Biogas Magazine Edition 07

Indian Biogas Association

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said around 5,000 Compressed Bio Gas plants will be set across the country by 2023 Source: Business Today

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BIOGAS Magazine Edition 07 | 2019

SATAT Special Sponsored by

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Index

IBA News “Biogas App” launch by BFI

05

GBA & IBA set to continue their partnership

07

SATAT Corner Management strategies of supply chain actors in Biogas field

09

Realising India’s true potential in Biogas/CBG

13

Biogas [Anaerobic Digestion - AD]

16

Biogas from spaghetti - SEPURAN Green for efficient biogas upgrading

21

Digestate from Biogas plant

25

Establishment of an ‘Integrate Compressed Biogas Grid (CBG/ BioCNG) and Piped Natural Gas Grid (PNG) Network

29

’

Market introduction

in India

34

Opinion Corner

Published by

Is Biogas/Bio-CNG about to go mainstream in India?

36

SATAT connecting the last dot in the value chain to push the Compressed BioGas (CBG) market

40

Financed by

Coordinated by

In-Cooperation with

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Foreword Dear Readers, Wish you all a happy festive season We are excited to bring to you our seventh edition of the quarterly Biogas Magazine, which has evolved over its earlier editions befitting the diversified interest of our avid readers. Gone by year was a phenomenal one for biogas as many schemes were revamped thus providing promise for accelerated industry growth in years to come. We witnessed the launch of remarkable schemes from Govt. of India like SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation), GOBAR-Dhan scheme, New National Biogas and Organic Manure Program (NNBOMP), revised Waste to Energy subsidy policy, and the modified Biogas based power generation (offgrid) and Thermal Application program (BPGTP).

At IBA, we are proud to announce an extension of the strategic alliance, a partnership between Indian Biogas Association and German Biogas Association, into the second phase from December 2018 onwards for a period of another three years. During the first phase of the partnership program ( 2016-18), floury of services were initiated, a few crucial ones being setting-up of online helpline, organization of annual training tours across cities of India, several workshops on different topics, foreign delegation trips, renovation of our website, setting up of the biogas lab (to be fully functional in 2019), launch of quarterly magazine editions, monthly newsletter, and the list just goes on. The extended run of the partnership is indeed a turnaround moment for the association and the biogas industry, for this shall propel IBA to continue with its focused and persistent effort towards

fostering the development of the biogas industry in India.

One of the exciting aspects that IBA has been working upon is towards market development of bio-slurry through the introduction of Buyer-Seller feature in the biogas app, the mobile application of IBA which is supported

by Burhani Foundation (India). IBA has been conducting demonstration run of this feature in Varanasi since November last year.

The envisaged features in the biogas app is expected to promote the entrepreneurship model in waste management and is in sync with the objectives of the aforementioned scheme SATAT, an initiative by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas (MoPNG) featuring the Oil Marketing Companies (OMC). More information on this innovative “biogas app� feature is covered inside.

We would like to extend our gratitude to all our members for their indispensable contribution in form of rivetted participation in the activities and services offered by the Association. It would also be worthwhile to mention that in our persistent en-

deavour to propagate the vibes of biogas, the essential contribution was made by some of our crucial partners like Burhani Foundation (India), Skill Council of Green Jobs, Indo German Chamber of Commerce, and Indian Institute of Technology-BHU and Kotak Mahindra.

As always, we are keen to present to you interesting opinions, case studies, innovative models, experience sharing by field experts, good practices, happenings across the globe, related to the biogas industry. Hope, you enjoy the diverse collection of contributions from our numerous stakeholders. We try our level best to keep our readers enticed to the green sector in the most exciting manner.

Happy digesting!

Gaurav Kedia Chairman Indian Biogas Association

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“Biogas app“ launch – by Burhani Foundation, India

O

n February 18, 2019, a Workshop was conducted to launch the Biogas App envisaged by Burhani Foundation (India), which is organized by Indian Biogas Association and supported

by IIT-BHU and MCIIE. The Venue for the workshop was Gopal Tripathi Auditorium and saw the convergence of many eminent speakers from waste to energy sector along with the diversified more than 200 participants including presence of women from Hope, entrepreneurs, farmers, and academicians.

The event started with the welcome speech of Prof. P. K. Mishra, coordinator-MCIIE, IIT-BHU, which emphasized on the importance of saving planet by adopting specific steps. Mr. Hatim Bhanpurawala talked about the environmental goals of Burhani Foundation, India and how they are taking concrete steps to shape it. Shaikh Abdeali bhai Bhanpurawala, Trustee-BFI talked about the importance of sustainability, which BFI is adopting under the guidance of His Holiness Dr. Syedna Saheb. Syed Athar Dehlvi (President – Anjumane Minhaje Rasool) emphasized that the whole country must act together towards cleanliness drive too.

Burhani Foundation (India) and Indian Biogas Association (IBA) have together

developed a mobile application “The Biogas App”, which is purported to increase the awareness about biogas and its immense benefits on offer, esp. from waste to energy and waste to fertilizer perspective.

It was launched by Shaikh Abdeali bhai Bhanpurawala (Trustee-Burhani Foundation, India) and Prof. P. K. Jain (Hon. Director, IIT BHU). Furthermore, the evolved version of app is offering features like the Buyer-Seller platform, a dream of Hon. PM Shri Narendra Modi, for organic fertilizer. A section on “Circular Economy”, which will facilitate tracking the organic waste from its source of origin throughout its lifecycle was also discussed. The features in the biogas app is going to promote the entrepreneurship model in the field, and is also in sync with the objectives of the recently launched program by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas (MoPNG), SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) scheme, GOBAR Dhan and so on.

The buyer-seller feature in the app shall facilitate the sell and purchase of compost, organic fertilizer, bio-slurry along with other organic items with the help of e-commerce. Demonstration run/alpha testing of buyer-seller platform has been done in at Varanasi and now ready

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for the same in other part of the country. It has succeeded to rope in many enthusiasts from the organic fertilizer community and the demo run was successful in creating awareness in local buyer and sellers and to make them familiar to the platform.

The workshop provided opportunity for open discussion and collecting feedback.

Overall the session was highly inventive and informative for all the participants. It is a strong step towards Swachh Bharat Abhiyan too.

The workshop at IIT-BHU saw presentation on biogas application learning from the demo run of its buyer seller platform and a panel discussions from Mr. Gaurav Kedia, Chairman – Indian Biogas Association. The panel discussion covered the topic on -“Circular Economy - A paradigm shift towards sustainability”. Dr. A. R. Shukla (Ex-advisor, MNRE), Prof. S. N. Upadhyay (Ex-director IIT-BHU), Mr. Frinto (Deshpande Foundation), and Deepak Gadhia (Trustee Muni Seva Ashram) were few among the eminent panellist.

About Burhani Foundation (India) Burhani Foundation (India), is a registered trust, established in 1992 to commemorate the 80th birthday of His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin Saheb (RA) to promote environmental awareness and research. Functioning now, with the raza and dua mubarak of His Holiness Dr. Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin Saheb (TUS), the spiritual head of the international Dawoodi Bohra Community, BFI endeavours to address the environmental problems in India and around the world.

Abhijeet Mukherjee Author Indian Biogas Association

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German Biogas Association & Indian Biogas Association set to continue their partnership

I

n early December 2015, the Chamber and Partnership Association (KVP) Partnership project between the German Biogas Association (FvB) and the Indian Biogas Association (IBA) began. The partnership project, which is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and managed by Sequa gGmbH, was initially limited to three years and finished on November 30, 2018. The aim of this partnership is to promote the use of biogas in India and support the development of IBA, which was founded in 2012.

Due to the progressive results during the first project phase, BMZ has now approved an extension of the project.

