The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has invited proposals for innovative and new design or material-based small biogas projects with a daily generation capacity of 1 to 25 cubic meters.

The ministry seeks significant changes to existing designs for simple, efficient, cost-effective village-level biogas usage.

The last date to submit the proposals is April 2, 2024.

The proposed projects must be conducive to India’s climatic conditions and should be able to process various feedstocks and organic wastes for anaerobic fermentation. They should be able to be run at normal solid contents or high concentrations for wastes such as cattle dung, biodegradable organic biomass and waste from sanitary toilets, kitchen waste, garbage, and waste at decentralized locations.

The designs can also be construction materials based on or made from alternatives such as high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, linear low-density polyethylene, low-cost polyethylene, or any other durable eco-friendly materials of standard and virgin quality.

The call for proposals is open to developers, manufacturers, organizations, universities, research and development institutions, industry, or any group engaged in manufacturing or developing small biogas projects.

The proposals will be analyzed, evaluated, or validated in the field, and one promising technology or biogas project will be considered for benefits under the ministry’s biogas program.

Aiming to reduce stubble burning by utilizing surplus agricultural residue, this $104 million program was notified by MNRE in late 2022, consisting of biomass, waste-to-energy and biogas programs. The program will be valid until 2026.

Last June, the ministry set a target to install over 15,000 biogas plants under Phase II of the program for the financial year 2024. This was aimed at providing clean cooking fuel, lighting, and small power requirements with reduced carbon emissions.

The national registration portal GOBARdhan clocked in over 1,200 registrations from 320 compressed biogas plants and 892 biogas plants across India.