Compressed biogas, from the field to the pump

Feedstock is the organic raw material fed into a biogas plant - cattle dung, crop residues, press mud, food and municipal organic waste, and energy grasses. Its type and quality decide how much gas the plant makes, and its reliability decides whether the plant runs at all.

Paddy straw is the stalk left after the rice harvest - abundant across India and often burned, which is a major air-pollution source. It is fibrous and lignocellulosic, so it digests slowly and usually needs size reduction and co-digestion with a nitrogen-rich feed.

Press mud, or filter cake, is the residue left after sugarcane juice is clarified. It yields roughly 140-160 cubic metres of biogas per tonne and, crucially, arrives in bulk at a single site - which removes the aggregation problem that starves plants running on scattered residues.

Yes. Napier, or elephant grass, is a fast-growing energy crop that gives methane-rich biogas - about 63.5% methane as a mono-substrate in one study. It is lignocellulosic, so pretreatment and co-digestion improve yield, and it is water-hungry despite its drought tolerance.

Biogas is the gas produced when microbes break down organic matter without oxygen, a process called anaerobic digestion. It is mainly methane and carbon dioxide, with traces of hydrogen sulphide and water vapour. Raw biogas typically contains 50-70% methane.

Raw biogas is the untreated gas straight from the digester - roughly 50-70% methane and 30-45% carbon dioxide, plus trace hydrogen sulphide and water vapour. It must be cleaned and upgraded before it can be sold as CBG.

Methane (CH4) is the energy-carrying, combustible part of biogas, and the same molecule that makes up most of natural gas. The more methane a gas contains, the higher its fuel value.

It is the natural, oxygen-free breakdown of organic matter by microbes, producing biogas and a nutrient-rich residue called digestate. It happens inside a sealed tank called a digester.

Compressed Biogas is raw biogas that has been cleaned of CO2, H2S and moisture to at least 90% methane, then compressed to about 250 bar so it can be used like CNG. Meeting the Indian standard IS 16087 is what makes it CBG rather than upgraded biogas.

Biogas is the raw 50-70% methane gas from the digester. Biomethane is biogas upgraded to above about 90% methane. CBG is Indian-standard biomethane compressed to roughly 250 bar for sale. Bio-CNG is a common synonym for CBG.

Chemically they are nearly identical - both are mostly methane - so CBG runs in the same vehicles and the same networks as CNG. The difference is origin: CBG is renewable and made from waste, which is what earns it a blending mandate and a policy price.

It must meet IS 16087 - methane above 90% - plus limits on moisture, H2S, CO2 and inerts, so it performs like natural gas in the same equipment. Meeting the BIS specification is a legal precondition for commercial sale, not a quality preference.

Under SATAT the state oil marketing companies - IndianOil, BPCL and HPCL - buy CBG under long-term agreements and sell it at their retail outlets. CGD companies buy it through GAIL's synchronisation scheme, and industrial users and direct retail are additional routes.

Yes. The original SATAT floor was 46 rupees per kg plus taxes, and under the synchronisation scheme a floor of 770 rupees per MMBTU applies. Pricing is now largely administered or formula-based rather than a single fixed rate, so quote the regime along with the number.

It can be, with commonly cited returns of roughly 14-20% IRR and a 4-6 year payback - but only where feedstock is secured cheaply, uptime reaches 85-90% and the digestate is monetised. Assured OMC offtake removes market risk; it does not remove execution risk, and the returns are execution-dependent.

Promoter equity plus bank and NBFC debt - Bank of Baroda has a CBG line for plants of 2 TPD and above, and NABARD refinances rural projects - alongside MNRE capital subsidy and state incentives. CBG carries RBI Priority Sector Lending status, and GOBARdhan (2026) adds a credit guarantee covering up to 85% of eligible MSME loans.

Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation, launched on 1 October 2018 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is the scheme under which oil marketing companies invite entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants and guarantee offtake. Its headline aim was 5,000 CBG plants.

Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan began in 2018 as a Swachh Bharat waste-to-energy programme. It was consolidated by Cabinet approval on 6 August 2026 into a National Circular Bioenergy Scheme under MoPNG, with a 23,731 crore rupee outlay aimed at a near ten-fold rise in CBG output.

It is the National Unified Scheme for Compressed Biogas, approved on 6 August 2026 with a 23,731 crore rupee outlay running FY2026-27 to FY2035-36, consolidating the CBG ecosystem under one ministry. It bundles assured offtake, an administered price, capital assistance, pipeline connectivity and credit support into a single decade-long framework.

As of 6 August 2026 the GOBARdhan portal recorded 1,908 registered CBG and Bio-CNG plants, of which 217 were commissioned - producing 0.4 MMSCMD - with 339 under construction. Registered and commissioned are very different numbers and must never be conflated.

cbg-sim is a free, India-first plant builder and steady-state model. You place blocks on a canvas - feedstock into a digester, gas through a scrubber and compressor, out to an offtake - and watch margin, payback, CBG sold, the process envelope and the supply calendar move as you change it. It is explicit about what it models and what it does not.

No. Building, simulating and touring a plant need no account. Saving a named project, sharing a link and generating a brief do, because those outlive the tab - but the tool works fully before you sign in.

Three ways. Describe the plant in a sentence - something like 5 TPD napier and pressmud near Jewargi - and a sized, wired plant appears with numbers running. Or start from an empty canvas and place blocks yourself. Or use the quick calculator for yield, cost and land without the canvas at all.