With an objective to provide clean gaseous fuel for cooking and organic bio-manure as a by-product, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has allocated to the States /UTs an annual target of setting up one lakh family size biogas plants (1 m3 to 6 m3capacity) for the current year, 2016-17.
This will result in a likely saving of about 21,90,000 LPG cooking cylinders annually, besides providing biogas plant processed bio-manure to reduce and supplement use of chemical fertilizers. There would be saving of about 10,000 tonnes of urea equivalent. The average envisaged saving of emissions through carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere would be about 4,50,000 tonnes and about 2,50,000 tonnes respectively, that would help in reducing the causes of climate change.
The MNRE is implementing a National Biogas and Manure Management Progamme (NBMMP) for setting up family type biogas plants in the country. The objective of the scheme is to provide clean gaseous fuel for cooking and organic bio-manure as a by-product in the form of biogas plant left over slurry, which contains higher values of Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (N, P&K).
NBMMP also helps in mitigating drudgery of women in rural and semi-urban areas by saving in their time both in collection of firewood, making cattle dung cakes and cooking. A biogas plant will facilitate in achieving sanitary in villages by linking sanitary toilets with cattle dung based biogas plants and the slurry bio-manure can be applied for crop production in solid, liquid or dried form.
There are applications of biogas to meet “lifeline energy” needs for cooking & lighting in the “Integrated Energy Policy” of the Planning Commission, now National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. Otherwise also biogas is clean gaseous fuel for cooking, heating, generating electricity, and also for motive power and operating vehicles. It has the potential for leveraging livelihood development as well as tackling the issues related with health hazard associated with indoor air pollution.