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Daily News Wrap-Up: APTEL Criticizes MERC for Denying Petitioner Relief


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					</table><p>REnergy Dynamics (<a href="https://renergydynamics.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RED</a>), a company providing bioenergy and sustainable energy solutions, has been launched with a focus on four main business areas.</p>
<p>The company will concentrate on four main areas: developing company-owned large-scale bioenergy projects; providing engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to renewable energy developers; aggregating and supplying feedstock for compressed biogas (CBG) projects; and manufacturing and supplying biogas plant components.</p>
<p>Founded by Kushagra Nandan, a clean tech entrepreneur and former MD of SunSource Energy, and Varun Karad, a bioenergy entrepreneur, RED aims to be an integrated techno-financial platform for developing sustainable energy projects.</p>
<p>RED has set a target of securing orders worth ₹50 billion (~$601 million) by 2029 and has ₹5.75 billion (~$69 million) worth of projects already confirmed and underway.</p>
<p>RED has a pipeline of self-owned bioenergy projects, with projects under construction in South and West India totaling 50 tons per day (TPD) of CBG and several other projects in advanced planning stages.</p>
<p>The company is also executing three large-scale EPC projects to establish CBG units with a combined capacity of 67 TPD for Reliance Industries, with two projects in West India and one in North India.</p>
<p>RED has also received orders for biomass supply for bioenergy projects across multiple states.</p>
<p>“Our mission at RED is to help preserve our planet and contribute to our nation’s goal of achieving net zero status by 2070. A key unlock of this journey lies in empowering communities and businesses to embrace sustainable energy,” said Kushagra Nandan, Chairman and Managing Director of RED.</p>
<p>Varun Karad, CEO, RED, said, “By unleashing the power of bioenergy, RED is poised to catalyze a paradigm shift towards a more sustainable and resilient energy future. Through our scalable and customizable renewable energy solutions tailored to the unique needs of diverse industries, we aim to drive positive change and inspire others to join the movement towards a greener, cleaner world.”</p>
<p>In March, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/mnre-small-biogas-projects" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invited</a> proposals for innovative and new designs or material-based small biogas projects with a daily generation capacity of 1 to 25 cubic meters. The ministry sought significant changes to existing designs for simple, efficient, cost-effective village-level biogas usage.</p>
<p>Last year, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/mnre-targets-over-15000-phase-ii-of-biogas-program-for-fy24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allotted</a> physical targets to the biogas program implementing agencies to set up small projects under the Biogas Program Phase II for the fiscal year 2023-24. The year’s target was 15,205 biogas plants, with an additional 1,165 sanitary toilets linked to biogas plants.</p>


