Facility

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.

The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio compares how much carbon a feedstock carries relative to nitrogen, and it controls how well the microbes work. The generally accepted optimum for anaerobic digestion is about 20:1 to 30:1. Too much carbon and the culture runs slow; too much nitrogen and it poisons itself with ammonia.

Raw biogas at 55-65% methane carries about 20-23 MJ per cubic metre, because only the methane fraction holds energy. Pure methane is about 35.8 MJ per cubic metre, and one cubic metre of biogas is roughly equivalent to 0.5-0.6 litres of diesel.

Carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water vapour in biogas are inert and carry no combustion energy, so calorific value scales almost linearly with methane content. Upgrading from about 60% to over 90% methane concentrates the energy per cubic metre, which is what makes CBG saleable as a vehicle fuel rather than a boiler gas.

An inoculum is a starter culture of active anaerobic microbes, usually digestate or slurry from a running digester, or cattle dung. Without seeding, a new digester can take months to establish stable methanogenesis, so the inoculum is what shortens the start-up lag.

Foaming is a stable layer of gas-filled bubbles on the digester surface, usually triggered by overloading, or by feed rich in surfactants, proteins or fats. It can block gas offtake, carry slurry into the gas lines and force an unplanned shutdown.

Hydrolysis breaks complex polymers into monomers; acidogenesis turns those into volatile fatty acids; acetogenesis converts them to acetic acid, hydrogen and CO2; methanogenesis produces methane. For fibrous feedstocks hydrolysis is usually the rate-limiting step, which is why pretreatment matters so much for straw and grass.

Total solids (TS) is the dry mass left after water is removed. Volatile solids (VS) is the organic, digestible fraction of TS - the part that actually converts to biogas. Yield is best expressed per kg VS, because a wet tonne of dung is mostly water.

Biochemical Methane Potential is a lab batch test measuring the maximum methane a feedstock can yield per kg VS under ideal conditions. It sets a theoretical ceiling; real plants achieve only a fraction of it, so sizing a plant off BMP alone will oversize the gas and undersize the disappointment.

Hydraulic Retention Time is the average time feedstock stays in the digester - digester volume divided by the daily feed volume. Single-stage mesophilic systems typically run 15-40 days. Cut it too short and material leaves before the microbes have finished with it.

Organic Loading Rate is how much organic matter (kg VS) is fed per cubic metre of digester per day. Overloading is the classic way to kill a digester: acid builds up faster than the methanogens can consume it, pH falls, and gas production collapses for weeks.

Mesophilic runs at about 35-37 degrees C and is more stable; thermophilic runs at about 50-57 degrees C, is faster and kills pathogens better, but is more sensitive to upset. Daily temperature drift should be kept small - on the order of 0.6 degrees C per day.

Bulk digester pH should sit around 6.5-8, and methanogens prefer 6.5-8.2. The earliest warning of instability is not pH itself but a rising ratio of volatile fatty acids to alkalinity - pH only moves once the buffer is already spent.

High-nitrogen feedstocks release ammonia, and free ammonia inhibits methanogens. Inhibition generally begins around 1,500-3,000 mg/L total ammonia nitrogen in unacclimated systems, with free ammonia near 150-200 mg/L marking serious onset. Acclimated cultures tolerate substantially more, above 5,000 mg/L.

Hydrogen sulphide is corrosive and toxic. It damages engines, compressors and pipelines, and must be removed before upgrading. IS 16087:2016 caps total sulphur, including H2S, at 20 mg per cubic metre in finished CBG.

The Symons-Buswell stoichiometric equation estimates theoretical methane and CO2 yield for an organic compound from its elemental composition, assuming complete biodegradation. It gives an upper bound - a theoretical BMP - and real BMP is lower, so operators apply a biodegradability factor.

The food-to-microorganism ratio expresses feed mass (as COD or VS) per unit of active biomass; OLR is feed per unit of reactor volume per day. A high F/M can overload the methanogens and cause volatile fatty acids to accumulate even when OLR looks acceptable on paper.

Iron, nickel, cobalt, selenium, molybdenum and tungsten are enzyme cofactors for methanogens, and deficiency shows up as VFA accumulation and eventual failure. A 2025 review fitted effective ranges of roughly 0.56-1.67 mg/g VS iron, 0.01-0.1 mg/g VS cobalt and 0.04-0.5 mg/g VS nickel, with efficiency falling once doses run above those ranges.

Long-chain fatty acids released from fats, oils and grease adsorb onto microbial cell walls and inhibit methanogenesis, causing a lag or a stall even though the fat itself is energy-rich. Fat-rich feeds are therefore added carefully and usually co-digested at controlled ratios.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria convert sulfur in the feed to hydrogen sulfide. It is controlled either at source - dosing a little air or oxygen into the headspace, or adding iron salts - or downstream with an iron sponge, activated carbon or a biological scrubber.

Two-stage digestion separates hydrolysis and acidogenesis in a first reactor from methanogenesis in a second, letting each microbial group work at its own optimum pH and retention time. It can raise yield and stability for some feedstocks, at the cost of extra capital and control complexity.

