To find a sustainable solution to the problem of stubble burning and supplement the income of farmers of the state, Punjab Government has planned to utilize around 1.8 Million Ton (MT) paddy straw in the under implementation 43 Compressed Biogas (CBG) Projects per annum, Aman Arora, Minister of New and Renewable Energy Sources, said on Tuesday.
Chairing a CBG Developers' Meet at PEDA Complex here, the Minister said that the state is in process of forming Core Group of all stakeholders like PEDA, GAIL, CGD Companies, CBG producers and PBIP, to coordinate for off-take of CBG through gas pipelines. He said that Asia's largest CBG plant with a total capacity of 33.23 Ton Per Day (TPD) has already been commissioned in Sangrur and another CBG project of 12 TPD capacity has been commissioned at Khanna and is under trial run. Presently, about 3 Ton CBG is produced in the plant daily.
As many as 41 additional CBG projects, which have been allotted by Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA), are under implementation at various stages of execution and expected to be commissioned in the next 2 years, he added.
On completion, all these projects will produce 515.58 TPD CBG per annum by consuming around 2 million ton of Agriculture residue annually, said Arora, while adding that the state has the potential to set up 200 more CBG projects of 10 TPD capacity each in addition to the above projects as around 20 millon ton of paddy straw is produced per annum in the state.
Assuring every possible support to CBG developers from the state government side, Arora said that Punjab Government has been providing many incentives such as exemption from land registration charges & stamp duty, electricity charges, exemption from CLU & EDC charges, besides ensuring all facilities at Single Stop Clearances through Invest Punjab.
He said that the Punjab Government has already constituted a Task Force for the off-take of Fermented Organic Manure (FOM) produced by CBG projects based on agriculture residue in the State. He said that Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana has already been directed to conduct a feasibility study on FOM for its utilization in Agriculture and Horticulture and submit a detailed report.