“We are pleased to be able to continue for another three years in good and trustful cooperation with the Indian Biogas Association,” says the FvB Managing Director, Dr. Claudius da Costa Gomez. On December 1, 2018, the second phase of the project started.

Especially with regard to the treatment of waste in India, there is still a vast and untapped potential for biogas to which the India is giving more and more attention. Thus, various pro-

grams have been launched in recent years with which the Indian waste problem is to be targeted by utilizing biogas technology.

This includes the GOBAR Dhan Scheme (2018), with which around 700 biogas plants are to be constructed within in the next two years in the rural areas of India. In addition, an announcement recently published by the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas invited the biogas industry to hand in Expressions of Interest under the SATAT scheme. Within the next five years, about 5000 biogas plants are to be built and put into operation in India.

As already in the first phase of the project, the declared objective of the partnership is to improve the ecosystem for the use of biogas in India and build up a membership-based organizational structure. As an industry association, IBA is to represent the interests of its members in construction and operation of biogas plants, actively communicate the sector’s needs and targets towards the Indian government and relevant stakeholders and bring biogas into general public notice.

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“In the first three years, we have come a long way - both for IBA and for the use of biogas in India, but also for our member companies,” says da Costa Gomez pleased. For German biogas companies, which are already active in India, the continuation of the association partnership as well as the new developments provide interesting sales opportunities. This is especially true due to the fact that with the support of FvB, IBA as a competent partner in India is able to assist interested biogas companies.

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Gaurav Kedia, Chairman of IBA, adds: “We are very pleased to continue our collaboration with the German Biogas Association for another three years. Currently, biogas is again shifted into the focus of politics and society. Therefore, we hope that the upward trend continues. The activities of the past three years have already shown positive effects. “

Author

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 9 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Management Strategies of Supply Chain Actors in Biogas Field

T

he biogas supply chain covers the incorporation of sources with intermediate stations and destinations. The sources that are normally considered are agricultural, industrial, households, hotel and restaurant industries and the wastewater treatment as well. From all these areas large quantities of organic raw materials result and this must be supplied to an optimal utilization. Depending on the condition of the biomass and distance to production centers direct transportation or transportation through intermediate stations have to be considered. In the intermediate stations the individual raw materials from the different sources are conducted to larger transportation units to be mobilized to production stations (biogas facility). In addition, it is meaningful

to submit the collected organic raw materials in the intermediate stations for a short pre-treatment. This short pre-treatment could involve weight reduction and/or volume reduction, drainage of the damp bio-waste, so the transport to the biogas facilities can be arranged more efficiently. The biogas is then used as fuel for gas engines or directly for the energy and heat production or as Bio-CNG after upgradation and compression.

Sourcing, procurement and pricing of raw material is very important for any biogas plant to succeed. It is always advisable to involve the raw material supplier in a proper manner in the business model itself. E.g., in 2008 a supply chain model named “GobarBank� was developed, where the vil-

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lagers used to supply the cattle dung to the biogas plant and in return they were getting the Biogas and Biofertilizer. The balance was settled monthly in cash. The whole model was based on SYMBIOSIS, which in other word meant if the villagers would increase the price of raw material then they would need to pay higher price for Biogas and Biofertlizer.

in the above flow is generalized but in many cases similar process chain may occur e.g., in case of restaurant and household items. Many times the hygienization becomes important e.g., in case of slaughter house waste. There can also be the importance of highlighting different pretreatment methods.

Figure 1

Organic source

Collecting

Trans-shipment

Transport

The supply chain model is always a function of local scenario. Therefore, Identifying barriers and enablers is one of the critical step for a successful biogas plant.

A typical process chain may look like (figure 1) Please note that the actual steps may vary depending on the type of substrates and places of availability and utilization of such feedstock. The optimization potentials for the collective utilization of waste must be studied beforehand. In addition to different process chain scenarios are to be considered methodically from end to end for different substrates and in the observation of results regarding their cost efficiency they should then be compared with another. The linkages

Extraneous material disposal

Homogenization

Sanitation

Biogas production

It is important that we should consider that raw material quantities can deviate within the stipulated range. The logistic components (collection, transport or storage) and the plant specific components (drainage, cutting, sorting, hygienization and sterilization plants) are important to be observed. It is possible to calculate the entire supply chain between the collecting points and the processing plants by using the several existing model. The direct route between sources and processing plants can also be considered. The CO2 emission which is caused by transport collecting process should also be considered with the entire covered distance.

Prof. P. K. Mishra H.O.D., Department of Chemical Engineering & Technology IIT-BHU, Varanasi

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50 + Installations in India FOV Biogas offers technical fabric based digesters for conversion of organic waste such as food waste, cow manure, human waste among other organic waste in to biogas. Biogas generated can be used for power generation, upgraded to bio methane/BioCNG and for various other thermal applications.

Potential Customers • Dairy farms • Hotels , restaurants and establishments with food waste • Gaushalas/cow shelters • Industrial organic waste • Biogas based micro grids

Micro grid project using cow manure

Food waste based biogas plants

Salient features of FOV digesters • • • •

Quick Installation in 1 to 2 days Modular design and Portability Cost effective Dedicated Service and support offered • No usage of concrete or Mild Steel for digester tank

FOV biogas India Pvt Ltd. (Chennai | Bengaluru| New Delhi) Email: joseph@nordcleantech.com Ph: +91- 9940159968 www.fovbiogas.in

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 13 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Realising India’s True Potential in Biogas/CBG

T

oday, India is in a unique situation regarding the development of its biogas industry, which has the possibility to be the biggest, most advanced and efficient in the world.

There are a number of factors contributing to this. Current CNG fuel consumption in India is 40 million tonnes per year and expected to grow to 60 million tonnes per year by 2025. 18% of this is used as a transport fuel and currently, 50% of all natural gas used in the country is imported. The Indian government has the ambition to reduce natural gas imports to zero.

To this end the government announced in October 2018 plans to have 5000 BioCNG plants in the country by 2025.

The feedstock such as poultry manure from a geographic concentration of laying and large broiler farms, pressed mud or spent wash at sugar mills present the low hanging fruit to be targeted for the first projects. Chicken manure at large poultry farms causes huge environmental issues in some states such as Haryana, which has 100, 000,000 laying hens in concentrated areas.

Other feedstocks require collection and baling such as rice paddy straw, which is presently burned on the fields, creating a huge environmental problem. The state of Punjab, with which Rika has an MoU, has about 20 million tonnes per year of straw and an ambition to deliver 400 biogas plants in the state to help reduce the amount of straw that is burnt in the fields and the huge air pollution issues it causes. Rika is progressing the first project in Punjab and have engaged with consultancy Arka BRENStech Pvt. Ltd. to assist in applying for a permit.

Central to Rika’s ambitions to develop CBG plants in India is the DVO AD technology and the Bio-extruder technology

by Lehmann-UMT GmbH, for which Rika hold the exclusive licenses in India. These technologies will give solutions to digesting problematic feedstocks such as straw and poultry manure. Crucially, these technologies allow Rika to offer CBG plants with zero liquid discharge, which is a very important factor in India where fresh water is a precious commodity and the discharge of liquid digestate is regulated.

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DVO is America’s largest designer of anaerobic digesters (AD), with more than 120 installations in 18 states and throughout the world. DVO digesters process the waste of more than 250,000 dairy cows, as well as from swine, poultry farms, and multiple other organic wastes producing more than 78 MWh of electricity.

Rika holds the exclusive license for the distribution and sale of technology, called the Bioextruder, in India, which allows for the mono or co-digestion of straw and other lignocellulosic materials. The Bioextruder is a simple, cost-effective and commercially proven technology that processes straw and other lignocellulosic materials, such as low-quality grass or cereal husks, for use as an AD feedstock.

