www.biogas-india.com
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
Biogas Magazine | Edition 07 | 42
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. It’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