Biogas Upgrading and Bottling Technology for Vehicular and Cooking Applications - Management of Natural Resources in a Changing Environment - page 143

Table 2 Suggested standards
for biogas composition in
India

No. Biogas component Percentage

1 Methane (CH 4 ) ≥ 90 %

2 Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) ≤ 4 %

3 Hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S) ≤ 20 ppm

≤

4 Moisture 0.02 g m −3

In India, Bureau of Indian Standards has formulised standards for upgraded bio-
gas use in stationary engines and in vehicles. But these standards can only be imple-
mented if the other legal authorisations are fulfi lled for the utilisation of biogas in
vehicles or as a transport fuel. Standards for biogas composition have been devel-
oped and are being processed through Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
The purpose of these standards and policies is to provide general guidelines for
the upgraded biogas composition, and its fi lling into CNG cylinders. In the pro-
posed standards, the composition of purifi ed biogas suitable for fi lling in CNG cyl-
inders (at 200 bar) is as shown in Table 2 .

Status of Biogas Upgrading and Bottling Plants Sanctioned
by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

In India four pilot-scale biogas upgrading and bottling projects have been
installed since 2006 where the bottled biogas is used as a vehicle fuel for captive
use (MNRE 2011b , http://www.mrne.gov.in/mnre-2010/related-links/r-d/rd-
projects/ ). Details of these are given in Table 3 . Under the demonstration stage,
the Ministry is providing central fi nancial assistance (CFA) for implementation
of projects on entrepreneurial mode. So far 21 biogas bottling projects with an
aggregate capacity of 37,016 cum/day have been sanctioned in ten states in
India which are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra,
Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
(Bamboriya 2012 ).
Under technology demonstration of new RDD&D Policy of the Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Ministry took up a new initiative for
bottling of biogas to demonstrate an Integrated Technology-package in entrepre-
neurial mode on medium size (200-1,000 cum/day) mixed feed biogas-fertilizer
plants (BGFP) for generation, purifi cation/upgrading, bottling and piped distri-
bution of biogas. Installation of such plants aims at meeting stationary and
motive power, cooling, refrigeration and electricity needs in addition to cooking
and heating requirements. There could be a huge potential of installation of
medium size biogas-fertilizer plants in the country. Under the demonstration
phase, the Ministry is providing a central fi nancial assistance of 50 % of the cost
(excluding cost of land) for a limited number of such projects for implementa-
tion following an entrepreneurial mode on Built Own and Operate (BOO) and
re-imbursement basis.