Punjab will Invest in Biofuel Projects to Reduce Stubble Burning

Invest Punjab has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Punjab State Office-Renewable Gas Association of India to establish bio-fuel projects and compressed bio-gas plants (Bio-CNG) to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from stubble burning.

The Renewable Gas Association of India (RGAI) was formed to provide solutions for increasing and optimizing renewable gas production and utilization.

Subodh Kumar, former Executive Director of Indian Oil and RGAI President, said in response to the signing of the pact, “This will serve as an advocacy voice for the protection, preservation, and promotion of renewable gas to create additional and diverse market demand for renewable gas.”

Maninder Singh, General Secretary of the RGAI, stated that they will encourage the production of renewable gas from all feedstocks, using competing and sustainable technologies for all end-use applications.

“This will help to scale-up the potential, owing to the abundance of unutilized agricultural feedstock- an estimated 140 million tonnes of agricultural crop residues are generated annually -and growing consumption of CNG and bio-CNG, the most cost-effective fuel when compared to petrol or diesel.”

According to Ashish Kumar, Managing Director of VERBIO India Pvt Ltd, the company building India's largest bio-fuel plant in Punjab, renewable gas could emerge as one of the most promising industrial sectors in Punjab, with sustainable and all-inclusive growth.

“An annual surplus volume of 20-25 million tonnes of agricultural residue, the majority of which is burned, results in 31 MMT of GHG emissions in less than 75 days (mid-Sep to end-Nov). This massive amount of waste has the potential to be the next big opportunity in the renewable gas sector.”

The purpose of the MoU is to establish an investment facilitation platform on behalf of industry stakeholders in order to promote growth and investments in the renewable gas sector by providing an interface to the government (central government, agriculture and energy departments of the state government), academia, and end-use application areas in Punjab.