Bihar offers ‘land’ to oil & gas firms for CBG projects

Bihar is moving to convert wet waste generated by urban local bodies into compressed biogas (CBG), with the state government initiating the process to allocate land for CBG plants in four cities—Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Bihar Sharif.

Under the proposed model, oil and gas companies will establish and operate the plants on government land for 25 years, after which ownership, operation and maintenance will be transferred to the respective urban local bodies.

The initiative is part of the Centre’s Waste-to-Wealth approach under the GOBARdhan scheme, which promotes the processing of organic and wet waste into clean energy and other useful products. Oil and gas companies are being considered suitable partners because of their established gas marketing and distribution networks, which can support the commercial utilisation of CBG produced from municipal waste.

Oil companies to invest in CBG plants

Under the long-term concession agreements, urban local bodies will provide land, segregated organic waste and road connectivity to the proposed plants. They will also facilitate basic infrastructure, including water supply, sewage, drainage and electricity.

The participating oil and gas companies will bear the entire capital and operational expenditure for setting up and running the plants. They will also be responsible for marketing and selling the CBG and other products generated by the facilities.

Turning waste into renewable energy

The initiative is expected to address the growing challenge of wet-waste management in Bihar’s cities while creating a new source of renewable energy. By converting organic municipal waste into CBG and other by-products, the projects could help reduce waste going to disposal sites and support a circular economy-based urban waste management model.

At the end of the 25-year concession period, the urban local bodies will take over the plants, including their operation, maintenance and revenue rights.

With regards biogas, Bihar has been a laggard state. It’s total installed CBG capacity is currently decentralized. An early operational unit installed is that of 6 TPD facility by Biofics.