‘SATAT’ scheme on Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) encourages entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants, produce & supply CBG to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for sale as automotive & industrial fuels.

SATAT Initiative - "India is among the fastest growing economy in the world and its energy consumption is slated to increase rapidly. India’s dependence on fossil fuels for its energy needs has two major concerns i.e. a growing import bill and the carbon emission.

The country now imports close to 85 per cent of crude which roughly translates to 45% of primary energy demand and this is only going to go up in the near future.

This trend has huge implications for energy security of the country. Government of India has set a target of reduction in import dependence by 10% from 2015 to 2022.

Government of India has prepared a road map to reduce the import dependency in oil & gas sector by adopting a five pronged strategy which includes, increasing domestic production, adopting biofuels & renewables, energy efficiency norms, improvement in refinery processes and demand substitution.

The roadmap envisages a strategic role for biofuels in the Indian energy basket. Various notifications specifying standards for Compressed Natural Gas, Compressed Biogas, Biodiesel, Ethanol, LNG and Flex-fuel Methanol combinations have been issued by Government of India.

'SATAT’ (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) scheme on Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) was launched by Hon'ble Minister, Petroleum & Natural Gas on 1.10.2018. The scheme envisages to tar+get production of 15 MMT (million tons) of CBG by 2023, from 5000 Plants.

Under SATAT scheme, entrepreneurs shall set up CBG plants, produce & supply CBG to OMCs for sale as automotive & industrial fuels.

The initiative aims to produce compressed biogas (CBG) from Waste and Bio-mass sources like agricultural residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and sewage treatment plant waste.

PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) is inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants under SATAT scheme, and supply CBG to OMCs for sale as automotive & industrial fuel.

The CBG Plant Owner shall be responsible for planning, preparation, engineering and execution of the project, including storage of raw material, operation and maintenance of the plant, maintaining final product output quantity and quality and managing the by-products & wastes from the plant as per existing central / state norms."

"As a developing country, India requires more energy to progress as a nation and hence, it is important to meet the growing energy demand in a responsible manner.

SATAT, by producing CBG from wastes, would not only meet the growing energy demand in a responsible and eco-friendly manner, but also contribute to India’s commitment to GHG emission reduction.

The scheme enable better use of agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste. Considering the amount of biomass generated in the country, CBG has the potential to replace Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in automotive, industrial and commercial uses in the coming years.

SATAT initiative offers an efficient solution for treatment and disposal of municipal solid waste management and help in tackling problem urban air pollution due to farm stubble-burning. It will boost entrepreneurship, rural economy and employment and provide additional source of revenue to farmers.

It will also help to bring down nation's dependency on natural gas and crude oil imports and act as a buffer against crude oil and gas price fluctuations.

The decentralized system also provides a huge opportunity to supply CBG in remote locations where the affordability and access to modern energy is still a major challenge.

CBG produced can be integrated with existing Gas networks such as city gas distribution (CGD) networks to boost supplies to domestic and retail users in existing and upcoming markets.

Integrating with existing Gas network would futrther ensure efficient distribution and optimised access to cleaner and more affordable fuel."

Biogas is an energy-rich gas produced by anaerobic decomposition of biomass. It is produced from waste / bio-mass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste, etc.

Biogas, a renewable fuel, constitutes mainly of methane (~60%), carbon dioxide (~40%), and traces of hydrogen sulfide.

It can be burned directly as a fuel or purified & upgraded by removing carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and compressed to make Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG).

The CBG has methane content of more than 90%, which is similar to the commercially available natural gas in composition and energy potential.

Production of biogas could be a continuous process.

The utilization of biogas as an efficient energy source depends strongly on its methane concentration. Therefore, biogas purification is essential in order to have more energy per unit volume of compressed biogas and to get rid of the corrosive effect of H2S.

Biogas purification process increases the methane concentration and decreases the carbon dioxide concentration in biogas, which in turn would result in higher calorific value. The purified biogas is compressed as CBG with methane content of more than 90%, and the CBG shall be complied to IS 16087:2016 specifications of BIS.

Some of the technologies which are prevalent in removal of carbon dioxide are Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA), Water scrubbing, Membrane Separation and Chemical scrubbing - Monoethylammine (MEA) system.

Compression - The purified biogas with more than 90% of methane can be compressed at 250 bar, and transported in gas cylinders (cascades) for the end use.

Cascade storage & transportation: The compressed biogas will be filled and transported through cascades which is a group of high pressure cylindrical vessel.

For delivery of CBG, 3000 litres metal cascades or cascades of higher capacity shall be used.

Steel cylinder cascades and composite cascades may be used for transportation of CBG. For steel cylinder cascades, IS 7285 shall be applicable. If type-3 or type-4 composite cascades are used, respective BIS specifications like IS 15935 or relevant specifications shall be applicable.

CBG has calorific value and other properties similar to CNG and hence can be utilized as green renewable automotive fuel. Thus it can replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial areas.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India had permitted usage of bio-compressed natural gas (bio- CNG) for motor vehicles as an alternate composition of the compressed natural gas (CNG).

Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) produced from the CBG plant will be retailed through the CBG dispensing unit set-up by the Oil Marketing Companies within the radius of 25 kms. CBG supplied under SATAT scheme shall meet IS 16087:2016 specifications of BIS as follows:

1 Methane (CH4), minimum % 90.0%

2 Only Carbon Dioxide (CO2), maximum % 4%

3 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) + Nitrogen (N2) + Oxygen (O2), maximum % 10%

4 Oxygen (O2), maximum % 0.5%

5 Total sulphur (including H2S) mg/m3, maximum % 20 mg/m3

6 Moisture mg/m3, maximum % 5 mg/m3

Indian Fertiliser market is segmented into nitrogenous, phosphatic, potash, complex, secondary nutrient, and micronutrient fertilizers on the basis of product.

