Perspective of new innovative biogas technology policy implementation for sustainable development in India

Abstract The energy costs have increased substantially in recent years due to widespread development in India. Vast agro and animal waste resources are available which can easily be harnessed for biogas production economically Recently, there has been a renewed interest to revive the National biogas programme to meet the ever-increasing energy demand. India has set a target of reducing oil imports by 10% through the increased use of natural gas contribution in the current energy mix of 6.5%–15% by 2022. In this study the new Indian biogas policy initiatives for biogas production, new plant designs are presented along with a comparative analysis of the policy with similar policies of selected countries. The flaws in the past implementation of Indian bio-gas programmes, biogas technology as per most recent data along with identifying gaps in the new Indian biogas policy, are presented. A strategy is outlined to utilize large quantities of available food, agro and animal waste resources for a sustainable bio-gas policy as per UN sustainable development goal numbers 1, 7 and 13. The need for a sustainable biogas policy is emphasized to provide a clean fuel for cooking, heating, and lighting with focus on rural poor worldwide.