Bioenergy Firm REnergy Dynamics Launched


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					</table><p>The U.S. Department of Energy (<a href="https://www.energy.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOE</a>) has announced over $192 million in new funding for recycling batteries from consumer products, launching an advanced battery research and development (R&amp;D) consortium, and continuing the Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Prize.</p>
<p>The funds will support the administration&#8217;s target to have electric vehicles (EV) make up for half of all vehicle sales in the country by 2030.</p>
<p>The new funding opportunity builds on the $3 billion funding <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-funding-boost-domestic-battery-manufacturing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> by the Biden administration last year under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support domestic battery manufacturing and supply chains.</p>
<p><strong>Consumer Electronics Battery Recycling, Reprocessing, and Collection</strong></p>
<p>The DOE announced $125 million in support for consumer electronics battery recycling, reprocessing, and battery collection.</p>
<p>The funding aims to address critical areas within the consumer electronics battery recycling domain and advance sustainability efforts.</p>
<p>The initiative would play a vital role in implementing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which authorized $7 billion to strengthen and secure America&#8217;s battery supply chain.</p>
<p>Further, the DOE will conduct behavior change campaigns to increase consumer participation in existing battery recycling programs. These campaigns are expected to encourage individuals to actively engage in battery recycling and contribute to a more sustainable future by raising awareness and promoting behavior change.</p>
<p>Improving the economics of recycling consumer electronics batteries is another crucial aspect that will be addressed.</p>
<p>Under the funding, technological advancements and cost-reduction strategies will be explored to make battery recycling economically attractive for businesses and consumers alike.</p>
<p>The funding opportunity also aims to assist states and local governments in establishing or enhancing battery collection, recycling, and reprocessing programs.</p>
<p>The funding opportunity encourages retailers to implement dedicated programs to facilitate the proper collection, sorting, storage, and transportation of consumer electronics batteries.</p>
<p>By supporting retailers in developing effective programs, the DOE aims to improve the overall efficiency and accessibility of battery recycling efforts.</p>
<p>The DOE&#8217;s Vehicle Technologies Office and the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains will administer this funding to support the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries&#8217; National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries goals.</p>
<p><strong>Advanced Battery R&amp;D Consortium</strong></p>
<p>The Advanced Battery R&amp;D Consortium aims to allocate up to $60 million to bring together major manufacturers of EVs in the U.S., universities, partners from national laboratories, suppliers of minerals and materials, and other key stakeholders in the battery industry.</p>
<p>The primary objective is to address critical battery requirements for the next phase of widespread EV commercialization.</p>
<p>The consortium&#8217;s primary focus is to advance battery research and development that aligns with the needs of EV manufacturers.</p>
<p>It will play a crucial role in the DOE&#8217;s initiatives to develop advanced transportation technologies while contributing to the decarbonization of the transportation sector.</p>
<p>Additionally, it seeks to foster the growth of a domestic battery supply chain and enhance recycling capabilities, both of which are vital to meet the rapidly increasing demand for EV batteries.</p>
<p><strong>Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Prize</strong></p>
<p>The Biden administration has also continued the Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Prize that commenced in 2019. The prize emerged as a driving force in promoting innovative solutions for collecting, sorting, storing, and transporting spent lithium-ion batteries.</p>
<p>Its significant contributions to advancing battery recycling efforts have led to the DOE announcing an additional $7.4 million in funding.</p>
<p>The funding will support the introduction of the Breakthrough Contest and Phase IV of the Battery Recycling Prize, further incentivizing the development of groundbreaking solutions.</p>
<p>The contest aims to attract industry entrepreneurs, including both new and former prize participants. By encouraging a diverse range of competitors, it seeks to tap into fresh perspectives and ideas that align with the overarching goals of the Battery Recycling Prize. It also provides additional support to Phase III winning teams, fostering an environment of collaboration and knowledge exchange.</p>
<p><strong>Demonstrating Practical Impact</strong></p>
<p>Phase IV, named Demonstration of Impact, emphasizes the importance of translating innovative ideas into tangible actions within the battery recycling process.</p>
<p>The primary objective of this phase will be to showcase the real-world effectiveness of proposed solutions in facilitating the seamless movement of spent or discarded batteries from consumers to recyclers across diverse commercial applications.</p>
<p>The Breakthrough Contest and Phase IV further enhance the prize&#8217;s impact by inspiring new ideas, supporting winners, and demanding concrete evidence of the efficacy of proposed solutions.</p>
<p>The Battery Recycling Prize is expected to catalyze American entrepreneurs to develop and showcase cutting-edge technologies capable of profitably capturing 90% of all discarded or spent lithium-based batteries in the country for the recovery of key materials and reintroduction in the supply chain.</p>
<p>The prize envisions a future where circularity and resource conservation are central to battery waste management.</p>
<p>Last year, the DOE <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-seeks-public-weigh-in-for-lithium-ion-battery-recycling-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> a request for information seeking guidance in implementing $335 million investments from President Joe Biden&#8217;s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for lithium-ion battery recycling programs.</p>


US Announces $192 Million Funding to Boost Battery Recycling


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					</table><p>Scientists at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> said they have developed a novel solar-powered reactor, which can convert plastics into commodity chemicals and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels.</p>
<p>The research was carried out at the Reisner Lab, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, under the supervision of Prof Erwin Reisner.</p>
<p>Motiar Rahaman, co-first author of the research, spoke to Mercom India exclusively and said that the researchers are aiming to increase the reactor and (photo)electrode size for scalable production of fuels and commodity chemicals in near future.</p>
<p>“Prior to this system, we didn’t have anything that could make high-value products selectively and efficiently,” Rahaman said.</p>
<p>Further, the researcher said that CO2 conversion usually requires a lot of energy, but the Cambridge-developed reactor makes the process very easy, by coupling solar-driven carbon dioxide conversion process with plastic reforming.</p>
<p>While other solar-powered recycling technologies hold promise for addressing plastic pollution and reducing greenhouse gases, they had not been combined in a single process until now.</p>
<p>“A solar-driven technology that could help address plastic pollution and greenhouse gases at the same time could be a game-changer in the development of a circular economy,” said Subhajit Bhattacharjee, the paper’s co-first author.</p>
<p><strong>Process of Conversion </strong></p>
<p>The researchers developed an integrated reactor with a perovskite-based light absorber and two separate compartments, one for plastic, and another for greenhouse gases.</p>
<p>The team designed different catalysts, which were integrated into the light absorber.</p>
<p>By changing the catalyst, the researchers could change the end product. Tests conducted under normal temperature and pressure conditions showed that the reactor could efficiently convert PET plastic bottles and CO2 into different carbon-based fuels.</p>
<p>The experiment converted CO2 into synthetic gas or syngas — a key building block for sustainable liquid fuels — and plastic bottles were converted into glycolic acid, which is widely used in the cosmetics industry.</p>
<p>The researchers said that their reactor produced these products at a rate that is much higher than conventional photocatalytic CO2 reduction processes.</p>
<p>The research was supported in part by the European Union, the European Research Council, the Cambridge Trust, Hermann and Marianne Straniak Stiftung, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.</p>
<p>Over the next five years, the team hopes that the system can produce more complex molecules and that similar techniques are used to develop an entirely solar-powered recycling plant.</p>
<p>In October last year, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Mandi <a href="https://mercomindia.com/iit-mandi-researchers-claim-eco-friendly-method-to-recycle-wind-turbines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> to have successfully used microwaves to recycle polymer composites from old wind turbine blades, using a rapid, sustainable, and comparatively eco-friendly method.</p>
<p>Earlier in February, researchers from the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System, in partnership with Reiling GmbH, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/researchers-develop-perc-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed</a> a solution to recycle discarded modules on an industrial scale and reuse them to produce passivated emitter and rear contact solar cell.</p>
<p>Image: University of Cambridge</p>