Based on their nature, fertilizers can be classified into chemical fertilizer and biofertilizer.

The fertilizer consumption is predominantly driven by urea i.e. ~55% of total consumption, followed by Diammonium phosphate (DAP), Muriate of potash (MOP) and Single superphosphate (SSP). India imports around 30% of its total fertilizer consumption.

In India, the penetration of organic fertilizer is very low i.e. the proportion of organic fertilizer of the total fertilizer consumption is only 0.29% for the year 2018-19 and 0.34% for the year 2019-20.

The fertilizer consumption in India was 156.3 kg/ha during the year 2010, which was a meagre 2 kg in 1950.

Increased consumption of synthetic chemical fertilizers played a pivotal role in increased crop production thus alleviating hunger in India, but has also resulted in some adverse effects on natural resources like disaster in soil quality and conceivable outcomes of water pollution.

Due to these unfavourable outcomes, greater emphasis is being laid on sustainable agriculture practices replacing chemical fertilizer with Organic/bio-fertilizer/compost.

Soil Health Helps by improving soil texture and structure, which increase water holding capacity and beneficial microbial activities Known to deteriorate soil health in long run. Leads to pollution.

Nutrient Content Nitrogen and Phosphorus content is often substantially lower. Nutrient content also vary with type of feedstock.

High or configured nutrient content.

Release of Nutrients They need to be broken down by soil organisms in order for their nutrients to be released and takes time.

Because they work slowly, nothing is wasted. Slow and steady Faster and immediate, but nutrients are vulnerable to run off, which is potential hazard for water bodies.

Volume and Transportation Requires high volume, thus ineffective cost of transportation. But use of locally available sources with enrichment is perfectly reasonable if its use is consistent with the production strategy. Less volume compared to Organic fertilizers creates a toxic concentration of salts if over-applied.

Nutrient quantity Difficult to have control as nutrient quantity varies with feedstock Easy to manage the quantity Output Healthy and sustainable food for population Known to contain toxic chemicals Support for Organic Farming

Government is undertaking various initiatives to promote organic fertilizer/compost in turn to encourage sustainable agriculture practices. The Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, and Government of India has notified the scheme for promotion of City Compost on 10.02.2016.

Under the scheme, Market Development Assistance (MDA) in the form of fixed amount of Rs. 1500 per tonne City Compost is provided on the sale of city compost to Fertilizer Marketing Companies as well as to City Compost manufacturers.

Further, to promote the manure produced from CBG plants, Fermented Organic manure and Bio-slurry have been included under FCO 1985.

More opportunities are being explored for marketing the Fermented Organic Manure through Oil & Gas Cos. network

Oil & gas companies shall facilitate Plant owners in design, erecting, construction, commissioning of the CBG Plants.

Oil & gas companies will off-take and market the CBG produced.

Oil & gas companies will also facilitate marketing of Bio-manure produced from the CBG Plants. For facilitating the same, IndianOil has entered into MoU with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED).

Oil & gas companies are entering into MoU with State Governments for facilitating CBG plants. IndianOil has entered into MoU with Government of Punjab and Government of Haryana for facilitating setting up of CBG Plants. Execution of similar MoU sare also being explored with State Governments of Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Policy guideline has been issued for synchronization of CBG produced by plants under SATAT scheme in the City Gas Distribution (CGD network).

As per the revised Priority Sector Lending (PSL) guidelines issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) dated 04th September 2020, Loans for setting up Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plants have been included as fresh categories eligible for finance under priority sector, which would enable better credit penetration for setting-up CBG plants.

Fertilizer control order To promote the manure produced from CBG plants, Fermented Organic manure (FOM) and Digested Biogas Slurry have been included under Fertilizer Control Order (FCO) 1985.

Central Financial Assistance (CFA) provided by MNRE Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides capital subsidy for Compressed Biogas (CBG) projects under “Programme on Energy from Urban, Industrial, Agricultural Wastes/Residues and Municipal Solid Waste”.

As per the revised guideline dated 28th February 2020, the scheme is extended till 31st March 2021 or till the date the recommendations of 15th FC come into effect. Details of MNRE subsidy for CBG projects (as per the latest guidelines) are as follows:

Posted On: 08 DEC 2022 2:41PM by PIB Delhi

Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative launched in October, 2018 envisages setting up of 5000 Compressed Biogas (CBG) plants for production of 15 Million Metric Ton (MMT) per annum of CBG by 2023-24.

As on 31st October 2022 Oil and Gas Marketing Companies participating in SATAT have issued 3694 Letters of Intent (LoI) to entrepreneurs for procurement of CBG produced by them. Further, 38 CBG/biogas plants with installed capacity around 225 MT per annum have been commissioned by LoI holders.

Phase I Umbrella scheme of National Bioenergy Programmes of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy which inter-alia provides subsidy/Central Financial Assistance to all kinds of biogas plants has been extended upto 31.03.2026.

In order to reduce import dependency of the country in fossil fuels, Government has taken multiple steps / launched various policy initiatives to increase the domestic production of crude oil & natural gas and adopted strategies for promotion of biofuels, gas based economy, energy efficiency & energy conservation, improvement in refinery process and increasing renewable energy generation capacity.

Government has notified Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan - Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana for promoting Second Generation (2G) ethanol production from cellulosic and lignocellulosic including petrochemical route in the country by providing financial support.

Oil Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) are setting up Second Generation (2G) ethanol bio-refineries in the country.

2G ethanol plant at Panipat (Haryana) has been set up and dedicated to the Nation by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 10.08.2022.

Plants at Bathinda (Punjab), Bargarh (Odisha), Numaligarh (Assam) are in advanced stages of construction.