Utilization of Biomethane in Decarbonising India´s Energy Mix

Abstract: This thesis investigates the potential of biomethane production in India, the impact of its integration into the energy mix, and the corresponding Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission and potential reduction. India, with its huge population and being an agriculturally rich country, produces gigantic amounts of biodegradable waste from various sources such as Municipal Solid Waste (MSW),agricultural waste, animal husbandry, sugar industry, etc. Three different end-use scenarios: electricity generation, cooking fuel, and transportation fuel—are assessed in order to determine the decree to which current fossil fuels may be replaced and the net amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are saved by using this biomethane. The total biomethane generation potential according to the study conducted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is 25.6 Billion Metric Standard Cubic Meters (BMSCM) and with the most efficient upgrading technology available (3-stage membrane filtration) the useful potential is 25.4 BMSCM. The electricity that can be produced from the biomethane potential available is 159.1 TWh, which corresponds to the optimistic value of GHG emission reduction of 89million tons. When used as a cooking fuel, biomethane can contribute immensely to satisfying the final thermal needs of India. It can satisfy more than half the combined total thermal energy from Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) consumed in India and, at the same time, reduce 46.2 million tons of GHG emissions caused by it. The transportation sectoris the most suited and easy to adapt as an end-use application for biomethane. It was observed that biomethane as a replacement for Petrol for road transportation fuel presents the best scenario, since biomethane can reduce more than 71% of its consumption and respectively reduce more than 57 million tons of GHG emission, which is the second highest after electricity production. This thesis puts up a strong case to look at biomethane as a very important fuel towards India’starget to be net zero by 2070 and its plans to be self-reliant. Moreover, biomethane production usingthe path of anaerobic digestion provides not only a renewable source of energy but also food security with digestate being used as fertilizer and an opportunity to address the impact of climate change by preventing the emission of methane in the atmosphere which has a global warming potential of28 and burning of agricultural waste in the open field. Eventually, the production of biomethane prevents soil, air and water pollution.