Today is World Recycling Day (18th Mar) India produces approx 750MMTPA biomass (agri waste and livestock waste) from which 60MMTPA biogas (Compressed Bio Gas) can be produced by waste recycling. The market is projected to grow at a CAGR of ~20.89% from 2026 to 2032, reaching roughly USD 4.98 billion. With National Bioenergy Programme & Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) mandate for transportation sector's CBG blending, gives promise to take India into a global leader of CBG Overview of the production process: The core of the biogas plant consists of two digesters. Both of them are equipped with membrane gasometers for the storage of the biogas produced. In the primary digester, the temperature is maintained constant at 47 °C in order to establish a favourable environment for the bacteria involved in the degradation of the raw material. In the secondary digester, the temperature drops to 42 °C, creating a better condition for methanogenic bacteria and ensuring a higher methane yield. The biogas produced saturated in water, contains methane and carbon dioxide in a ratio of 60/40 on a volume basis. Then Biogas upgrading is done - the operation in which the methane content of raw biogas coming from the production phase (desulfurized and dried) is raised to meet the quality requirements for final utilization. This process is based on the selectivity of a membrane with respect to the diffusions of methane and carbon dioxide (membrane module). In fact raw biogas coming from the secondary digester goes into the primary one, from which is sent to a chiller, where it is cooled and the condensed water is removed. Then, the dried biogas is delivered by a blower to the Combined Heat & Power (CHP) unit, where it is used as fuel in a gas spark ignition engine for both power and heat generation. As insurance professional what are the Hazards in the biogas industry that we should care about? a)Flash fire, fireball, jet fire (damage distance is up to 25m in general), b)Vapour Cloud Explosion or VCE (damage distance is around 100m), Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion or BLEVE (can be more than 100m), c)Toxic gas release (H2S of around 80ppm by vol). Also there exist situations in which the desulfurization process is carried out in a unit different from the digester, for instance, a scrubbing column and in this case H2S can reach around 2000ppm by vol raising toxic hazard Value at risk: For a 15TPD plant it's around ₹350mn For a 20+TPD plant it's around ₹500mn For a 100TPD plant (e.g HPCL's Badaun plant) its around ₹1300Mn+ Simple policies that can be offered: Fire & Allied perils (with associated LOP as needed) Machinery Breakdown Industrial All Risk Public Liability Act CGL Disclaimer about the list of Hazards stated above: The points discussed are school level theoretical knowledge. For all practical purpose we don't consider any FLEXA hazard at all. Moreso this is the month of Mar and 1st Apr account renewal
