India’s 1st Napier Grass Bio CNG Plant – Germany’s Bioenergy Ties with Gruner Renewables

Bio Energy, a German company that provides technology and engineering design for biomass-based gas plants, has entered the Indian market in partnership with a Noida-based start-up, Gruner Renewable Energy.

• Gruner Renewable will build customized biogas plants for customers with BioEnergy’s design and also buy-back the gas. Gruner will retail the gas for automobiles under ‘Gruner’ brand name.
• Napier grass is a fast-growing, high-yielding perennial grass that is ideal for use as a feedstock for bio-CNG plants and India has abundant of this grass feedstock, approximately 150-200 tonne per acre.
• The process used for the production of Bio-CNG is Gasification or Pyrolysis of feedstock, which is then purified. This plant has a capacity of 50 TPD and produces 3 tonnes of gas per day
• The largest CNG plant based on Napier grass is being developed by the same duo in Maharashtra, India. The plant will have a capacity of 6000 TPD and produce 56 MW of power.

Other significant companies that produce Bio-CNG, globally are:

• Ameresco, Inc: A renewable energy assets developer based in Massachusetts that provides budget-friendly solutions for bioenergy projects.

• EnviTec Biogas AG: A German company that produces bio CNG from different types of organic waste and also offers turnkey solutions for biogas plants.

• Bharat Biogas Energy Ltd. : A Gujarat-based business that runs a bio-CNG facility utilizing agricultural waste and cow dung as feedstock.

• Radix Life spaces: It is a Gujarat-based business that runs a bio-CNG facility utilizing leftover wash and press mud as fuel.

India has a large and diverse potential of biomass resources, estimated at about 500 million tonnes per year, that can be used as feedstock for bio CNG production.
India has a high demand for CNG and its applications, also imports about 50% of its CNG needs, which makes it vulnerable to global price fluctuations and energy security concerns.
India has some existing and planned policies and incentives to support bio CNG, such as the SATAT initiative, which aims to set up 5000 bio CNG plants by 2025 and guarantees offtake of bio CNG at a fixed price .

By 2029, the bio CNG market is projected to have grown to USD 2.25 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3% from 2022 to 2029. The bio CNG market was USD 1.40 billion in 2021. Know more about market trends here.