There are around 200 bio-extruders operating on biogas plants throughout Europe. The equipment destroys the cell wall structure of the material, through a thermo-mechanical process akin to the

Rika already has received a lot of interest and several orders for Bio-extruders from Indian companies.Arka BRENStech Pvt. Ltd. is exclusively takijg care of Bio-extrude from Indian Market.

The very pro-active position of the Indian Government, as well as governments of many states, including recent off-take guarantee by three main state-owned oil marketing companies is providing the impetus to the existing fundamental market drivers mentioned. Initiatives such as permission to use CNG and CBG for tractors and agricultural machinery are also very helpful.

Biogas plants can produce nutrient-rich digestate and India has an existing market for bio-manure, which could provide good value for the digestate by-products.

All of the above makes India practically the only country in the world where the biogas industry has the potential to de-

Gregory Krupnikovs Chairman Rika Biofuels Ltd.

steam explosion but without the need for added heat and with a significantly smaller capex than alternative technologies, allowing bacteria access to organic matter which would otherwise be locked away.

Tests carried out by Rika show results of over 400m3/fresh ton of extruded dry straw. Tests have also shown that bio-extrusion can increase biogas yields from other typical AD feedstocks (such as Napier grass) by up to 15%.

The equipment can easily be retrofitted to operational AD plants and can achieve a typical payback of 2-3 years, depending on scale and application. The Bioextruder presents an exciting opportunity for AD operators to optimise the financial performance of their plants, whilst also allowing plants to maximize their projects sustainability.

velop even without Government subsidies.

Key to successfully developing the market, from Rika’s perspective, will be to establish effective relationships with companies on the ground who can assist with the delivery of the DVO based projects. Rika has identified a significant stream of potential projects; and identified strong delivery partners to assist in project identification, development, and construction.

Rika estimate that implementing the Indian Government’s goal of 5,000 Bio-CNG plants by 2025 will create an investment opportunity of ca. $50-70 billion. Whilst that goal may turn out to overly ambitious in the suggested timeframe, the investment opportunity is still enormous.

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 15

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 16 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Biogas (Anaerobic Digestion - AD)

B

iogas (AD) is a biochemical process during which complex organic matter is decomposed in absence of oxygen, by various types of anaerobic microorganisms.

The process of AD is common to many natural environments such as the marine water sediments, the stomach of ruminants or the peat bogs. In a biogas installation, the result of the AD process is the biogas and the digestate (organic manure). If the substrate for AD is a homogenous mixture of two or more feedstock types (e.g. animal slurries and organic wastes from food industries), the process is called “co– digestion� and is common to most biogas applications today.

Biogas is a combustible gas, consisting primarily of Methane and Carbon Dioxide. Digestate (organic manure) is the decomposed substrate, resulted from the production of biogas.

During AD, very little heat is generated in contrast to aerobic decomposition (in presence of Oxygen), like it is the case of composting. The energy, which is chemically bounded in the substrate, remains mainly

in the produced biogas, in form of methane. The process of biogas formation is a result of linked process steps, in which the initial material is continuously broken down into smaller units. Specific groups of micro-organisms are involved in each individual step. These organisms successively decompose the products of the previous steps. The AD process, has the four main process steps: hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis.

The first stage of decomposition in methane producing fermentation is the liquefaction phase, which splits long chain organic compounds (e.g. fats, carbohydrates) into simpler organic compounds (e.g. amino acids, fatty acids, sugars) through bacterial action. The products of hydrolysis are sub-sequently metabolized in the acidification phase (acidogenesis) by acidogenic bacteria and broken down into short-chain fatty acids (e.g. acetic, propionic and butyric acid). Acetate, hydrogen and carbon dioxide are also created and act as initial products for methane formation. In the acetic acid phase

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(acetogenesis), the organic acids and alcohols are broken down into acetic acid, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. These products act as a substrate for methanogenic microorganisms. In the fourth and final phase, during which methane is formed (methanogenesis), the products from the previous phases are converted into methane by methanogenic microorganisms (archaea).

The end product of fermentation is the combustible biogas that is mainly composed as follows: Methane (CH4) : 50 – 75 % Carbon dioxide (CO2) : 25 – 45 % Water (H2O) : 2 – 7 % : 1 – 3 % Oxygen (O2) Nitrogen (N2) : 1 - 2 % Ammonia (NH3) : < 1 % Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) : 1 – 3 % In the Biogas digester, the speed of the total decomposition process is determined by the slowest reaction of the chain. In the case of biogas plants, processing vegetable substrates containing cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin, hydrolysis is the speed determining process. During hydrolysis, relatively small amounts of biogas are produced. Biogas production reaches its peak during methanogenesis.

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How does a Biogas Plant Work?

Biogas plants generally consist of a feedstock receiving and storing area, a feedin preparation unit for solid substances, and a digester where the actual digestion takes place and a digestate storage tank for the digested biomass. Depending on the type of substrate, co-fermentation plants may also require a receiving pit, disintegration, the removal of contraries and pasteurization. The biogas produced for utilization then continues towards gasholders, gas cleaning and its respective uses.

Substrate-bearing components of a biogas plant The liquid manure store is used for intermediate storage of liquid manure as a fermentation substrate. Solid substrates require a suitable metering device. These must be large enough to even out variations in the amount of substrate available. If co-substrates are being used in the plant, then additional buildings may be required to receive and treat the substrates depending on the feedstock properties. Along with disintegration, the removal of contraries is especially important for the process to be able to run smoothly as well as for the quality of the digestate.

When substrates that could potentially

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 18

energy consumption necessary to heat the large reactor room; the advantages are the low investment cost and the use of biogas from secondary fermentation.

Semi-continous digestion is the most widely used process across the globe.

The substrate is pumped into the digester several times daily from the holding tank/liquid manure store. A quantity of fresh substrate equivalent to that added to the digester is expelled or removed spread epidemics, such as organic waste, animal processing and food waste among others, are co-fermented, the substrate receiving area and substrate processing areas have to be kept separate by maintaining an unclean and a clean side. Furthermore, pasteurization equipment is required to heat the substrate up to 70°C for a minimum of 60 minutes. This prevents pathogens that represent a health risk from persisting in the substrate. The digester or reactor, the heart of a biogas plant, is supplied with fermentation substrate from the liquid manure (cow dung etc.,). Depending on how the substrate flows into the digesters (one or more), these can be divided into: • Continuous and • Discontinuous plants (batch) In the discontinuous (batch) biogas process, the digester is completely filled with fresh substrate and hermetically closed. The substrate remains in the digester until the end of the selected retention time without no substrate added or removed. The digester is then emptied and filled with new substrate. Gas production begins slowly after filling and subsides again after the maximum value has been reached. Discontinuous feeding is the process most widely used for dry fermentation.

Continuous processes are characterised by regular feeding of the digester. The digester also acts as a digestate storage tank in which the substrate is kept until it is spread. The disadvantage is the high

into a downstream digester. This results in fairly regular gas – and therefore electricity/bio-CNG production. When the retention time has elapsed, the fermentation substrate is introduced into the covered digestate storage tank.

There are many different possible models of digesters (steel or concrete, rectangular or cylindrical, horizontal or vertical).

The crucial thing is that the digester is gas- and watertight as well as completely opaque. A stirring device ensures that the substrate remains homogeneous as, depending on the primary material, the substrate will have a greater or lesser tendency to separate into a floating layer and a sedimentation layer. A stirring device in the fermenter ensures by its rotations that the substrate is equally distributed throughout the reactor and that the gas that forms can escape from the substrate. If sedimentation layers form, e.g. when chicken manure or organic waste is fermenting, then they must be regularly

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 19

removed by suitable dischargers or scum removing mechanisms or else it will hamper the biogas production too. As bacteria produce only small quantities of sensible heat through their own “work” and this is insufficient to attain the necessary ambient temperature, the digester has to be insulated and externally heated to create the ideal temperature conditions for the bacteria that are necessary for the fermentation process. As mentioned earlier the fermentation temperature is an important process factor that influences the speed of anaerobic digestion.

