Ethanol producer TruAlt Bioenergy’s subsidiary, Leafiniti Bioenergy, a compressed biogas (CBG) company, has received an investment of ₹130 million (~$1.4 million) through an equity share subscription from GAIL (India) for implementing CBG projects across Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Odisha.

This investment is pursuant to a share subscription-cum-shareholders’ agreement executed last year,  under which GAIL will acquire 49% equity stake in Leafiniti. TruAlt will retain a 51% stake.

Leafiniti will roll out six greenfield CBG projects in the first phase, with each plant having a daily generation capacity of 12 tons. The CBG will be produced primarily from sugar mill residue, with a targeted annual delivery of 23,976 tons.

TruAlt said the biogas projects will also generate agricultural inputs, including 97,902 tons of fermented organic manure and 4,70,862 tons of liquid fermented organic manure annually.

GAIL had launched ‘Pankh’ in July 2017 to support promising startups, with a corpus of ₹5 billion (~$53.62 million). Since its inception, the initiative has invested in 38 startups across multiple sectors, including CBG.

Last July, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas amended the disbursal pattern of financial assistance for CBG projects to procure biomass aggregation machinery. According to the amendments, CBG plants utilizing more than 50% biomass as feedstock for a 2-ton-per-day capacity project will be eligible for financial support of ₹9 million (~$104,970).

In June, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) revised the guidelines for the National Biomass Program for the financial years 2022 to 2027 (Phase-I). These amendments aimed to promote cleaner energy solutions, ease of doing business, and accelerate the adoption of biomass technologies across India.

The MNRE had notified the National Bioenergy Program in 2022. This program would be valid from the financial year (FY) 2022 to FY 2026, with an outlay of ₹8.58 billion (~$104.66 million) approved for Phase-I.