Article and Image Courtesy : Down to Earth
Author : Ankur Paliwal
Indraprastha Gas Ltd and K G Renewable Energy Private Limited will market the gas
Ambitious as it may sound, but Delhi plans to run its buses on biogas. In collaboration with the Swedish government, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy plans to set up a biogas plant inside Kesopur Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) complex in West Delhi. The plant will receive raw gas emitted by the STP and upgrade it so that it can be used to propel vehicles.
The project, once completed, will earn the capital city the distinction of having the country’s first public transport fleet that runs on two types of clean fuel: biogas and compressed natural gas (CNG). Delhi already boasts running the world’s largest fleet of vehicles on CNG. Around 450,000 vehicles—this includes some 16,000 buses—in Delhi run on CNG, according to Indraprastha Gas Ltd, a Delhi government undertaking, which is the sole supplier of CNG in the capital.
The genesis of the STP-biogas project lies in a bilateral agreement signed between Stockholm and Delhi in 2009 to share expertise and experiences to support sustainable energy systems in India, with special focus on biogas. Sweden is considered pioneer in biogas technology for heating, power generation and fuelling vehicles. More than 40 per cent of the biogas generated in the country is used to run vehicles.
The aim of STP-biogas project is to create value from sludge, says Ludvig Lindstrom, international coordinator for the Swedish Energy Agency, a government body that promotes eco-friendly energy systems.