Pune-based Praj Industries claims to have received confirmation for setting up five projects for compressed biogas (CBG) from a business conglomerate. It is expected to be completed in 15–18 months, the company said on Wednesday. The company did not reveal the name of the customer.
The development comes even as the Centre launched the National Biofuels Policy and Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative in 2018, to promote Compressed Biogas (CBG) as a green transport fuel. Under this initiative, 5,000 CBG plants are expected to be rolled out across India in a phased manner. They are expected to produce 15 million tonnes of CBG per annum, which is about 40% of the current CNG consumption of 44 million tonnes per annum in the country, generating direct employment for 75,000 people, and producing 50 million tonnes of bio-manure.
CBG is produced from various biomass/waste sources including agricultural residue, municipal solid waste, sugarcane press mud, distillery spent wash, cattle dung, and sewage treatment plant waste.
As per reports, the government plans to introduce a 5% CBG mandate for all organisations marketing natural and biogas, to reduce oil imports and the carbon footprint. CBG has calorific value and other properties similar to CNG, and hence can be utilised as green renewable automotive fuel. Thus, it can replace CNG in automotive, industrial, and commercial areas, given the abundance of biomass availability within the country. India currently imports nearly 77% of its crude oil requirements and about 50% of its natural gas requirement.
Meanwhile, Praj Industries’ net profit for Q1 FY24 was up by 42.15% at Rs 58.65 crore in comparison to Rs 41.26 crore in Q1 FY23. Its net sales were marginally up by 0.94% at Rs 736.72 crore from the corresponding period of the previous year when it clocked Rs 729.87 crore.