This unit will also give employment to 1,000 youth, said Bhagwant Mann. (File)
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann along with Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday inaugurated the country's largest bio energy plant constructed at a cost of Rs 230 crore here.
Addressing the gathering, the chief minister said this step will go a long way in wiping out the menace of paddy straw burning from the state.
Germany-based Verbio Group's Indian subsidiary has set up the plant.
This is the largest biofuel (biomethane/bio-CNG) production unit in India with 33 TPD (tonnes per day) capacity of compressed biogas, said Mr Mann.
The annual straw consumption in this unit will be 1.30 lakh tonnes, he said, adding that it will help in solving the problem of paddy straw burning.
Set up over 20 acres of land, this unit will contribute to an annual reduction of 1.50 lakh metric tonnes of pollutants and 20,000 MT of fly ash currently produced due to paddy straw burning, said an official release quoting Bhagwant Mann.
This unit will also give employment to 1,000 youth, he said, adding the acreage of soil enriched from biomanure will be 2,150 acres.
He said Verbio group has evinced keen interest in setting up more such plants in the state.
With the intense cropping pattern of wheat and paddy, Punjab is facing the problem of disposal of crop residues particularly the paddy straw which have no other usage, he said.
About 18 million tonnes of stubble is generated every year but only 5 MT is being used in biomass power plants, industrial boilers and the plywood industry, he said.
Rest of 13 MT is being burnt by farmers in the fields as no other safe disposal techniques are available, he added.
In Punjab, paddy cultivation is done over 75 lakh acres. Out of this, farmers having 37 lakh acres do not burn paddy straw.
Some major steps need to be taken to ensure the management of the remaining 38 lakh acres, he added.
He said that two more projects of total capacity of 14.25 tonnes of compressed biogas per day are likely to be completed in 2022-23.
Mr Mann said there is a huge potential of CBG projects based on agro-waste in Punjab.
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