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Biogas Magazine | Edition 12 | 40
A succinct roster towards furthering prospects of CBG in India
B
iogas as a fuel had a topsy-turvy journey. It has struggled long to get its due recognition in the renewable energy mix. A plethora of initiatives have already been laid out from different Ministries but, the sector is far-off from exploiting the immense potential, the country has on offer. At least, the on-field results portray that way. Recently in a meeting called upon by NITI Aayog through Video Conferencing on 24th Sept 2020, IBA represented the industry and addressed the stimulus requirement through rationalization of several existant policies from different Ministries. The called upon meeting saw participation of several Ministries and its bodies (like MNRE, MoPNG, PESO, and IREDA) and several industry stakeholders. Hereby is a gist of the suggestions and recommendations provided to NITI Aayog on interventions sought from the Govt. to further the prospects of Compressed Biogas (CBG) projects in India. 1. Launching ‘Biogas-Fertilizer Mission’. 2. Launching ‘Biogas-Urja-Khad Abhiyan’. 3. Launching ‘Bio-urja-khad Parks’ Scheme on the pattern of ‘Solar Parks Scheme’, taken up on 12.12.2014 for the years 2014-15 to 2018-19’ and CFA be provided for the development of ‘Bio-urja-khad Parks’. 4. Reverse bidding process be adopted for getting competitive and sustainable price for Bio-CNG/ CBG, as adopted in Solar Mission, with the condition that Bio-CNG/ CBG projects would be ‘zero discharge’ projects, following BIS standards for Bio-methane, FCO for ‘Fermented Organic Manure’, pollution prevention rules, and other relevant regulatory requirements. 5. Provisions of the ‘Bio-urja-khad Parks’ Scheme to be such that all the bulk waste generators/ captive waste producers, like, sugar mills, agro-food processing industries, poultry farms, gaushalas, fruit & vegetable mandies, local/ municipal bodies, STPs and energy parks/ complexes/ centres/ community biogas complexes/ urjagrams ,set up over a period of time in different MNRE schemes are recognized, supported and transformed to become ‘Bio-urja-khad Parks’. Thus shall to avoid unnecessarily occupying additional land and setting up Bio-CNG/ CBG plants nearer to the biomass waste generation areas in a highly decentralized manner, thereby reducing carbon-foot-print in transporting biomass waste to long distances for centralized large plants and transporting fermented organic manure and Bio-CNG/ CBG back to the villages/ utilization locations and making the whole project cost ineffective and unsustainable in the long run.
6. ‘Bio-urja-khad Parks’ to be nucleated with Bio-CNG/ CBG plants and supplemented with production of liquid fuels, namely bio-diesel using oil seeds & burnt oil, bio-ethanol using 2G technologies, processing woody materials and biomass solid fuels in the form of pellets/ briquettes. 7. This will establish the most sustainable concept of ‘Hybridization’ of a set of suitable bio-energy and other renewable energy technologies, generally nucleated around bio-energy (including bio-methanation) technologies, for a location is to be the ‘mantra’ for sustainable energy supply for sustainable and environment friendly development. This way the Solar Parks and Wind Farms will also become hybrid energy/ urja and khad producing centres. 8. Instead of competing for each other, strengths of one technology is to be used for overcoming weaknesses of the other renewable energy technology. Like Bio-CNG/ CBG, bio-ethanol, bio-diesel and biomass pellets/ briquettes to work as storage foe supplying energy when Sun does not shine and wind does not blow, instead of going for costly and environmentally dangerous battery and other storage systems of energy. 9. Introducing policy for formulation and implementation to actuate: ‘Biomass Waste Mining Area Allotment/ Auction Concept’ to ensure availability of Biomass feed-stock for BioCNG/ Bio-fuel plants and establishing highly decentralized ‘Biomass Waste Resource Banks (BWRBs)’. 10. Providing Generation Based Incentive GBI @ Rs. 20/- per Kg instead of capital subsidy over and above Rs. 46/- declared by OMCs and increased with inflation. It is arrived at largely for cattle dung based Bio-CNG/ CBG plants and the cost estimated by IBA is Rs. 73.76 per kg. 11. Fixing different prices for Bio-CNG/ CBG price, produced from different biomass wastes, namely, bulk waste generators like sugar mills, agro-food processing industries, municipalities, poultry etc. and that for agro-residue (collected from fields in different seasons and stored). It is required to internalize the cost of biomass wastes, as raw materials for energy fertilizer production, similar to coal plants. It has already been done in the case of bio-ethanol, wherein different rates have been fixed for C-heavy molasses, B-heavy molasses and sugar juice. 12. On the basis of calorific value of the ethanol fuel and its current price, Bio-CNG will have to be genuinely priced at Rs 119.3/kg (post-tax) i.e. 2.47 times higher than its present price of Rs 46/- per Kg under SATAT to be at par with fixed ex-mill
