UP leads in setting up biogas plants
THE PLANTS ARE BEING SET UP AS PART OF THE EFFORTS TO REDUCE INDIA’S DEPENDENCE ON IMPORTED FUEL AND TO CHECK POLLUTION
nNEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh leads states in setting up plants to produce compressed bio gas (CBG) from biomass, followed by Maharashtra and Haryana, according to the petroleum ministry.
The plants are being set up as part of the efforts to reduce India’s dependence on imported fuel and to check pollution from crop residue burning that exacerbates air quality crisis in the National Capital Region (NCR) every winter, officials said.
Out of 515 letters of intent (LOI) issued so far to prospective entrepreneurs for setting up CBG plants across the country, 126 projects are located in Uttar Pradesh (UP), 75 in Maharashtra, 59 in Haryana, 35 in Andhra Pradesh, 24 in Punjab and seven in Delhi, the official data said.
Gujarat has got the go-ahead for setting up 32 plants, Karnataka 25, Madhya Pradesh 24, Assam two, Bihar 11, Odisha nine, Chhattisgarh 22, Rajasthan five, Goa two, Tamil Nadu 16, Telangana nine, Jammu & Kashmir two, Uttarakhand nine, Jharkhand seven and West Bengal (13).
The estimated cost for the 515 plants is about ~18,000 crore.
A petroleum ministry spokesperson said under the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation scheme, 5,000 plants are expected to be set up by 2023. The plants have the potential of producing 15 million metric tonne CBG and to proportionately reduce India’s dependence on energy imports, the spokesperson added.
Bio-mass sources such as agricultural residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, and sewage treatment plant waste produce biogas through the process of anaerobic decomposition. The biogas is purified to remove hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and water vapour to produce and compress CBG, which has more than 90% methane content, the (spokesperson?) said.
“CBG has calorific value and other properties similar to compressed natural gas (CNG). Hence, it can be utilised as a green renewable automotive fuel. It can replace CNG in automotive, industrial, and commercial areas.” He said the move will also check pollution due to stubble burning. “Bio-mass surplus in India is about 150 million tonnes. From late September through October of each year, farmers mainly from Punjab and Haryana burn an estimated 35 million tonnes of crop waste as a low-cost straw-disposal practice. CBG plants can curb this practice by giving additional income options to the farmers,” he said.
The smoke from stubble burning to make way for winter crop sowing combines with vehicular and industrial pollution and triggers air quality crisis in New Delhi and surrounding areas.
India imports nearly 83% of crude oil its processes. About 50% of its natural gas requirement is also imported. The government has set a target to reduce this import dependence by 10% over the next two years.
Commercial sale of CBG from seven Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) outlets have started for the first time an alternative to natural gas. Two of these outlets are in Maharashtra (Pune and Kohlapur) while five others are in Tamil Nadu (two in Salem and one each in Namakkal, Rasipuram, and Puduchatram), the spokesperson said.
Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated one such plant at Namakkal last month. Speaking on the occasion, he said the government has been promoting biofuels including CBG to increase the green-energy mix, reduce import dependence, create employment, especially in semi-urban and rural areas, and reduce pollution. “Usage of CBG shall assist in achieving climate change goals of India as per the Paris Agreement 2015,” he said. He added the CBG project is aligned with flagship schemes like Swachh Bharat (clean India)’, Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and Make in India.
According to the oil ministry, 5,000 CBG plants are expected to produce 50 million metric tonnes of bio-manure.