National Biogas Roadmap for India
The World Biogas Association INDIA Congress 2025, held on December 3–4 in New Delhi, delivered a clear, data-rich verdict on India’s renewable gas path: the country’s goal to become a global biomethane leader can only be achieved through a decisive shift toward research-driven innovation, unified regulatory standards, and top-tier operational skills. Over two days of intense policy and technical sessions, international experts, researchers, and policymakers conveyed a nuanced yet strong message that India has the biomass, the market, and the urgency. Still, it lacks the technical and financial depth needed for global leadership.
A Sector Held Back by Fragmentation
The opening sessions highlighted a systemic policy challenge: India’s biogas ecosystem is hindered by inconsistent regulations and fragmented governance. Speakers emphasized that the country urgently needs a unified national biogas regulatory framework to reduce fragmentation and ensure long-term policy stability. WBA’s flagship #MakingBiogasHappen program is created to achieve this objective. A workshop on the #MakingBiogasHappen Global Biogas Regulatory Framework offers a solution to eliminate these divisions and foster an environment conducive to sector growth. “Without an integrated policy architecture for the biogas sector, India will continue to build pilots, not momentum.”
Experts compared India to success stories like Denmark and Germany, where consistent long-term mandates for renewable gas created predictable markets and reduced investment risks. The Congress warned that unless India builds similar coherence, its large feedstock advantage might not lead to global competitiveness.
Rapid Global Advances: India’s Biogas Sector Must Catch Up
A recurring theme throughout the Congress was the technological revolution transforming the global biomethane industry. Presenters highlighted advancements that have improved efficiency and commercial viability. Next-generation upgrading systems now routinely reach 99.5 percent biomethane purity with minimal methane slip, greatly surpassing the PSA-based systems commonly used in India. Liquefied Biogas (LBG) was identified as a game-changer, providing cost-effective transportation that doesn’t rely on pipelines—an important advantage for India, where pipeline infrastructure is still uneven. Hybrid biogas plants capable of producing biomethane, rDME, hydrogen, and bio-LPG were emphasized as the future of integrated biorefineries. As one speaker noted, “Next-generation technologies now enable high-purity biomethane and diversified fuel production. Hence, India must invest aggressively in localizing and adapting these systems.” “If India wants to lead in biogas/biomethane, it must first lead in biogas/biomethane policy and technology innovations.”
Feedstock: India’s Greatest Strength and Weakest Link
Despite abundant biomass, India faces challenges in ensuring a consistent, high-quality feedstock supply round the year. The Congress repeatedly highlighted feedstock accessibility, not just availability, as the country’s main structural obstacle. Fragmented farmer networks, moisture variability, transportation issues, and inadequate storage lower plant reliability.
Technical experts explained that AI-enabled predictive models, GPS-linked logistics, satellite imagery, and blockchain traceability are becoming indispensable globally for stabilising feedstock flows. “India has a huge stock of biomass, but without reliable supply chains, it does not yet have the feedstock required to meet the year round requirements of the biogas plants.”
India’s Untapped Digestate Potential
One of the most important insights from the Congress was the economic and environmental potential of digestate/FOM often overlooked despite making up 85 to 90 percent of a biogas plant’s output. The sessions showed how biotechnology can raise digestate from an underused by-product to a high-value agricultural resource. “Digestate or FOM generally accounts for 85 to 90% of the total mass produced from anaerobic digestion, a fact well-supported by global literature, engineering mass-balance studies, and biogas plant operational data. Its nutrient-rich makeup makes it one of the most valuable yet underused parts of the biogas value chain, providing significant economic and environmental advantages when properly processed and marketed.”
However, India’s heavy dependence on subsidized urea still limits its adoption. The Congress appreciated the inclusion of FOM and LFOM in the Fertilizer Control Order but pointed out that market development, farmer education, and quality testing remain inadequate. Experts urged for a national digestate strategy that views it as a key revenue source rather than an operational burden.“Digestate/FOM is India’s biggest untapped wealth : 90% of the output should not be 0% of the strategy.”
Biomethane for Industrial Decarbonisation
The Congress highlighted that industrial fuel switching is one of the fastest and most scalable pathways to biomethane adoption. Industries in Punjab and Haryana have already demonstrated successful transitions from LPG, furnace oil, and diesel to CBG through burner modifications and flow-control adjustments. Presenters noted strong central support through Gobardhan subsidies, dedicated pipeline schemes, and long-term OMC offtake contracts. Yet the conversation repeatedly returned to two unresolved issues: pricing clarity and supply reliability. Experts argued that WBA’s role in establishing standardized biomethane quality protocols, along with technical training for industrial operators. “Decarbonising industry is not a technological challenge anymore, it is also a standard and certification challenge.”
Biomethane for Decarbonising Hard-to-Abate Industrial Sectors
Biomethane has become a practical pathway for decarbonizing India’s steel, cement, chemical, and power sectors. Early industrial conversions have shown that CBG can reliably replace LPG, FO, and diesel when supported by strong supply chains and clear pricing frameworks. The panel highlighted that expanding pipelines, establishing industrial-grade standards, and valorizing digestate will be key to scaling adoption across hard-to-abate clusters. “Biomethane is India’s most immediately deployable fuel for deep industrial decarbonisation.”
“Biomethane is no longer an experimental fuel. It is the most practical decarbonisation pathway for India’s hardest-to-abate industries.”
