GAIL India’s Jhiri compressed biogas (CBG) plant will be ready this month; fully functional in March

GAIL India‘s biogas plant construction work is about to complete in Jhiri of Ranchi, Jharkhand. The officials have held that the plant will be ready by the end of January.  The operation of the plant will begin in the next month of February. As per sources, the full capacity operations will begin from March.

In order to help GAIL India to sell the biogas made in Jhiri, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) will provide space to GAIL India to open pumps at two different places in the city. These gas stations will fill the gas produced from the biogas plant in vehicles through these pumps.

RMC had signed an agreement with GAIL India in March 2021 to build a municipal waste to biogas plant to produce compressed biogas. At that time, Jharkhand’s Urban Development Secretary held that GAIL India agreed to build two plants with capacity of handling 300 tonnes of waste every day. The Jhiri plant is the first phase plant spread in an area of approximately 8-acres. The land was given by RMC free of cost. As per the agreement, GAIL ought to invest more than Rs 28 crore for the project.

When the plant starts functioning at full capacity from March 2024, it will require at least 150 tonnes of wet waste on an everyday basis. To ensure that there is no shortage of wet waste at that time, Ranchi Municipal Corporation has already begun to collect wet and dry waste separately from households of the city.

Sources hold that the corporation will make the rule of waste segregation at source even more strict in days to come. The RMC will not collect garbage from those houses from where mixed waste will come out.

Now, GAIL has also collaborated with TruAlt Bioenergy to set-up 10 compressed biogas (CBG) plants through a joint venture named Leafinti Bioenergy Limited. The new JV by GAIL India involves a $72-million investment, with PSU holding a 49% stake and TruAlt Bioenergy holding 51%.