Electric rickshaws, e-rickshaws, are becoming commonplace in India, according to researchers writing in the International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise. However, battery power means electricity supply and that is a problem in terms of a lack of sustainable energy sources. Ravinder Kumar and Ravindra Jilte of the School of Mechanical Engineering, at Lovely Professional University, in Phagwara, Punjab, India, and Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, at Shahrood University of Technology, in Shahrood, Iran, outline efforts that might take us down the road to a green city.
The team has investigated the potential of biogas in the face of massive urban population growth in India’s cities. They point out that there will be massive and growing demands on electricity supply as the number of people living in India’s cities approaches the total population of the USA today. They add that the Smart Cities Mission launched in 2015 aims to undertake urban renewal and retrofitting with a welcome emphasis on integrated planning and the provision of urban services, including power, water, waste, and mass transportation. However, as with any infrastructure project there remain many obstacles to be surmounted.
Transportation is one of the most prominent of those obstacles, which is why the emergence of the e-rickshaw might represent an intriguing alternative to conventional modes of transport, especially if there is potential to make the supply of power to such “vehicles” sustainable and non-polluting. The team describes the results of their feasibility study on generating electricity for e-rickshaw recharging using biogas in their paper.
Kumar, R., Jilte, R. and Ahmadi, M.H. (2018) ‘Electricity alternative for e-rickshaws: an approach towards green city’, Int. J. Intelligent Enterprise, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp.333-344.