Reliance to spend Rs 5,000 Cr on 50 CBG plants in 2 years

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries (RIL) is now gearing up to establish more than 50 compressed biogas (CBG) plants within the next two years. RIL will be investing more than Rs 5,000 Crore in the development of these CBG projects across the country. CBG or biogas serves various purposes across automotive, industrial, and commercial sectors.

RIL has initiated the tendering process for 50 CBG plants over the next two years. The energy conglomerate also has plans to issue another tender in near future for the development of additional CBG plants. The exercise by RIL will increase the total of the company’s CBG plants to 106.

Last year, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had announced in Annual Meeting that Reliance would foray into biogas development sector with initially planned 100 CBG plants.

Each plant will be capable of processing 250-500 tonnes per day (tpd) of feedstock, resulting in CBG production ranging from 10 to 20 TPD. The internal team of RIL will handle feedstock procurement, while discussions are ongoing with several sugar mills for sourcing sugarcane press mud and other feedstock materials.

RIL has already set up two CBG demonstration units at its Jamnagar refinery and has successfully commissioned the first commercial-scale CBG plant in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh.

The objective of these CBG units is to utilize 5.5 million tonnes of agro-residue and organic waste, thereby mitigating nearly two million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, and generating 2.5 million tonnes of organic manure per year. This initiative is anticipated to reduce the reliance on imported LNG by about 0.7 million tonnes per annum.

Additionally, the CBG units will pave the way for the expansion of CBG and bio-CNG retailing at Jio-BP fuel outlets. Jio-BP outlets are operated by Reliance BP Mobility, a joint venture between RIL and the British energy giant BP.