Essentially two temperature ranges can be distinguished as mentioned – Mesophilic and Thermophilic.

Majority of the Indian biogas plants as well as more than 90% of the global biogas plants operate in the mesophilic range. The aim when operating a biogas plant is to attain the maximum rate of gas production or the complete digestion of the organic matter contained in the substrate. If the organic ingredients are to completely decompose, then one has to reckon with a long retention time for the substrate in the digester and therefore ensure that the digester is of an appropriate size, since some substances are only broken down – if at all – after a considerable length of time. Volume load is also an important operating parameter in this respect. It indicates how many kilogrammes of organic dry matter can be loaded into the fermenter per m3 of volume and unit of time. When it has fin-

ished digesting, the substrate goes into the digestate storage tank. This should be covered so as to utilise any further biogas that is produced, as well as preventing emissions and smells. The size of the digestate storage tank is determined by the required storage time which in turn depends on specifications for the environmentally friendly use of this residue in plant production.

Concluding Remarks Biogas has a significant role to play in fu¬ture energy markets and in transport in natural gas (CNG) vehicles. BioCNG produced from anaerobic digestion can potentially achieve a large substitution of natural gas. A renewable gas industry would deliver significantly towards climate mitigation and support a renewable transition particularly in the transport and industrial/bulk fuel replacement sectors, which are not as advanced as the renewable electricity sector. There is potential for a reduction in natural gas demand as an overall percentage of energy demand but to satisfy greenhouse gas reduction targets this gas will have to be decarbonised. Thus, it is not essential to create a resource equivalent to present natural gas demand but to ensure those sectors, which will continue to use natural gas, use decarbonised gas. BioCNG is presently sourced from a number of biomass sources; slurries, energy crops and food waste have already been successfully used to produce BioCNG.

Srinivas Kasulla Waste to Energy Expert

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 20

ÂŽ Progress through Research

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 21 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Biogas from Spaghetti - SEPURANÂŽ Green for efficient biogas upgrading

B

iogas is an eco-friendly energy source that is becoming increasingly important in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s energy supply. It can be used to generate power or heat or as a fuel, and provides a high energy yield per square meter of land.

However, an extensive upgrading and pu-

Figure 1

rification process is required before biogas is fed into the natural gas grid. New and highly selective polymer membranes from Evonik convert raw biogas simply and efficiently into highly pure biomethane. This increases yield and conserves valuable resources. (figure 1)

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 22

Highly selective membranes Evonik has developed a biogas upgrading process that makes the best use of the membranesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; separation properties: Through a skillful connection of Green membranes, it is possible to obtain methane with a purity level of up to 99% from the crude gas.

Evonik Industries has developed a technology for cost and energy-efficient separation of CO2. Green membranes have the highest CO2/CH4 selectivity and are therefore a superior technology for upgrading biogas. This selectivity of the membranes enables the production of high purity biomethane with superior methane recovery. This distinguishes the

The Process How does the membrane work? Gas molecules are of different sizes and have different solubilities in polymers. The biogas to be cleaned is introduced under high pressure at one end of the membrane.

The CO2 molecules are smaller than the methane molecules and also more soluble in polymers. As a result, they pass through the micropores of the membrane much faster and are separated from the methane.

CO2, water vapor, and traces of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are drawn off at the low-pressure side (from the lateral opening in Figure 2), while the methane collects at the other end of the membrane. (figure 3 )

Figure 2 - Relative permeation rates of various gases

Evonik membranes from other membranes that are available.

Biogas comes from the biogas plant as a mixture of CO2, methane and the typical secondary components, and is first desulfurized, filtered and pre-dried with activated carbon. The pre-treated gas is then compressed to 10 - 20 bar, and upgraded to biomethane and a CO2-rich waste gas flow using several membrane stages. (figure 2)

Technology advantage The common separation methods such as pressurized water scrubbing, pressure swing adsorption, and amine scrubbing have considerable disadvantages: They need comparatively large amounts of energy as well as auxiliary materials and chemicals. Wastes and wastewater are generated that must be treated and disposed of. Further, the biogas after upgrading is usually at low pressure. Before it is fed into a medium-pressure grid, it needs to be compressed to 15-20 bar by, for example, an additional compressor.

Figure 3 - Mode of operation of a membrane module for gas separation

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 23

Figure 4 SEPURAN® Green module

Benefits of Green membrane technology (figure 4) • Best price performance of all membrane systems • High methane yield of up to >99 % and high purities >99% (patented 3-stage process) • Highest energy efficiency (~ 0.2 kWel/

Nm3 crude biogas) • Easy to operate, little maintenance – easy start & stop • No chemical use and no waste water • Easy to scale up –containerized system

Aashish Maheshwari Associate Business Director Evonik India Pvt. Ltd.

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 25 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Digestate from Biogas Plant

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naerobic digestion (AD) in a biogas plant is a well proven process in which organic matter breaks down naturally in the absence of oxygen to produce two valuable by products - biogas and organic manure - which is an excellent plant fertilizer, rich in both organic matter and in macro as well as micronutrients. Biogas is an extremely useful source of renewable energy, while organic manure is a highly valuable biofertiliser (this is in both â&#x20AC;&#x201C; solid and liquid form). AD can also offer a range of other benefits. Improved yields from farming practice and food processing are necessary in order to sustain positive growth around the world. A key element to achieve this aim is adequate supply of fertilizer. The physicochemical characteristics of Digestate vary, strongly depending on the nature and composition of the substrates use to generate biogas as well as on the operational parameters of the biogas processes. Digestate is normally used as fertilizer for crops without any further processing, substituting/complementing industrially produced mineral fertilizers. However, the need for efficient nutrient management, required by restrictions on manure application in areas with high livestock density, along with depletion of the global natural reserves of phosphorous and potassium, make recovery and recycling of plant nutrients from manure, waste streams, and oth-

er resources increasingly important for farmers, technology providers, investors, as well as decision makers.

The use of anaerobic digestion to recover value from organic wastes within the India is emerging as an important treatment system and is forecast to increase significantly. There are many AD plants operating within the India with a capacity from medium to large scale, however the small scale projects are numerous and spread across the country. There are only few large scale biogas plants in India and are working on cow manure, press mud, starch water, sewage, chicken litter, spent wash and food waste.

The Digestate produced from mesophilic AD process is an organic slurry, rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

Other less common systems include dry digestion, which uses a feedstock with very high dry solids content and thermophilic digestion, which operates at higher temperatures (50°C - 60°C).

Currently the majority of AD facilities recycle the digestate to local agricultural land as an organic manure/fertilizer.

However the system for land application is limited to agricultural and crop requirements, and for large capacity AD plants, a substantial area of land is required to provide a secure and suitable market for

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the Digestate. As the use of AD increases the demand for agricultural land will also increase, potentially requiring plants to transport Digestate further in search of suitable land. This is important for the increasing number of centralized AD facilities operating in urban areas. Digestate must therefore be carefully managed to ensure it is utilized as a resource and maximum benefit is achieved whilst avoiding excessive transportation costs.

One of the possible consequences of the increase in slurry pH and NH4-N content following anaerobic digestion is an increased risk of NH3 losses during storage and after land application. Also the reduction in slurry solids content may reduce the likelihood for natural crust formation in stored slurry and this, too, may increase the risk of NH3 losses during storage.