Psychrophilic digestion runs below about 20 degrees C on cold-tolerant microbes. Rates are slow, so it needs long retention times and large reactor volumes. Most commercial CBG plants run mesophilic because it balances reaction rate against stability.

Low-pressure raw biogas is buffered in double-membrane gas holders - an inner gas membrane under an outer weather membrane held taut by an air blower. These absorb short-term mismatches between production and demand; they are buffers, not high-pressure storage.

It drives both biogas yield and digester stability, so it decides how much sellable gas a feedstock mix produces and how often the plant trips. High-carbon feedstocks such as paddy straw are usually co-digested with high-nitrogen dung to reach the 20-30:1 window - and that is a procurement commitment, not a setting on a control panel.

Acidification from overloading or a C:N imbalance, which stalls methanogenesis and cuts gas output for weeks. Conservative loading and co-digestion are cheap insurance against a failure whose recovery time is measured in lost revenue.

Methane's GWP is about 28-30 over 100 years and around 80 over 20 years, so avoided methane is the core climate value of CBG. The same potency means on-site leakage sharply erodes the net benefit, which is why diligence should require leak detection and a specified maximum methane slip rather than taking the carbon claim on trust.

Fresh digestate leaving the main digester still holds residual biogas potential. Stored open, it emits methane and undermines the emissions balance; a covered post-digestion tank captures that residual gas, adding yield and protecting the carbon claim at the same time.

Secure a reliable feedstock supply first, then pick a site with land, water and a way to move gas out; choose digester and upgrading technology; get an offtake letter of intent from an OMC or a GAIL synchronisation agreement; clear the pollution board, PESO, factory and land approvals; then build and commission. Feedstock security is the make-or-break step, and it comes before the site, not after it.

Confirm feedstock availability with a long supply horizon, identify a site - typically 5-10 acres for a 5-10 TPD plant - and engage an oil marketing company with an Expression of Interest to secure a Letter of Intent. The LOI from IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL or IGL is the gateway to bankability.

Pollution control boards generally categorise CBG plants as White - the least polluting class - which simplifies Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate. Typical CBG scales also avoid full Environmental Clearance under the EIA notification. PESO remains the safety-critical approval regardless.

Broadly: secure the LOI, obtain Consent to Establish plus land and panchayat NOCs, run detailed engineering and construction, clear PESO and fire approvals, obtain Consent to Operate, then commission. Approvals run in parallel with engineering, and developers are repeatedly advised to map them before ordering equipment rather than after.

PESO, under the SMPV rules, licenses high-pressure storage and handling of compressed gas at 250 bar - which makes it the most safety-critical regulatory dimension of a CBG plant. It rewards early specialist engagement at the engineering stage, because a late PESO submission moves the commissioning date directly.

Typically: State Pollution Control Board Consent to Establish and Consent to Operate; a PESO licence for high-pressure storage and dispensing; factory or establishment registration under the OSH Code 2020; fire NOC under NBC 2016; land-use conversion where needed; hazardous-waste authorisation where applicable; GOBARdhan registration; and an OMC or GAIL offtake agreement. The exact stack varies by state, capacity and location.

Registration on the GOBARdhan unified portal records the project - location, capacity, feedstock - and is how the national plant count is compiled. It is a registration step, not a licence: it substitutes for none of the pollution consents, PESO or land approvals.

A bankable DPR covers feedstock assessment, technology selection, mass and energy balance, capex and opex, statutory approvals, financing structure and sensitivity analysis. Both lenders and subsidy disbursement hinge on it, so a thin DPR delays money as well as approval.

A hazard and operability study and a quantitative risk assessment systematically identify process hazards and quantify the resulting risk. Given flammable gas and 250-bar storage they belong at the engineering stage, where they inform safety setbacks, fire design and PESO compliance rather than documenting a design already frozen.

About one acre per TPD is a common planning figure - 5-10 acres for a 5-10 TPD plant - plus water for scrubbing and slurry make-up, with water scrubbing alone drawing several cubic metres an hour. Captive energy-crop models need far more: Reliance's 100 TPD Kanigiri site spans 475 acres including the Napier land.

Agricultural land usually needs conversion to non-agricultural use, and a panchayat or local NOC is commonly required - both of which lengthen the timeline if left late. Because the land is leased rather than owned, the lease terms also have to permit the intended industrial use.

CBG historically faced a double-taxation problem at the blending point. Budget 2026-27 exempted central excise duty on the biogas or CBG portion of blended CNG, removing a barrier that had made CGD entities reluctant to pay the full rate. GST still applies and should be modelled explicitly in the DPR.

Plants carry erection and construction cover during build and operational asset cover afterwards, and are run under an O&M contract - self-run or EPC-linked - that defines uptime obligations and maintenance responsibility. Clear O&M accountability is what protects the utilisation the returns depend on.

Benchmarks vary by feedstock and offtake model. A 5 TPD plant commonly clusters around 20-30 crore rupees, or roughly 2-3 crore per TPD; the Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas cited 25-80 crore for a 100 TPD multi-feed plant; and GOBARdhan (2026) offers capital assistance up to 2 crore rupees per TPD against that.

