India to set up 100 biogas plants in Uttar Pradesh

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh will get 100 new compressed biogas (CBG) plants, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, without specifying a timeframe.

Puri launched a CBG plant, which is expected to produce 14 t/d, in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun city on 27 January. The plant was set up with an investment of around 1.33bn rupees ($15.9mn) from Indian state-controlled refiner HPCL.

The government has already approved 37 such plants to be built, Puri said. Uttar Pradesh currently has 11 functional CBG plants.

"This initiative contributes to the government's goal of reducing import dependency by 10pc, with a focus on second-generation (2G) bio refineries and compressed bio-gas plants," the government said.

This is in line with Delhi's plan to introduce mandatory blending of CBG in domestic compressed natural gas and piped natural gas to cut India's reliance on expensive imports of LNG. India's LNG imports rose by 7pc from a year earlier to 29bn m³ in 2023, with India's import dependency at 44pc of its natural gas consumption, preliminary oil ministry data show.

Blending will initially be voluntary at 1pc for automobiles and households from the April 2024-March 2025 fiscal year and become mandatory from 2025-26.

The CBG blending obligation (CBO) will promote production and consumption of CBG in the country, and encourage investment of around Rs375bn and help to establish 750 CBG projects by 2028-29. The CBO is to increase to 3pc during 2026-27 and to 4pc during 2027-28, after which it will rise to 5pc. A central repository body will monitor and implement the blending mandate based on operational guidelines approved by the oil minister.

Delhi has outlined plans to make India a gas-based economy, with the share of natural gas in its primary energy mix targeted to rise to 15pc by 2030 from around 6pc in 2022.

The government last year earmarked Rs100bn of its net zero budget to set up of 200 CBG plants and 300 community and cluster-based biogas plants. India previously set a target to roll out 5,000 CBG production plants to reduce its reliance on energy imports and control pollution. It currently has 75 CBG plants in operation.

By Roshni Devi