IBA pitches for increasing share of compressed biogas
Says it will help reduce the country's annual import bill by $20-25 bn by 2030
New Delhi: The Indian Biogas Association (IBA) has pitched for increasing the share of compressed biogas in total gas mix, saying it will help reduce the country's annual import bill by $20-25 billion by 2030.
In a letter to Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently, IBA suggested that in the process of attaining a gas-based economy by 2030, the oil ministry has to keep a strict vigil on the overall sustainability. The industry body suggested gradually increasing the share of compressed biogas (CBG) in the overall gas mix to at least 10 per cent by 2025 and to 20 per cent in 2030.
Furthermore, the CBG-CGD (city gas distribution) synchronization plan, which was launched in April 2021 and is due for review three years later (in 2024), should be extended for at least ten years to provide long-term certainty to players in the CBG ecosystem, it suggested. Increasing the share of CBG will ensure guaranteed offtake and a transparent ecosystem for CBG producers.
It will also help fast-track setting up of CBG plants under the SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) scheme, as biogas plant owners will see the value proposition for their investments, it pointed out. For instance, it stated that the ethanol blending programme in petrol has gone up from 1.5 per cent in 2014 to 10 per cent now. By 2030, the annual import bill reductions of the government shall be $20-25 billion, and GHG reductions shall be 150 million tonne, roughly 10 per cent reduction at 2005 GHG emissions level.