WBA’s ADCS and GBRF
One of the Congress’s most significant contributions was a workshop presenting the Anaerobic Digestion Certification Scheme (ADCS) International, which is globally recognized for enhancing operational excellence, safety, and monitoring discipline. The scheme’s 11 modules cover everything from engineering documentation and SOP management to digester health, Health & Safety compliance, LDAR routines, environmental safeguards, and workforce skill development. For India, ADCS provides a blueprint to raise the national technical standard. When combined with traceability and carbon intensity tracking, WBA’s #MakingBiogasHappen program is positioned as an essential enabler for India’s entry into biomethane markets. “Standards and Certification will unlock scale, safety, health, and investor confidence in the Biogas Sector”.
India’s Most Urgent Gap: A National Biogas R&D Hub
The Congress ended with a clear and strong consensus: India’s future in biogas depends on creating a well-funded, coordinated, national R&D level institional infrastructure. Experts noted that current research groups, whether at IITs, Kapurthala labs, or private facilities, operate in isolation, lacking coordination and practical integration. Equally concerning is the lack of laboratory testing capacity and data-driven monitoring, which weakens plant reliability and investment prospects. The Congress strongly advocated the establishment of a National Biogas R&D Hub bringing together academia, industry, financiers, and state governments to build an innovation corridor for biomethane technology, digestate biotechnology, feedstock digitalisation, and next-generation upgrading systems.
“India has the feedstock, the
market demand, and the motivation. What it needs now is the technical innovation and R & D ecosystem, targeted financing, policy incentives, and local human resources to operate the plants efficiently and productively.”
A Transformative Decade of Biogas Ahead
As the World Biogas Association INDIA Congress 2025 concluded, one message echoed throughout the sessions: India’s biogas sector is ready
for a big transformation, but its path will be shaped not only by policy announcements but also by technical rigor, global standards, digital integration, human skilss, and ongoing innovation. The coming decade for biogas is not just about growth, it is a strategic necessity
for energy security, climate action, rural development, waste management, industrial decarbonization, and circular economy. If India adopts standards, certification, research, and global alignment with the enthusiasm along with a strong public infrastructure, it can become one of the world’s most influential biogas gas markets. The Congress established the solid foundations; now, India’s policymakers, industries, innovators,
and research institutions need to come together and take the next step to create a Transformative Biogas Decade in the years ahead.
Why India Needs a National Biogas Roadmap?
Worldwide, humans directly or indirectly produce over 105 billion tonnes of organic wastes each year, which includes food waste, food and beverage processing waste, animal manures and slurries, crop residues, and human sewage. If left untreated, these wastes release methane as they decompose, which is 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 during its first 20 years. This significantly contributes to climate change. When adequately treated, these organic ‘wastes’ could help meet half of the Global Methane Pledge, reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 11%, and reduce global warming by 0.1 degrees. India has enormous biogas potential due to its status as the world’s most populous country and its agricultural strength. The available feedstock volumes suggest that approximately 62 MMT of bioCNG an be produced, which would sufficiently meet over 9% of India’s current energy demand.
Biogas: An Imperative for India
India stands at a crucial crossroads concerning its energy and food security, waste management, and natural resource management. As the quality of life improves, India’s energy demand is projected to escalate from approximately 11,500 TWh to around 26,000 TWh by 2050. However, this increasing demand brings significant challenges, including energy and food security, environmental degradation, waste generation, and a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels. In this context, investing in biogas represents a strategic step for India, as it provides an extraordinary economic opportunity for the country to become a world leader in this sector. The biogas sector would not only create over 1 million new jobs and generate 9% of India’s energy demand, thereby improving its energy security, but it would also save $27 billion in LNG imports.
National Policies
Multiple ministries, departments, and agencies are involved in promoting biogas at both national and state levels in India. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, along with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, have enacted national policies and initiated several programs to scale up the biogas industry in the country. Some innovative national biogas programs include SATAT; Waste-to-Wealth plants under the GOBARdhan Scheme; the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme; the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban/Rural); the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation; and the National Biofuel Policy 2018-.
Rationale
Existing policies and incentives have not catalyzed the desired growth in India's biogas sector. Although the government has initiated several innovative
programs, targeted policies, and financial incentives, the biogas sector in India has not expanded or performed as expected. It is increasingly evident that the current national policy ecosystem and institutional framework are inadequate to meet the target of establishing 5,000 large-scale biogas plants by 2030, with only 94 biogas plants commissioned so far. The challenge remains to achieve the national goal of safely, commercially, and professionally delivering 5,000 large-scale biogas plants in just over five years. Developing a comprehensive biogas roadmap at the national level would represent a concrete step forward in harnessing the immense potential of biogas by 2030.
Proposal
The national biogas roadmap will envisage, among others, the following key elements:
- Aligning interests of multiple stakeholders across relevant ministries, departments, agencies, institutions, and sectors
- Developing a comprehensive policy regulatory framework covering all aspects
- Setting up standards and certification schemes to ensure high-performing biogas plants
- Highlighting financial incentives, investment and funding opportunities, and innovative financial tools to mitigate financial risks
- Analyzing life cycle assessment of the entire biogas supply chain and linking to emerging carbon markets
- Supporting a capacity-building programme to train the necessary workforce rapidly
- Modelling the supply chain requirements to ensure investment in the required supply chains
- Proposing robust Data and R & D strategies
Lead Ministry
The national biogas roadmap will be led by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and facilitated by the WBA. Other key partner ministries include Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Fisheries, and Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers at the national level, along with the relevant nodal departments and agencies at the state level.
