Characterization of Some Plants of Dhading District, Central Nepal to Harness the Bioenergy

Abstract

Exploration of potential bioenergy sources, mainly fuelwood and oil yielding species, in six Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Dhading district: Aaginchowk, Baseri, Budhathum, Mulpaani, Phulkharka and Salyantaar, revealed 220 species of potential bioenergy plants, out of which 140 species are trees, 44 shrubs, 11 climbers and 25 herbs. The list is based on formal and informal meetings, reconnaissance survey, focus group discussion, key informant interviews, audio visual records, field survey, herbarium analyses and photographs. Usually, the oil yielding plant resources are cultivated in every household (HH). Fuel wood species (99.16 % HH) is the most widely used source of energy followed by electricity, kerosene, solar, liquidfied petroleum gas (LPG) and bio gas. For the laboratory analysis, 10 species each from the general list of 54 fuelwood species and 37 oil yielding plants species widely used/known by 120 (40 in each VDCs namely Budhathum, Mulpaani and Phulkharka) household‟s (HH) respondents are selected on the basis of various potentiality measuring characteristics of plants. The governing characteristics are abundance, burning efficiency, degree of smoking, durability, use value, preference ranking, chorotype, stress tolerance, propagation, agronomical integration, edibility, harvest flexibility and oil content. In general, the proximate (moisture content, volatile matter, ash content and fixed carbon) analysis and the calorific value estimation supported the acuity of local people, accounting lesser amount of moisture and ash content and greater volatile matter and fixed carbon in the selected fuelwood species like Rhododendron arboreum, Lyonia ovalifolia, Shorea robusta and Schima wallichii. Additionally, the evaluation of oil content also supports the local people‟s perception to the greater extent with the depiction of higher percentage of oil content and the presence of neutral oil in the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometry analysis of almost all oils from the selected oil yielding species: Ricinus communis, Diploknema butyracea, Guizotia abyssinica, Brassica nigra, Camellia kissi and Jatropha curcas.