IOT Infrastructure and Energy Services, a joint venture of state run-Indian Oil Corporation and Oiltanking GmbH of Germany, is tweaking its biogas plant to manufacture bio-CNG for vehicles and has plans to set up more greenfield projects for the clean auto fuel.
“We have been running a power plant on biogas and realised that if we managed to increase its methane concentration, we could convert it into bio-CNG for automobiles. This would directly help in reducing India’s dependence on liquid fuel,” said Vivek Venkatachalam, managing director, IOT.
IOT, a 50:50 joint venture, has been generating power from biogas at its plant at Namakkal. Now, with an investment of Rs 250 million, and implementation of a technology developed by IOC’s research and development team, the plant will be converted to a bio-CNG unit with a daily output of 12,000 kg.
“Our Namakkal unit would start selling bio-CNG from July. Besides this plant, we are looking to set up another five greenfield projects in the next 2-3 years, for which we are in talks with companies which have agri waste that can be our feedstock,” Venkatachalam said. The cost of each of these units would be Rs 500-650 million, he said.
“We are also talking to oil marketing companies to sell the bio-CNG. The idea is to set up the manufacturing units in clusters where feedstock is available ad then sell the product in areas close to it,” Venkatachalam.
