CEID Consultants sets ambitious targets to increase biogas production 

CEID Consultants & Engineering Pvt Ltd, which focuses on tapping and developing renewable energy sources market, is aiming to more than double its biogas production in the next fiscal.

Speaking to businessline, Rajaram Prajapati, CTO and Director of CEID Consultants & Engineering Pvt Ltd, said 30-plus bio gas plants of the company produce around 100-plus tonnes of CBG (compressed bio gas) a day.

Stating that each plant has different production capacity, he said the company aims to significantly increase the production to over 350 tonnes a day in the next financial year.

The company is planning to set up more biogas plants in collaboration with IOCL, BPCL and HPCL. Along with this, it is also doing some projects in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu with the private players.

CEID’s biogas plants use raw materials such as cow dung, poultry litter, fruit and vegetable waste, cooked food waste, sugar mills waste, chicori waste, rice/wheat straw, municipal solid waste among others.

To a query on issues related to stubble burning in some parts of the country and how effectively biogas can play a role in that, he highlighted the logistical challenge to collect the crop straws as the time gap between harvesting and replanting is short. However, he said the Central government’s move to offer subsidies for the purchase of machines for large scale harvesting, collection and transportation of paddy straws could help solve that issue.

Instead of burning stubble, farmers can supply it to CBG plants where anaerobic digestion processes break down organic matter to produce biogas. “Currently, our Gorakhpur plant produces 20 tonnes of biogas daily using 200 tonnes of paddy straw,” he said.

Overseas projects

Apart from India, CEID is also exploring opportunities in other countries also. Prajapati said the company has set up a biogas plant in Nepal. The plant, which uses cow dung as the feedstock from a Goshala, supplies biogas to around 126 houses in that area.

The company has also signed an agreement with the Maldives govt to set up a biogas plant. The company has identified one of the islands in Maldives for this project. The power requirement of that island is 5 mega Watt, and it consumes around 5-6 tonnes of CNG now. “We are going to replace that with biogas,” he said, adding, the project will start this financial year only. Hotel waste and fisheries waste will be the feedstock for this plant.

The company is also in discussion with two counties in the UK for setting up its plants.

Turnover

On company’s turnover from biogas, he said, “We are targeting to cross ₹200 crore in 2024-25 with 40 more plants that are under construction presently.”

Asked how the company is planning to achieve this, he said now big companies and multinational companies are taking interest in putting up this kind of plants after it got support from oil marketing companies for setting up plants. The scale of some biogas plant is big. Considering all these, achieving ₹200 crore is not difficult for the company, he added.