Approvals processing alone runs about 60-90 days with complete documentation, but the full LOI-to-commissioning path typically takes one to two years once land, feedstock contracting and construction are counted; incomplete paperwork is the most common delay. An EPC route transfers execution and performance risk to a vendor through guarantees and suits first-time developers; self-build can cost less for experienced ones. Either way, insist on performance guarantees tied to realistic feedstock.

Efficiency depends far more on feedstock and operation than on technology, and many Indian plants run below design capacity mainly because of feedstock supply. Real output is a fraction of the lab BMP potential, so a plant quoted at its BMP is quoted at a number it will never see.

Feed the digester to schedule, check temperature, pH and gas quality, log flows and pressures, and inspect the scrubbers, compressors and safety systems. Consistent daily logging is what lets a problem be caught as a trend rather than as a shutdown.

A 5 TPD-class plant making about 12,000 cubic metres a day of raw biogas at 60% methane holds roughly 7,200 cubic metres of methane, which after upgrading and compression yields about 4,800-5,000 kg a day of saleable CBG. Volume falls through upgrading because CO2 and H2S are removed; energy density rises.

Capacity utilisation - uptime times load - specific gas yield in cubic metres per kg VS, methane content, methane slip, parasitic energy load, and digester stability read through VFA to alkalinity and pH. Bankable models assume high uptime, so utilisation is the KPI the financial model is most sensitive to.

Investor guidance ties acceptable returns to roughly 85-90% plant uptime. Below that, unit economics deteriorate quickly, because the capex is fixed and the revenue is not.

It is the plant's own energy consumption - heating, mixing, pumping, upgrading and compression - which reduces net saleable output and shows up directly in operating cost. The upgrading technology chosen sets much of it: amine's thermal demand and cryogenic power draw are very different propositions from a membrane skid.

Feedstock aggregation shortfalls dominate, followed by digester acidification from overloading, H2S corrosion, upgrading downtime, and evacuation and logistics gaps. Only a small share of commissioned plants are pipeline-connected - PNGRB noted just 17 of 207 - so trucking capacity is a live constraint on many sites.

Feedstock in, water added, biogas and digestate out, and losses - so that inputs and outputs reconcile and an operator can spot a leak, under-feeding or off-spec running. A closed balance is also the prerequisite for any carbon MRV claim.

Scheduled valve, seal and lubrication servicing plus intercooler and moisture checks, because it runs at high pressure and is a common failure point. Preventive maintenance here directly protects the uptime the economics depend on.

It depends on inlet-gas cleanliness. Iron sponge and activated carbon saturate and are replaced on breakthrough; membranes degrade with age, temperature excursions and pressure swings. Ask an operating plant about actual replacement intervals rather than trusting commissioning-day figures.

Reduce organic loading, adjust the feed mix to limit surfactant, protein and fat spikes, improve mixing, and dose antifoam where needed. Early detection through level and pressure monitoring is what prevents carryover into the gas lines and an unplanned stop.

The monsoon raises feedstock moisture, complicates storage and haulage, and dilutes yield, so covered storage, drainage and an ensiled buffer stock are what keep feeding steady. When evaluating an existing plant, ask specifically about monsoon performance - annual averages hide it.

Purge and re-establish gas flow safely, bring the digester back to temperature, then restore feeding gradually so the microbes are not shocked. Anaerobic digestion cannot be switched on and off quickly, which is why backup power for critical loads is worth its cost.

Mesophilic digestion has to be held near 35-40 degrees C; swings slow the microbes and cut yield, so heat exchangers or coils plus insulation hold it steady. Loss of heating is a leading cause of quiet, gradual yield decline that shows up in the monthly numbers rather than as an alarm.

They continuously monitor temperature, pressure, flow and gas quality, enabling alarms, trend analysis and benchmarking against design - and SCADA or remote monitoring is mandated for some MNRE-supported bioenergy projects. Good instrumentation is what turns reactive firefighting into predictive operation.

Compressor valves and seals, scrubbing media and membranes, pumps and instrumentation, plus consumables such as trace-element dosing and antifoam. A stock-out of one critical spare can idle the entire plant, which makes the inventory decision an uptime decision.

Operators for feeding and monitoring, a maintenance technician, a lab or quality function for feedstock and gas testing, and a plant manager - scaled to plant size. Skilled operators materially affect both utilisation and safety, so this is not the line to trim first.

Operating cost stacks feedstock, parasitic power - compression alone at 0.15-0.20 kWh per kg plus upgrading - water and chemicals, media and membrane replacement, labour and maintenance; feedstock and power dominate. Operating cost is often discussed in the 15-22 rupees per kg range, and 85-90% utilisation is what keeps unit cost inside the administered price.

Sector data show commissioned capacity far below target and many plants under-running on feedstock, so a conservative model should not assume nameplate output. Model the utilisation the supply calendar supports, and treat nameplate as the ceiling it is.

Compare achieved methane yield, recovery, specific power consumption and uptime against the DPR and the vendor guarantee values, and investigate persistent gaps against feedstock quality, temperature and slip. Benchmarking is how a plant defends its IRR and how it enforces a performance guarantee.