Many early biogas systems were developed simply to reduce odor or the volume of waste being dealt with. The benefits of biogas generation have now been widely recognized, but what biogas producers can do with the generated Digestate from the biogas plants to get an economic return has been overlooked. This scenario is changing now. FCO is also considering to streamline it. Few years before, it was easier to develop a medium or a large biogas plant because the revenue from the sale of biogas, whether in the form of gas or electricity, was more economically attractive. But due to the volatility in oil prices globally, renewable energy programs in many countries have seen a difficulty of biogas digester project success on energy sales alone; in this manner Digestate plays a vital role from many point of views apart from saving the environment it also makes sure the projects are economically feasible and attractive too, further if the produced Digestate is enhanced then it can be an additional main revenue source for a project

Quality Control: Quality management of biogas plant digestate involves a wide range of permits and quality standards to ensure the safety and value of digestate as organic

Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 26

manure or soil conditioner or a perfect growing medium. Farmers who use their own on-farm produced feed-stock (such as manure, crops or sweepings from grain stores) should carry out their own quality controls. These should include periodic sampling and analysis of feedstock to determine its biogas potential (e.g. dry matter, nutrients and volatile solid content and pH levels). The produced digestate should be analyzed similarly before application, to aid accurate organic manure planning. When off-farm material (e.g. industrial organic residues, biodegradable fractions of municipal solid waste, sewage sludge etc.) is co-digested, the digestate may can contain various amounts of hazardous matter – biological, chemical and physical – that could sometimes pose risks for animal and human health or cause environmental pollution. These contaminants can include residues of pesticides and antibiotics, heavy metals and plant and animal pathogens. The latter may result in new routes of pathogen and disease transmission between plants and animals if appropriate and stringent controls are not enforced. Various regulations are reinforced in many countries by further stringent regulations governing the admissible feed stocks for Biogas plants and uses of the digestate as organic manure. The regulations and quality controls applied in each country should be included in the specification/certification that would accompany every load of organic or trademarked organic manure supplied by the biogas plant. Storage and application of the organic manure must comply with the codes of good agricultural practice and be in accordance with national guidance.

These contaminants can be of physical, chemical or biological origin, Physical contaminants are considered to be all the non- or low–digestible materials e.g. plastic, glass, metal scrap, stones, sand, wood etc. Such physical impurities are likely to be present in all types of feedstock, but most frequently in household wastes, food waste, garden waste, straw, solid manure and other solid types or waste.

The presence of physical contaminants (impurities), in particular following „dry

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digestionâ&#x20AC;&#x; which produces a stackable compost like digestate, can cause negative public perception of digestate and aesthetic damage to the environment.

Physical contaminants such as sand also increase operational costs by causing wear and tear to the pipes and pumps of the biogas plant components and to the digestate application machines. The control and management of physical impurities is mainly a matter of ensuring high quality feedstock. This can be done either by sorting at source or by on-site separation (mechanically, magnetically, other). As a supplementary safety measure, physical barriers like sieves, stone traps or protection grilles can be installed in the pre-storage tanks, at the AD plants.

If there are any chemical contaminants in the feedstock they will also be present in the digestate. Agricultural wastes, for example, can contain persistent organic compounds such as pesticide residues, antibiotics and other medications. Industrial organic waste, sewage sludge and household waste can contain aromatic, aliphatic and halogenated hydrocarbons, organo-chlorine pesticides, PCBs, PAHs etc. Thus it is important at the outset to ensure high quality feedstock. This can be achieved by eliminating feedstock with levels of contamination that are above the permitted limits. Some countries such as Germany and Switzerland provide lists of substrates that are recommended for digestion. The presence of biological contaminants in digestate such as various pathogens, prions, seeds and propagules1 may result in new routes of pathogen and disease transmission between animals, humans and the environment. For this reason strict control of

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specific feedstock types and of digestate must be carried out. Animal by-products used as AD feedstock require specific attention regarding their utilization as substrate for anaerobic digestion, with reference to safe utilization of digestate as fertilizer and soil conditioner.

Economical Feasibility: Various studies on the use of organic manure from the biogas plants reveal that the successful and economically justified implementation of organic manure processing is highly site specific. Depending on various local conditions, there might be significant differences in the individual expenses as well as in savings. For the biogas plants where there is a further organic manure treatment system is used there will be large variations in the total costs which may occur. Nevertheless, typical cost ranges for different treatment systems can be provided and compared with the respective costs of the end use of this organic manure. Economical studies of Large scale biogas plant produced organic manure shall be considered and the costs of transportation and disposal shall be included and then further treatment costs shall include investment and operational costs as well as a realistic market value of the products. Digestate from the biogas plant processing involves the application of a range of possible technologies to digestate, comparable to the existing technologies for manure processing, sewage sludge treatment, and, in some cases, for wastewater treatment. The last decades have seen a trend of increased emphasis on improved sustainability in agriculture and preservation of natural resources

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like minerals phosphorus and potassium, consequently changing the focus of digestate processing from nutrient removal and disposal towards integrated nutrient recovery and recycling. This trend needs to be continued. Digestate processing, can be partial, usually targeting volume reduction and separation of digestate into a liquid and a solid fraction, or it can be complete, refining digestate to for example pure water, a solid organic manure fraction and fertilizer concentrates.

The first step in digestate processing is to separate the solid from the liquid. The solid fraction, often rich in phosphorus, can subsequently be directly applied as organic manure in agriculture or it can be composted or dried for intermediate storage and feasible long-range Transport. For nutrient recovery, various meth-

ods and technologies are currently available, with various degrees of technical maturity. While partial processing using relatively simple solidâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; liquid separation technologies (decanter centrifuge, screw press etc.) are considered comparatively inexpensive, complete processing requires far more sophisticated process equipment and often has a high specific energy consumption, which implies high additional costs. The techniques for nutrient recovery from digestate are developing rapidly, aiming to improve nutrient management in agriculture and in various waste treatment systems. In parallel, there is a general need to increase the degree of commercialization of organic manure from digestate processing through product standardization.

Vishal Kanchan Author Indian Biogas Association

Upcoming in 2019

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 29 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Establishment of an ‘Integrated Compressed Biogas Grid (CBG/ Bio-CNG) and Piped Natural Gas Grid (PNG) Network’ in India

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or reducing import bill of petroleum and natural gas for providing clean gaseous fuel for cooking, vehicular and other applications, achieving global commitment for Green House Gas (GHG) reduction, achieving goals of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), emission reduction due to burning of agriculture wastes, providing bio-organic fertilizer to improve soil health to sustain crop productivity and for generation of highly decentralized and enormous no. of employment and business opportunity in the country, there is an urgent need for establishment of an ‘Integrated Compressed Biogas Grid (CBG/ Bio-CNG) and Piped Natural Gas Grid (PNG) Network’ in India’ through installation of ‘distributed Biogas/ Bio-methane/ Bio-CNG plants’ throughout length and breadth of the country’. Having established the said ‘Integrated CBG and PNG Network’ it will become possible to achieve majorly following twin desired national objectives: a) ‘Bio-gas for All’ for providing clean gaseous fuel for cooking. b) ‘Bio-fertilizer for All’ for providing bio-organic fertilizers to various food grain crops, fruits and vegetables’ cultivation.

