Target reset

Near certainty of missing its goal to set up 5,000 bio-CNG plants by 2023-24 has not stopped the government from announcing 200 more units in the budget

- RAHUL JAIN, RAVLEEN KAUR

COMPRESSED BIOGAS, al-so called bio-compressed natural gas or bio-cng, is just the fuel India needs. With a calorific value similar to that of cng, it can replace the fossil fuel for which India largely depends on imports. Bio-cng also holds a win-win solution to the country's air pollution problem.

Bio-cng is nothing but an advanced version of biogas produced from animal manure and food waste and has been traditionally promoted across rural areas. Bio-cng involves the commercial refining of biogas to increase its methane content to above 90 per cent (see 'How bio-cng is made', p40). Since the plants require these biomass materials in large volumes, they use municipal solid waste and agricultural waste such as paddy stubble the burning of which is a significant cause of air pollution in north India during the winters. Moreover, the residue or digestate obtained at the end of bio-cng production can be used as biofertilizer.

So, when Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her recent budget speech, announced the setting up of 200 bio-cng plants in the country, it garnered a lot of attention. The proposed bio-cng plants, 75 of which will be in urban areas, are part of the gobardhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme under the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.