“Adani and RIL are both planning to enter the segment with multiple plants,” a senior executive at an oil marketing company said. ANIL and RIL did not respond to ET’s email seeking comment.
CBG is produced by anaerobic decomposition of agricultural waste, sugarcane press mud, and municipal waste. CBG is also being considered to produce green hydrogen and could be used as a replacement for piped natural gas for domestic use.
“We can sell both CBG and compressed natural gas (CNG) as an automotive fuel from our retail outlets as well as inject CBG in our city gas distribution (CGD) network to boost supplies to domestic and retail users,” another industry executive who is aware of the development said.
RIL and ANIL will feed CBG into their fuel retail outlets and CGD network, the person added.
RIL, with equal partner BP, has a fuel retailing joint venture called Reliance BP Mobility, which operates a network of over 1,400 outlets under the Jio-bp brand.
Adani Group subsidiary Adani Total Gas operates in the city gas distribution segment. Another executive with knowledge of the development said the attractive pricing of CBG has made it a lucrative segment for private players.
“In 2018, when the sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation scheme was envisaged, the pricing was at around INR46-56 per kilogram. Now, it has increased to INR70-76 a kilogram,” said the first executive quoted earlier in the story.
The bio-manure generated after the production of CBG can be a valuable fertilizer and can be used for farming and improving soil health, the person said. In October 2018, the government launched the scheme to boost production and availability of CBG as an alternative and affordable clean fuel for transportation.
The scheme envisaged setting up of 5,000 CBG plants by financial year 2023-24.
The biogas produced contains up to 60% methane, 40-45% carbon dioxide and traces of hydrogen sulphide.