2. Establishment of said ‘Integrated CBG and PNG Network’ is technically feasible. It is also economically viable for the government after pooling and making available investments being incurred for biomass waste handling, treatment, and disposal; subsidy provided for LPG, chemical fertilizer and city compost; and fighting ailments/ ill-health due to non-treatment of biomass waste and pollution arising of crop waste burning in fields. However, in order to fructify this, central government needs to take a pragmatic policy decision and organize finances through aggregation of funds being allocated to said sectors, through different Ministries, from the ‘Consolidated Fund of India’. It could be from the following major ongoing initiatives, policies and programmes launched/ taken up in the ‘Biogas-Fertilizer Plant Sector’: I) Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched during the year 2018a. New National Biogas and Organic Manure Programme (NNBOMP) for installation of 2.55 lakh biogas plants in the capacity range of 1-25M3 per day. b. Programme on ‘Energy from Urban,

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Industrial and Agricultural Wastes/ Residues’ for biogas, bio-CNG/ enriched biogas, power and biomass gasifier components for the aggregated capacity of 57.0 MWeq. c. Biogas based Power Generation and Thermal Application Programme (BPGTP)- off-grid in the capacity range of 3 KW to 250 KW and biogas based thermal energy for heating as well as cooling applications from biogas plants ranging from 30 m3 to 2500 m3.

IV) Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change- guidelines on Municipal Solid Wastes issued for segregating waste at source and its treatment including generation of biogas.

II) Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) launched during the year 2018a. Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources-Dhan (Gobar-Dhan) under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) SBM-G launched by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

VI) Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has considered organic fertilizer in its ‘Fertilizer Order’ and providing support for promoting organic cultivation and production of compost.

III) Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) launched during the year 2018a. National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 includes Bio-CNG and is kept in the category of ‘Advanced Biofuels’. b. Sustainable Alternative towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) provides for purchase price of Rs.46/- per Kg for ‘Compressed Biogas’ (CBG) by Oil and Gas Marketing Companies, for the first time, namely Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Gas Authority of India (GAIL).

P.C. Flickr

V) Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers providing a subsidy of Rs.1500/- per tonne for city-compost and advising fertilizer companies to supply a certain percentage of organic fertilizers along with chemical fertilizers.

VII) Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation launched ‘Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) SBM-U, Smart Cities and liquid and solid waste management programmes VIII) Bureau of Indian Standards brought out BIS Standard for biogas composition: IS 16087: 2016.

IX) State governments are also incurring expenditure through their corresponding departments to supplement efforts of the central govt. in the biogas-fertilizer sector and fighting pollution. Such available funds of the State governments also need to be channelized to the common kitty.

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Network’ in the country, as given below:

3. It would be better that MNRE categorically includes ‘Village Gas Grid’ under BPGTP programme of MNRE, as it is not very clearly included in Gobar-Dhan programme of MDWS as well. There is also a need for giving a better rate of Rs.54/- per Kg for bio-CNG/ CBG by MoPNG, similar to the rates for the ethanol sector. The subsidy of Rs.1500/- also needs to be made available for biogas based organic fertilizer by the Ministry/ Department of Fertilizers.

4. As cattle dung and biomass wastes, required input for Biogas-fertilizer plants (BFPs) of (say) about 1000 cubic meter biogas generation capacity, are cultivated and available in villages/group of villages and organic fertilizer is required in villages and biogas for cooking is also required to be provided under ‘Ujjwala Yojana’ (and to all other categories of users) in villages, it is required and proposed to have ‘bottom-up approach’ in establishing ‘Integrated CBG and PNG

a) Establishing ‘Village Biogas Grid’ (VBG) for providing clean cooking gas to every household, including those covered under ‘Ujjwala Yojana’. b) Establishing one multi-feed (including crop waste) ‘Bio-gas-Fertilizer plant’ in each of the revenue village, say six lakh nos. with an average capacity of (say) 1000 cubic meter biogas generation. c) These plants to have the capability to treat village sewage/ excreta from toilets (which is going to become a serious problem once all the houses/ households start using these toilets, as envisaged in ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’). d) Connecting ‘Village Biogas Grid’ with each other to form a ‘Local Area Biogas Grid Network’ (LABGN, for carrying surplus biogas, having ‘Biogas Purification plant’. e) LABGN is connected to ‘Biomass Processing and Biogas Producing and Purifying Industries Network’ (BPPIN) having Bio-gas-Fertilizer plants in Sugar Mills, Agro/ Food/ Fruit processing rural industries. Purification is to be done as per BIS Standard IS 16087: 2016. f) LABGN and BPPIN are connected to existing National/ Local Area/ City Gas Grid based on CNG/ PNG Network (NLCNG). g) This way, a ‘National Biogas/ Natural Gas Grid’ (NBNGG) will be created like ‘National Electricity Grid Network’ (NEGN) in the country.

5. There are three major requirements for the success of ‘Biogas-Fertilizer Plants Network (BFPN)’ availability of biomass feed/ input material, low-cost finance for installation & commissioning and providing biogas generation based incentive/ fixing procurement price for CBG/ bio-CNG following principles of the level playing field with the competing bio-ethanol. For the purpose following policy decision and support is requested for the CBG sector: a) All the Sugar Mills, Agro/ Food/ Fruit processing industries to be mandated to set up Bio-gas-Fertilizer plants in their own premises through creating a joint venture.

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 32

b) Existing ETPs, STPs treating biomass waste/ effluent to be converted to ETBPs, STBPs (B-stands for bio-gas-fertilizer). c) All Dairies, Gaushalas, stray animal shelters etc. to be mandated to set up Bio-gas-Fertilizer plants in their own premises through creating a joint venture or agreements with such professional biogas-fertilizer companies, such that responsibility rests with the biomass waste generators. d) All other bulk biomass waste generators, in different areas, like fruit and vegetable mandis/markets, hotels, restaurants, community halls/barat ghars, housing societies to be mandated to set up Bio-gas-Fertilizer plants in their own premises through creating a joint venture or enter into arrangement with such professional biogas-fertilizer companies to set up plants in near-by areas, if space is not available or the biomass waste quantity is small such that responsibility rests with the biomass waste generators. e) Providing Generation Based Incentives (GBI) to biogas/CBG over and above the price for the competing fuels, like bio-ethanol, CNG, PNG, LPG, LNG etc. LPG subsidy to be passed on to the beneficiaries of family size biogas plants, installed with gas meters, as well following ‘Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)’ route. f) Creation of level playing field between ‘Bio-ethanol’ and Compressed Bio-gas (CBG)’ while fixing procurement price and other incentives according to energy/heat value. g) Other incentives to include low-cost loans, priority lending from banks and financial institutions, viability gap funding, GST @5% for biogas/ CBG, plants & machinery and project development/ execution services, free of charge injection to

gas grid etc. h) Creation of ‘Bio-gas-Fertilizer Fund’.

The financial incentives being provided by different Ministries, like MNRE, Fertilizer, Agriculture, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Urban Development and others to be credited to this fund to provide GBI. i) Low-cost finances available under Bi-lateral/Multi-lateral international organizations/financial institutions are also to be credited to this ‘Fund’. j) CSR, MPLAD, MLALAD finances are also credited to this ‘Fund’. k) The ‘Bio-gas-Fertilizer Fund’ can be operated by NABARD. 6. A Major initiative is required to declare Biogas-Fertilizer sector as a part of large Infrastructure of the country for energy and fertilizer sustainability to have environmentally benign overall development.

Adequate financing of this sector has to be a part of overall strategy, which is lacking in the programmes/ policies of all the Ministries/ Departments of Central as well as State governments.

7. All the stakeholders have to continue to work with the concerned Ministries/ Departments towards inclusions of suggestions mentioned as above, so that biogas-fertilizer sector grows to achieve its full potential in energy generation, organic fertilizer production, employment generation and waste treatment and creating a highly decentralized ‘Biogas Infrastructure Network’ in the country.

8. With the provision of due support, as above, to the Compressed Biogas/ bioCNG/Biogas sector, many birds can be hit with one stone and will help in reducing crude oil-imports.

