Sustainable Co-firing Technology – According to the Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy, 47 Thermal Power Plants have co-fired agricultural residue-based biomass pellets with coal.
The Ministry of Power amended the biomass policy dated 08.10.2021 on 16.06.2023, mandating 5% biomass co-firing in Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) beginning in fiscal year 2024-25. This requirement will rise to 7% in fiscal year 2025-26.
Sustainable Co-firing Technology
The Minister stated that the government has taken numerous initiatives to ensure the availability and procurement of biomass pellets for co-firing in TPPs, such as Finance Assistance Schemes issued by MNRE and CPCB for biomass pellet manufacturing units, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved ‘Biomass pellet manufacturing’ as an eligible activity under Priority Sector Lending (PSL), Procurement Provision of Biomass Category has been created on GeM portal, Revised Procurement Provision of Biomass Category has been created on the GeM portal, the Ministry of Power issued a revised model long-term contract for biomass supply, the vendor database has been finalized and listed on the SAMARTH website, awareness programs and advertising campaigns have been carried out, the provision of Udyam Aadhaar on the National Single Window System, a bankable model project report for biomass pellet plants, and so on.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Power has highlighted the various types of surplus agricultural residues such as stubble/straw/stalk/husk that are not being used as animal fodder for generating biomass pellets in a policy Addendum dated 03-05-2023.
This includes agro-residue from crops such as paddy, soya, arhar, gwar, cotton, gram, jawar, bajra, moong, mustard, sesame, til, maize, sunflower, jute, coffee, and so on, as well as groundnut shell, coconut shell, castor seed shell, and so on.
