Petronet LNG (PLNG), India's largest player in the LNG sector, plans to establish 4-5 compressed biogas stations. The initiative has already been incorporated into the company's capex plan, which stands at approximately Rs 1,700 crore in FY24.

In addition to that, it has already set up four LNG stations in conjunction with IndianOil, the company's top leadership informed investors during a conference call.

Compressed biogas (CBG) is a purified and compressed form of biogas. It is produced through the anaerobic decomposition of various waste and biomass sources, such as agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, spent wash of distilleries, sewage water, municipal solid waste (MSW), and biodegradable fractions of industrial waste. CBG is a versatile green fuel that can be used in the automotive, industrial, and commercial sectors. 

As per industry experts, CBG can be established at centres where biogas is produced, making it accessible even in remote areas of the country, unlike CNG, which is only available in certain city pockets. The average investment required by entrepreneurs to set up a CBG plant is between Rs 10 and 50 crore, while the cost of conversion from CNG to CBG for each vehicle is estimated to be around Rs 50,000 to 60,000. 

PLNG, India's biggest player in importing, storing, and regasifying LNG, operates on a business model that generates revenue by charging regasification margins on imported LNG. 

The development will add to India's push towards opting for environmentally cleaner automotive fuels. The government had taken up an initiative called "Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT), to extract economic value from bio-mass waste in the form of Compressed Bio Gas and bio-manure.