Role of biogas in current energy scenario discussed

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, November 29

Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Bio-Energy (SSS-NIBE), in collaboration with the Indian Biogas Association (IBA), organised a two-day national training programme on the ‘Biogas Technology and its Implementation’ which concluded on Friday.

The event was inaugurated by Dinesh D Jagdale, Director General, SSS-NIBE, and Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Jagdale shed light on the role of biogas in the Indian renewable energy scenario with a specific focus on its application as a cooking fuel across Indian households. He also spoke about the efforts taken by MNRE in association with MoPNG in the past decade to bring a new revolution in the past decade its effort to make the transition to greener energy from fossil fuel to solar and biogas based energy.

Dr AR Shukla, president, IBA, spoke over the emergence of biogas in a time where there was no clean fuel even in the cities. He also spoke about the strength of biogas technology to efficiently convert waste to valuable biogas. The digestate produced from biogas also finds application as a bio-fertiliser. The programme was coordinated by Dr Sachin Kumar, Deputy Director, SSS-NIBE and Gaurav Kedia, IBA.

The participants discussed various burning issues as they said: “India has a huge potential for conversion of biomass to energy and it provides an attractive investment opportunity because of the abundance of organic waste such as paddy straw, appropriate infrastructure and suitable climate. India is a farming nation where more than 500 million tonnes of agricultural waste is generated every year. It is estimated that about 200 MT of paddy straw is produced in India annually; therefore, which must be used for bio-energy production”.

SSS-NIBE has been contributing to the bio-energy sector for the past 12 years with a key research focus on biogas production using diverse feedstocks. Here we aim at analysing the development and scope of conversion of biogas to Bio-CNG. R&D activities are undergoing for the management of biomass, production of biogas from animal excreta and agricultural wastes. Research is being conducted for the purification of the biogas, its bottling and commercial application of both carbon dioxide and methane.

The participants from all over the country participated through online mode. The training programme is being organized in four modules: Biogas Process and Design; Biogas Operation & Maintenance; Biogas Upgradation; and Policy and Financing. During the next two days, the various experts including Prof. PMV Subbarao, IIT Delhi; Dr Shanmugham, CSIR-CLRI, Chennai; Dr Ram Chandra, IIT Delhi; Abhijeet Mukherjee, IBA; and SR Meena, MNRE delivered their lectures through online mode.