India to set up 5, 000 biogas plant to augment domestic gas supply
The Government has announced that it will set up 5,000 biogas plants over the next five years to boost domestic fuel supply to reduce dependence on imported oil and gas and combat pollution.
The plants would use agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste as feedstock to produce compressed biogas (CBG) for use in the transport sector. The state’s oil marketing companies will buy the output and sell it alongside compressed natural gas (CNG) through their pump station to buses, cars and autos. They will pay INR46 per kilogramme of CBG, which is somewhat higher than the fluctuating prices of CNG.
The marketing companies have also offered the CBG producers to take all of their output. Most of the plants would be set up in the private sector, involving an investment of INR1.75 lakh crore, said Dharmendra Pradhan, minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Pradhan told an industry meeting on 15 October that the project was designed to serve twin objectives – utilize crop-stubble, whose burning by farmers in Punjab and Haryana after the harvesting of paddy aggravates smog and pollutes the air of northern India and in the process build an additional domestic source of non-polluting energy. Stbble burning has been found to be creating create a thick haze of toxic smog that envelopes vast swathes of northern India, including New Delhi, during the winter, and forced authorities to resort to emergency measures like declaring school holidays and stopping construction.
As pollution levels climbed to 12 times the recommended limit in 2017, the government introduced some measures like an offer to pay up to 80 percent on the purchase of certain farm equipment which could be used to convert crop stubbles into organic manures to discourage burning the residues. But farmers’ response has been tepid.
A Bhatinda (Punjab)-based company, Neway Private Ltd, has, however, taken advantage of the government scheme and undertaken to set up a biomass plant to convert paddy and wheat stubble into bio-coal and supply it to the state’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The plant bring constructed is designed to process 300 tonnes of stubble a day. It will collect paddy and wheat straw using bailers, rakes, and other machines. Punjab produces 20 million tonnes of paddy straw each year, around 25 per cent of which is used by farmers and rest set on fire.
The bio-coal project is part of India’s ambitious plan to boost domestic production of alternative fuels to cut reliance on oil and gas imports. Currently, the country imports 83 percent of its oil and 56 percent of gas to power its economic growth.
Moody’s Investor Service expects the share of renewable energy in India’s power generation mix to rise to 18 percent and that of fossil fuels to plummet to 50-55 percent by 2022. At present, renewable account for 7.8 percent and fossil fuels 67 percent.
