- After getting early success in ethanol blending, the government of India is now promoting the blending of compressed biogas with compressed natural gas to use in vehicles to reduce emissions.
- Uttar Pradesh, the highest producer of ethanol in the country, is on a mission to establish 100 biogas plants to advance India’s green energy goals.
- In line with the UP government’s efforts, Jhansi’s grassland and fodder research institute is experimenting to produce commercially viable biomethane with spineless cactus.
India has set a target of net-zero emissions by 2070, and to reduce its GDP emission intensity by 45% by 2030 from the 2005 levels. In line with these targets, the country is promoting fuel blending to reduce vehicular emissions. After setting a target of 20% ethanol blending with petrol by 2030 under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, the government is now promoting the blending of compressed biogas (CBG) with compressed natural gas and piped natural gas for transport and domestic sectors respectively.
To claim its position as the leader in biofuel production, Uttar Pradesh, one of the leading ethanol producers in the country, is now expanding its potential for green fuel production with biogas. The state, riding on an ample amount of organic biomass availability to produce biomethane, is gearing up to set up 100 CBG plants, the highest in the country so far, in the coming time.
Uttar Pradesh has a potential to set up over 1,000 biogas plants, as per a 2022 report by the Centre for Science and Environment.
The CBG plant in UP’s Badaun, inaugurated in January this year, has a processing capacity of 100 metric tonnes (MT) of rice straw per day and can generate 14 MT of CBG along with 65 MT of solid manure per day.
Addressing the public during the inauguration, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that upon stabilisation of production, the Badaun plant will help in reducing stubble burning of 17,500-20,000 acres of fields translating into an annual reduction of 55,000 tons of CO2 emissions. He laid the foundation of eight more such plants in the state.

Ethanol, CBG a champion blend
India has already achieved 15% blending in May 2024, the target is likely to be reached by 2025, saving around Rs. 243 billion ($2.9 billion) on petrol imports. Uttar Pradesh, one of the largest sugarcane-producing states of the country has played a significant part in achieving this target.
Uttar Pradesh is the second largest producer of ethanol in terms of installed capacity after Maharashtra. The state has an installed capacity of 205.3 crore litres per annum from molasses (sugarcane) based projects and 3.4 crore litres per annum from grain based projects. The state has around 118 sugar mills and over 85 operational distilleries.
After producing over 153 crore litres of ethanol in the state in 2023, as per V K Shukla, Additional Cane Commissioner of the state, Uttar Pradesh is now expanding its potential of green fuel with biogas.
In a bid to further the use of green fuel for transportation to reduce vehicular emissions, the government of India announced the blending of compressed biogas (CBG) in compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles that run on CNG under its CBG Blending Obligation (CBO) to encourage investment and facilitate establishment of 750 CBG projects by 2028-29.
Uttar Pradesh stands at the third position when it comes to crop burning after Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. In this context, producing biogas from crop residue can help the state achieve two targets from the same project.
“With India generating around 350 MT stubble each year and its burning leading to air pollution nuisance in North-West India, leading stubble generating states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh need to find solutions other than adopting in-situ crop residue management practices. One such solution is producing biogas from stubble,” Neha Gupta, Lead, Centre for Clean Mobility, OMI Foundation told Mongabay-India.
“This will not only ensure reduction in air pollution arising out of stubble burning but also lead to reduction in imports of LNG (liquefied natural gas) worth $1.17 billion annually by 2028-29 (as per a study by the Indian Biogas Association) when the blending of biogas with natural gas supplies in the country is proposed to reach 5% from 1% in FY 2025-26,” Gupta added.
She added that states like UP are already witnessing huge interest from players like Reliance and Adani which have announced plans to commission the first commercial-scale CBG (compressed biogas) plants at Barabanki and Barsana respectively in the state. This therefore becomes an income generating source for the state while addressing a key concern which affects not just the state rather the entire north-western belt of the country.

To enhance the production of biogas in Uttar Pradesh’s semi-arid region of Bundelkhand, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI) and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) are pioneering a transformation in agricultural practices, with the spineless fodder cactus in Jhansi.
Cane farmers need better support
Despite success with ethanol production and the increase in area under sugarcane cultivation, farmers in the state are still struggling with several challenges, the biggest of all is the low minimum support price (MSP) on sugarcane.
Ramesh Chandra Singhal, chief executive officer, Seksaria Sugar Factory Ltd, Biswan, Sitapur, UP said that sugarcane mills are a strong foundation of the rural economy and with the changes in policy, it played a crucial role in taking India’s energy goals forward.
“Before 2014, ethanol blending was very low at just one to two percent but with the new policies, the government increased the percentage of blending and also administered price regulations, fixing the price of procurement to end competition among the three big oil companies who used to put out tenders for buying ethanol from distilleries and sugar mills. This made ethanol production a viable business opportunity for sugar mills as well and streamlined the payment to farmers,” explained Singhal.
However, according to sugarcane farmers, the payment is not regularised completely and there are still many mills which are delaying the payments. “Though the government claims that payments have been regularised, it has happened only in a few mills,” said Harinaam Singh Verma, state head of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Apolitical).

Verma also raised the point of the low MSP of sugarcane against the increasing production cost driving the farmers away from this crop.
“The MSP for sugarcane is now Rs. 370 per quintal, which is still very low as sugarcane is a yearly crop and farmers hardly make any profit on it. They have to invest in seeds, pesticides, water and labour but the low prices are barely enough to make ends meet,” said Verma.
He added that though the government data shows that the land under sugarcane cultivation is increasing in the state, farmers are now switching to other crops and are unwilling to grow sugarcane let alone expand their area of cultivation.
Read more: [Video] Maize takes centre stage as Bihar ramps up biofuel production
Explaining the disappointment of the farmers of the region, he said that farmers who have a stronghold on 40 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state are unhappy and that reflected in the 2024 general elections as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost many seats in the states.
The government is however working to solve these issues and to develop sugarcane varieties that give a higher yield with lower water intake with its ‘Panchamrit’ scheme that works to promote farming techniques to increase yield and educate the farmers.
This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.
Banner image: Spineless cactus farm at the IGFRI campus in Jhansi. Image by Shuchita Jha for Mongabay.