Adani Group, RIL to set up biogas plants at Rs 500-600 cr investment each

Adani and Reliance Group are planning to set up 40-million tonne per annum (mtpa) plants in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, while Reliance Industries is still formalising the two locations

The Adani and Reliance Group are each planning to invest Rs 500-600 crore and set up compressed biogas (CBG) plants, a media report said on Wednesday.

According to The Economic Times, Gautam Adani-led Adani New Industries (ANIL) is planning to set up 40-million tonne per annum (mtpa) plants in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, while Reliance Industries is still formalising the two locations.
 

Produced by anaerobic decomposition of agricultural waste, sugarcane press mud, and municipal waste, compressed biogas can be used as a replacement for piped natural gas for domestic usage.

"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," an industry executive aware of the matter told ET.

Adani and Reliance industries will feed biogas into their fuel retail outlets and CGD network, the executive added.

Reliance Industries with an equal partnership with BP have a fuel retailing joint, Reliance BP Mobility, which has over 1,400 outlets in the country under the brand name Jio-bp, while Adani Total Gas operates in the city gas distribution segment. 

The attractive price of CBG has made the segment lucrative for private players, another industry official told ET. 

In 2018, when the sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation scheme was envisaged, the pricing was at around Rs 46-56 per kilogram. Now, it has increased to Rs 70-76 a kilogram, it reported.

In October 2018, the central government launched a scheme to boost the production and availability of CBG as an alternative and affordable clean fuel. It envisaged setting up of 5,000 CBG plants by FY 2023-24.