New Delhi: Indian Oil GPS Renewables (IGRPL) has drawn up plans to invest around Rs 1,200 crore to set up ten Compressed Biogas (CBG) projects across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The plants will be commissioned within a year, marking a significant milestone in India’s efforts to give a fillip to the biofuel industry.
Based on the technology and the feedstock type that is being currently contemplated, setting up each of these plants of 15 tonne per day (TPD) capacity would require an expenditure of around Rs 120 crore, IGRPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Devendra Singh Sehgal said in an interview. “So, we would invest around Rs 1,200 crore in setting up the ten plants by March 2026. These will be based on 30 per cent equity and 70 per cent debt funding,” he said.
IGRPL is a joint venture between Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and GPS Renewables, set up in June 2024 with the specific mandate to install and commission CBG projects. In order to fund the equity portion of the planned Rs 1,200 crore investment, the two JV partners plan to bring in 15 per cent equity each.
Sehgal said in order to secure a loan to the extent of 70 percent of the cost, the company’s talks with the banks are in an advanced stage. “Many banks have been forthcoming and we have zeroed down on a particular bank and the Techno-Economic Viability (TEV) report is currently under preparation which will be provided to the Bank to complete approval process at its end,” he said.
IOC has an ambition to achieve Net Zero target by 2046 and it is trying to align with experienced players in this area, and GPS Renewables operates the world’s largest biogas engineering setup. Of the ten CBG projects being set up by IGRPL, four are coming up in Haryana, four in Uttar Pradesh, and one each at Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. These plants will be based on rice straw feedstock and each of them will have a capacity of 15 Tonne per Day (TPD) of biogas production along with other byproducts.
“We have already awarded Lump Sum Turn Key (LSTK) contracts for nine projects and the sites are in our possession at majority of the locations. Also, at most of the locations, construction work is going to start this month itself. Various other tie-ups, like securing biomass, gas offtake etc are also done, Sehgal said, adding that both basic and detailed engineering have advanced sufficiently to enable the start of construction work and sustain it.
The combined production capacity of the ten plants would be around 52,500 Tonnes per Annum, and each of them will produce 15 Tonnes of biogas per day and byproducts like fuel pellets, fermented organic manure etc. IGRPL will also start discussions with fertiliser companies like Kribhco, Iffco, HURL etc for lifting of fertilizer related byproduct.
“For the offtake of CBG, we are entering into tripartite agreements with CGD entities and GAIL. We have already initiated dialogue with HPCL and GAIL for offtake from our Jind project where we have already concluded the TPA. The tie-up is for offtake of complete quantity on the best effort basis,” Sehgal said. IOGRPL plans to sign similar TPAs for all the projects over time. The other options available for ensuring assured offtake include direct pipeline injection or through cascades to CGD RO locations.