Dr. Aatma Ram Shukla Ex-Advisor, MNRE President, Indian Biogas Association

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Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 34 Biofertilizer Upgradation

Value Chain

Substrate & Logistics

Pretreatement

Biogas Plant

Biogas Upgradation

Market Introduction

Biogas App: Marketplace for Bio-slurry

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ne of the most important chain in the whole value chain resides with market introduction of Bio-slurry. Fertilizer corporation of India has already defined the specifications for the Vermi-compost and city compost but still considering to define the norms of Bio-slurry. In practice, however, the agricultural results are at par or even better than Vermi-compost or city compost with Bio-slurry. Indian Biogas Association studied the proper gaps in this field esp. from marketplace perspective and realized that the awareness and the proper knowledge is equally important beside providing the marketplace for the Bio-slurry or in other words a simple but yet effective Buyer-Seller platform.

Farmers or other stakeholders can list their offerings esp. in form of organic fertilizer by calling +91 (0) 124-4988622. If any progressive or educated farmers knows how to use mobile apps, they can download the app from https://biogas-india. com/Home/BiogasApp and upload their product details with pictures.

Farmer can also go online to www. biogas-india.com and list their offerings. Farmers have to list their product name, variety of the organic fertilizer, approximate amount of crop yield they will get from it etc., approximate harvest date they are expecting to harvest, their expected minimum price and a brief description. Description can include details like any specialties about their products, their ability to get it utilized for crops/gardening/nurseries along with their volumes.

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These listings are seen daily by Nurseries, householdsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; gardening, kitchen gardening and even by traders. If the farmers/other sellers get a good price and agree for the quality, they can sell them directly without any intermediary.

Listing like this gives the Farmer an opportunity to market to more than one buyer and hence get a good price for their produce. Along with the traditional way of taking the produce after harvesting, the additional income esp. to sell the fertilizer from the agriculture residue can definitely empower them to look beyond the possibilities.

Buyer Seller platform

Indian Biogas Association believe that the importance of such online presence is enormous.

The results from the alpha test run in Varanasi, which was conducted with the help of IIT-BHU, shows that the local nurseries can not only increase the sell volume but the buyers from the city can order the specific organic fertilizer pertaining to their specific demand. In many cases, the home delivery even made a major contribution to business success. 82 percent of the participated stakeholders liked the whole idea of Buyer-Seller platform for organic fertilizer and requested to consider the forward integration of the products originating from the usage of organic fertilizer from online marketplace perspective. 18 percent stated that they can only can participate properly after getting everything in the regional language. The market data proves them right in their strategy. The number of transaction touched the figure of ~1000 within a month of alpha launch. Indian Biogas Association is in process to quantify the resulting impact esp. after getting a proper user base.

Akshat Sarolia Author Indian BIogas Association

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Is Biogas/Bio-CNG about to go mainstream in India?

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n October 1st last year the Minister of Petroleum announced a major policy initiative called SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation), which may finally herald biogas moving from being somewhat a forgotten child in India’s biofuels portfolio to playing a critical role in moving India down to a low carbon path.

In this innovative policy development, the Ministry is calling for Entrepreneurs to come forward via an Expression of Interest to set up a targeted 5000 biogas plants to convert agro-waste and the organic portion of MSW to bottled Bio-CNG (CBG) and organic fertiliser. This is on the basis that the 5 OMC’s IOCL, HPCL T& BPCL, GAIL, IGL will guarantee to buy the entire Bio-CNG offtake (minimum 2 tons of Bio-CNG per day) at a fixed price of 46 INR per kg fixed for the next 3 years. The OMC’s will then sell the Bio-CNG via their existing bunks as an automotive fuel. This will help displace the use of fossil fuels as a transport fuel, provide a clean energy alternative, reducing both carbon

emissions and pollution from particulate matter.

An India based start-up that has pioneered the conversion of food/agro waste to bottled bio-CNG with our Carbonlites brand, which is quite a appreciable development. It has, if successful, the potential to achieve significant benefits for India. Too often in our view, Biogas has been viewed purely as a waste management solution rather than renewable energy and organic fertiliser solution i.e., there has been too much emphasis on the input end of the value chain rather than the output. India has seen too many failed biogas projects where in part insufficient attention has been made to monetising the output. Establishing a price signal and an offtake guarantee for the bio-CNG should encourage entrepreneurs to find innovative ways to make biogas plants sustainable.

Establishing 5000 large scale sustainable biogas plants across India while ambitious is both urgent and necessary for a number of reasons:

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Firstly, India today imports 80% of its oil and 50% of its gas requirements. This does nothing for its energy security and everything to drive up its carbon footprint. In addition to paying for its energy in dollars is always going to present fiscal and exchange rate challenges given the volatility of oil and gas prices and exchange rate pressure on the rupee. Reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels with home produced Bio-CNG can begin to address those issues.

Secondly, most large cities and towns in India have a “garbage” problem which has no real solution and is getting worse. 62 million tons of MSW (50% of which is biodegradable) is sent to landfills annually, releasing Methane (a toxic greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere.

This is estimated to be doubled by 2030. Biogas plants can convert 50% of that Methne into bio-CNG making further reductions in GHG emissions (1 ton of food and drink waste NOT sent to landfill saves c 500 kgs of CO2.

Thirdly, the “waste” slurry from the anaerobic digestion process can be converted into a carbon-enriched organic manure and sold to farmers to reduce their dependency on chemical fertilisers. India is the second largest market in the world for chemical fertilisers, but for decades these have been used indiscriminately and have not been balanced by the addition of organic material. Indian soils, as a result, have a deficiency in soil organic matter, making them less healthy leading to flat to declining yields, impacting farmers’ incomes.

In addition, the Government of India spends some 70,000 crores per annum subsidising chemical fertilisers, principally Urea, which is not sustainable. So, displacing chemical fertilisers with organic fertilisers made from the digestate from biogas plants will improve soil health, reduce the subsidy burden, and further reduce carbon emissions. The life cycle emissions from the production, use and disposal of chemical fertilisers is significant with a saving of 7 tons of CO2 for every 1 ton of chemical fertiliser displaced. Prime Minister Modi recently urged India’s Farmers to cut their Chemical fertiliser consumption by 50% over the next 5 years and in addition to the SATAT initiative has launched GOBAR Dhan, a programme aimed at getting local communities in the rural areas to convert their cow

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and chicken dung into biogas and organic manure.

Given the urgency that is now required for the world to move away from fossil fuels.

In order to mitigate the increasing risks of climate change, establishing a large scale, decentralised biogas Industry in India makes a lot of sense if nothing else for its carbon emission reduction potential. It can, however, create thousands of jobs for both skilled and unskilled workforce in both rural and urban areas. It will improve the country’s energy security, reduce the subsidy burden, reduce pollution and enable farmers to grow healthier food sustainably.

With so many benefits why does this not exist already?

Well, the Government of India has tried several initiatives and programmes over the years aimed at bringing about the building of large numbers of biogas plants with mixed results. Many of these initiatives have involved the provision of subsidies to construct biogas plants, which by themselves has not led to them to be being operated successfully or sustainably.

The SATAT initiative is different in firstly encouraging entrepreneurs to come forward to do this and secondly with its focus on the output via the offtake guarantee from the country’s OMC’s. Even then success is not inevitable.

Entrepreneurs will need capital to build these plants, and India’s banks will need to be encouraged look more favourably on requests for debt funding to build them than they have historically writ to

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biogas. The upstream supply chain provision of infrastructure, ranging from Anaerobic Digestors to purification units to CNG cylinders and cascades, will all need scaling up rapidly to meet the higher demand if bottlenecks and delays are to be avoided. The regulatory regime involving different agencies, e.g. PESO, Pollution Control Board, fire authorities, land conversion from agricultural to industrial, needs simplifying ideally by a single window clearance procedure if delays are to be avoided.