Solar-Powered Reactor Recycles Plastic and Gases into Sustainable Fuels


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					</table><p>Government think-tank <a href="https://www.niti.gov.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NITI Aayog</a>’s latest study finds that carbon capture utilization and storage (<a href="https://dst.gov.in/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage-ccus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CCUS</a>) is key to ensuring sustainable development and growth in India, particularly for producing clean energy<em>.</em></p>
<p>CCUS is defined by the International Energy Agency (<a href="https://www.iea.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IEA</a>) as a group of technologies for capturing CO2 from large and stationary CO2-emitting sources such as fossil fuel-based power plants and other industries.</p>
<p>These technologies become crucial in the context of India as the country is still dependent on fossil fuels.</p>
<p>The report titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’ explored the importance of CCUS as an emission reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors.</p>
<p>The report said that nearly two-thirds of India’s 144 metric tons per annum (mtpa) crude steel capacity and 210 GW of coal-based power capacity were installed less than 15 years ago.</p>
<p>These assets can’t be wished away or stranded and need to be made sustainable by retrofitting with carbon dioxide capture and disposition infrastructure, the report said.</p>
<p>Further, it added that significant economic costs, estimated to be in the range of $6 billion per year by 2050, can be avoided by implementing CCUS.</p>
<p>Additionally, even if India can substantially meet the target of 500 GW installed capacity of renewables by 2030, it would still require coal for generating baseload power demand, given the intermittency and non-dispatchable nature of solar and wind power.</p>
<p>“CCUS can enable the production of clean products while still utilizing our rich endowments of coal, reducing imports and thus leading to an Atmanirbhar Indian economy,” said Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.</p>
<p>Dr. V.K Saraswat, a member of NITI Aayog, said India’s dependency on fossil-based energy resources is likely to continue in the future, which makes it necessary for the country to have a CCUS policy.</p>
<p>India is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world after China and the U.S., with an estimated annual emissions of about 2.6 gigatons per annum (gtpa).</p>
<p>The role of CCUS also becomes a crucial strategy in emission reduction as the country has recently <a href="https://mercomindia.com/india-long-term-low-carbon-development-strategy-cop27/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">updated</a> its nationally determined contribution (NDC) targets to achieve 50% of its total installed capacity from renewable energy sources and a 45% reduction in emission intensity by the end of the decade.</p>
<p><strong>CCUS application and advantages</strong></p>
<p>CCUS can be applied to various sectors hard-to-electrify and carbon dioxide-intensive sectors such as steel, cement, oil &amp; gas, petrochemicals &amp; chemicals, and fertilizers.</p>
<p>Further, it can be used in producing blue hydrogen, which is coal gasification-based hydrogen production coupled with CCUS, considering India’s rich endowments of coal.</p>
<p>Currently, blue hydrogen at the cost of around $2/kg is far more cost-effective than green hydrogen at $5-6/kg.</p>
<p>The report said that CCUS can help the circular economy as the captured carbon can be converted into various value-added products like green urea, building materials, chemicals and polymers with vast market opportunities in India.</p>
<p>The CCUS projects could capture 750 mtpa of carbon by 2050 and help create 8-10 million full-time jobs.</p>
<p>The report outlines a range of policy action the government can undertake to support CCUS. These include funding for research and development, creating national centers of excellence, support for manufacturing CCUS equipment in India, and adoption of the technology on a large scale.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://mercomindia.com/co2-emissions-from-fossil-drop-due-to-of-renewables-iea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in October, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion globally are expected to grow by under 1% this year as the substantial expansion of renewables and electric vehicles prevents a sharper rise.</p>


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