Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday inaugurated India’s largest bio-energy plant, built at a cost of ₹230 crore over 20 acres of land, in Punjab’s Sangrur.
The facility was established by the Indian affiliate of the German Verbio Group. With a 33 TPD (tonnes per day) compressed biogas capacity, this is India’s largest biofuel (biomethane/bio-CNG) production facility, according to Mann.
He estimated that this machine will consume 1.30 lakh tonnes of straw annually and added that it would help with the issue of burning paddy straw.
According to an official announcement quoting Bhagwant Mann, this unit, which was built on 20 acres of land, will help reduce the 1.50 lakh metric tonnes per year of pollutants and the 20,000 MT of fly ash that rice straw burning now produces.
With a capacity of 80,000 cubic metre/day, the project will produce biogas using an anaerobic digestion process.
This unit will also give employment to 1,000 youth, he said, adding the acreage of soil enriched from biomanure will be 2,150 acres.
Currently, the plant is functioning at 21% of its total capacity. It is producing about seven tonnes of biogas per day and the same will be supplied to 10 outlets of Indian Oil Corporation.
The manure produced by the plant (600 to 650 tonnes per day) is supposed to be utilised in fields as fertiliser.