our teams across the country, we have successfully managed to install 300,000 units of this ingenious stove nationwide.

Rainwater Harvesting

Rainwater harvesting refers to the collection and storage of rainwater and is a viable solution for areas where good quality fresh surface water is scarce or ground water is lacking. There is a myriad of benefits rainwater harvesting confers upon us. Some of them are:

Provides an apt solution to water problems in areas having inadequate water resources
To arrest groundwater decline and augment groundwater table
Rise in the water levels of open and bore wells that are drying up
Reduction in the soil erosion
To conserve surface water runoff during monsoon

We have taken up Rainwater harvesting initiatives in three southern states in India with the sole aim to promote and inculcate a culture of water conservation. Additionally, we have also managed to successfully install and implement 2184 rainwater harvesting systems for drinking and percolation purposes.

Solar Power

Solar energy is becoming widely popular in India as it has the potential to solve many energy-related challenges the country is facing right now. Solar energy is a renewable source of energy which basically means that we will never run out of it unlike other environmentally harmful power sources such as oil and coal. Here are a few benefits of switching to solar power:

Solar energy is not only clean, natural and a sustainable source of energy but is also versatile and provides a wide range of benefits to people in general and the environment in particular.
Solar power is also eco-friendly since it doesn't emit toxic gases into the environment.
Solar energy has come to the forefront today as it can be used to power up solar heating appliances, cooking devices, lighting, or to power up devices used in your lawn or backyards.
Helps prevent the loss of habitats owing to excessive pilfering of natural resources.
The running costs are less and the initial investment is regained leading to subsequent savings in energy costs.
You will also save the planet from dying out by simply switching to solar energy.

SKG Sangha has recognized and acknowledged the need to switch from non-renewable sources to solar energy sources and have helped engineer the following devices to combat the growing energy needs across the country:

1. Solar Cookers

Our range of Parabolic solar cookers are capable of maintaining higher temperatures around 70-110 degrees centigrade compared to standard panel type cookers thus allowing for greater efficiencies of scale. They are not only easy to install but also last longer than conventional cookers thus helping save money in the long run.

2. Solar Photo Voltaic

Solar cells also called as photo voltaic cells help convert sunlight directly into electricity and are among the fastest growing segments of the renewable energy industry. Owing to rising concerns towards carbon emissions and increasing fossil fuel prices, this technology has become exceedingly popular and used to power up home lighting, street lighting, water lifting and for several other industrial purposes today. These ingenious systems are expected to quickly become cost effective for use in several industries.

3. Solar Hot Water Systems