A Gasifying lantana, an invasive weed, has positive spin-offs

Recently, Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation (CSEI) launched Gasification, a lantana-focused initiative.

About Lantana camara:

Lantana camara was first introduced in 1807, had spread to wildlife reserves, river banks and the Project Tiger areas where it had obliterated native grass and reduced biodiversity.
Lantana (Lantana camara) has become one of the world’s most invasive weeds.
It competes with native plants for space and resources, and also alters the nutrient cycle in the soil.
This invasion has resulted in the scarcity of native forage plants for wild herbivores.
Lantana occupies 154,000 sq.km forests (more than 40% by area) in India’s tiger range.
Among forests, Shivalik Hills in the North, fragmented deciduous forests of Central India, and Southern western Ghats are worst hit by its invasion.

Invasive Species:

An invasive species is an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area and causes harm.
They are capable of causing extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats.
They can be introduced to an area by ship ballast water, accidental release, and most often, by humans.

The lantana gasification trial:

CSEI-ATREE teamed up with BioTherm to explore the possibility of using lantana as the fuel in a gasifier.
The sun-dried lantana wood chips were placed in a gasifier of 50 kg per hour capacity for eight hours.
This process generated 1.2 million Kcal (kilocalories) of energy, and produced a blue flame indicating that the gas produced was clean and devoid of any particulate matter or tar.
The eight-hour trial also produced 30 kg of biochar from the 400 kg of lantana gasified.