NVVN (NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam), a wholly-owned subsidiary company of NTPC Ltd on December 1, 2020 launched the Green Charcoal Hackathon.
- To fast-track the technology development, NVVN, in partnership with EESL organises technology challenge aptly named as Green Charcoal Hackathon.
- Objective: The purpose of the event is to leverage the innovative Indian mind to bridge the technology gap, with the prime objective to clean the air by eliminating farm fire, producing renewable energy out of the agro residue, to promote local entrepreneurship, and to increase the income of the farmers.
- NVVN is looking for technologies to convert the agricultural waste to a form that can be used in the power plants in form of the Green Charcoal Hackathon. One such option is torrefaction which converts the agro residue to green charcoal.
- Torrefied fuel: The technology to produce torrefied fuel using agro residue biomass is not easily accessible to small entrepreneurs due to the higher cost of imported machines, lack of sufficient manufacturers. The technology to produce torrefied fuel using agro residue biomass once developed in India will be made accessible to small entrepreneurs.
- Prizes: To encourage the participants, there was a provision for cash prizes worth up to INR 24 Lakhs* in three Categories, namely:
a) Category – I, Technology for Production of 100 kg per day of Torrefied Biomass Pellets
b) Category – II, Technology for Production of 1000 kg per day of Torrefied Biomass Pellets
c) Category – III, Technology for Production of 10 Tonnes per day of Torrefied Biomass Pellets