In addition of it, the GOI should heed the recent advice given to them from NITI Aayog and widen the subsidy on LPG so that it is paid to all cooking fuels used and not just to LPG. This would open up the market for the use of bottled BioCNG as a cooking fuel in the domestic market displacing LPG and further saving carbon emissions and improving energy security. Such a move could be the necessary catalyst to accelerate the GOBAR Dhan programme and see an equal number of biogas plants built in rural areas using agro waste as the feedstock as opposed to MSW. And while they are at it, they should consider doing the same with the chemical fertiliser subsidy and expand that to cover the use of organic fertilisers made from the slurry from biogas plants.

The very first recorded use of biogas was in India in 1897, where it was used for lighting in a leper colony in Mumbai.

Some 122 years later India may be poised to lead the world in biogas production and in so doing make an important contribution to the meeting if not exceeding its Paris climate change goals

Kevin J Houston Co-Founder Carbon Masters

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SATAT connecting the last dot in the value chain to push the Compressed BioGas (CBG) market

SATAT connecting the last dot in the value chain to push the Compressed BioGas (CBG) market

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inistry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) kicked off a new initiative called Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) in New Delhi on 1st October, 2018, featuring the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs, i.e. IOCL, BPCL, HPCL and now GAIL) in the scheme. The scheme includes the invitation for Expression of Interest (EoI) by OMCs from potential project developers to set up Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) production plants. The OMCs shall ensure the offtake of the produced fuel (within defined specification as per BIS IS 16087:2016) to meet the demand for use in automotive fuels. The offtake price of CBG at 250 bar(g) delivered at the CBG pump outlet has been kept at Rs. 46/kg (GST extra). Additionally, up to Rs. 2.5 per Kg of dispensed CNG will be provided for setting-up private dispensing units. The OMCs themselves have budgeted large capital to set up its own CBG dispensing units. As cited by MoPNG, SATAT has the potential to boost availability of more affordable transport fuels, better use of agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste, as well as to provide an additional revenue source to farmers.

The SATAT initiative is aimed at a developmental effort that would benefit vehicle-users as well as farmers and entrepreneurs. The scheme envisages to set

up around 5000 plants over the next 5 years in a phased manner. Also, it intends to generate around 75,000 employment directly or indirectly. While prima facie the initiative looks like the perfect panacea for the present slow-paced biogas industry in India, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prudent to determine the overall effectiveness of the initiative upon juxtaposing other critical drivers of the overall biogas ecosystem.

Firstly, taking a look into the financial requirement for such a huge volume of biogas infrastructure being created, the capital would be infused in form of equity from investors or large conglomerates willing to foray into the clean energy sector, debt financing from financial institutions (FI), and central financial assistance (CFA) from the government. While, the equity component shall be mobilised by the project promoters who are direct stakeholders of the project, availability of the other two components needs to be pondered deeply. Despite loans to the renewable sector by FIs (banks, NBFC, etc.) falling under priority sector lending, almost entire priority funding at IREDA defined concessional rates are earmarked for solar and wind industry. Appropriate initiatives need to be taken in this regard to ensure availability of loans at a reasonable rate to the biogas industry. Additionally, the latest CFA rationing for large scale biogas project from MNRE for 3

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years (2017-2020) is a meager Rs.78 crore (earmarked for setting up a cumulative capacity of 57 MWel.eq.). On the other hand, plants to be set-up in phased-manner over the next 3 years as envisaged in SATAT scheme is around 3000 MWel.eq.

This would mean CFA allocation to the tune of whopping Rs. 12,000 crores, if all the upcoming plants were to be subsidised under Waste to Energy scheme.

Apparently, at present, there lies a wide gap between the set goals under SATAT and the allocated funds, albeit across different ministries. Thus, there is an utmost need for synchronising the initiative at an inter-ministerial level.

Likewise, there remains several ambiguities w.r.t. to the GST rate applicable within biogas projects, especially w.r.t. work areas like civil, excavation, and other related sundry expenses on consumables.

These work areas, which account for a significant portion of the overall capital cost in biogas plant construction donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fall under the concessional 5% GST category applicable for biogas equipment.

Instead, they fall under the work contract category charged at 18%, thus leading to an inverted duty structure; not an ideal scenario to attract investors in the industry.

P.C. Press Information Bureau

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Another missing clue for effective materialization of SATAT is the dearth of skilled manpower across the ranks to effectively operate and manage the biogas plants.

Owing to the involvement of sensitive microbiology and high-pressure operations in cylinder filling, biogas Installations particularly needs to be nurtured properly through strengthened O&M practices, which includes continual monitoring, periodic inspection, Standard Operating Procedures, scheduled preventive maintenance, and so on. Thus, imparting adequate technical and managerial skill to concerned personnel related to biogas project is quintessential. Framework for Short term training programs imparted

by National Skill Development Council (NSDC) under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikash Yojana (PMKVY) can be levered upon to meet the impending skill deficit scenario under SATAT initiative.

The SATAT initiative seemingly mitigates the demand side risk of a plant developer but, in the long run, final end-users of the produced Compressed Biogas (CBG), primarily the transportation sector will dictate the demand. So, clear cut policies pushing retrofitting of vehiclesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; engines to CBG type, development and bulk manufacturing of upgraded CBG engine vehicles by OEMs, and swift switch-over by

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vehicle owners to CBG type will determine the seamless attainment of critical mass (break even volume of vehicles refilling at a given dispensing station). Another way to stir up the demand would be to introduce mixing quota of CBG in the CNG as is the case of ethanol blending quota in gasoline. This would probably be an action stored for the future.

One of the interesting aspects about the Bio CNG plants is its ability to primarily serve three distinct purposes- as a gaseous bio-fuel or energy generating plant, organic/ bio-slurry producing plant, and as means for scientific waste management. There has been always different Ministries handling the subject of energy, fertilizer and waste treatment, and providing financial incentives to their respective components. For example, presently Government is providing incentives in form of approximately Rs. 20/- per kg for LPG, Rs. 1.50 per kg for city compost (amounting to approximately Rs. 15/- for the organic fertilizer produced per kg of Bio CNG generation) and about Rs. 12-15/- for waste treatment (in terms of waste required per kg of Bio CNG generation). Together these incentives sums to an amount of Rs. 45/- per kg of Bio CNG, and there remains an opportunity to provide at least a fraction of the estimated amount as incentive to Bio CNG. But, taking no credit away from the novelty of the introduced scheme, none of these estimated incentives have been considered in the declared off-take tariff as it has been kept almost at par with the market rate of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Nevertheless, potential investors are looking up to larger economy of scale and finding the provided off-take rates

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viable.

Furthermore, the economic viability gets strengthened with a developed market for unspent digestate from biogas plants, i.e. the bio-slurry in its raw form or upon needful phase separation. As an additional source for revenue stream, it not only strengthens the economic viability of a biogas project but ensures balance of the nutrient cycle through its usage in arable fields. Department of fertilizer under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer welfare (MoAFW) has an active role to play in coming up with the necessary amendments in the Fertilizer control order (FCO) to recognise bio-slurry as an organic fertilizer.

Undoubtedly, more policy reforms need to happen on the lines of grid insertion of Bio CNG, provisioning single window clearance of permits and licenses for seamless plant installations, technology improvement of fuel engines, stringent emissions control strategies, managing price differential across vehicular fuels through appropriate tax structure, gradual phase-wise conversion of vehicles to adopt Bio CNG, developing appropriate standards in conjunction with industry players; just to list a few. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also pertinent to formulate efficient and robust enforcement strategy of any formulated policy.

Though SATAT is a welcome stepping stone in heading towards the right direction, a comprehensive road map across different domains (some of them as identified above) spanning involvement of different Ministries, is important to build a conducive ecosystem for the Bio-CNG industry to flourish uninhibitedly.

Abhijeet Mukherjee Author Indian BIogas Association

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