Science and Technology › Energy technology

Hydrogen and bioenergy

Fuel cells, ethanol blending and its feedstock, biogas, and aviation fuel made from biomass. Prelims has asked about the raw materials allowed under the National Policy on Biofuels and how green hydrogen is produced.

Foundation note: The colours of hydrogen

UPSC has asked

Prelims 2025: battery electric and fuel cell vehicles as alternative powertrains
Prelims 2023: uses of green hydrogen as fuel and in fuel cells
Prelims 2020: raw materials allowed under the National Policy on Biofuels

Showing 1 of 1 article, those that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026.Show all

Biofuels

GOBARdhan

Prelims and Mains

LeadGOBARdhan becomes the National Circular Bioenergy SchemeAugust 2026

Why in news

The Cabinet on 6 August 2026 approved GOBARdhan as the National Circular Bioenergy Scheme, to run to 2035 to 2036. It brings the compressed biogas programmes of four ministries under one, and requires city gas distributors to blend compressed biogas into the gas they sell.

Background

Biogas forms when organic waste decays without air; it is mostly methane and carbon dioxide.
Compressed biogas (CBG) is biogas purified to a high methane content and compressed, so that it can be used like natural gas.

GOBARdhan, Galvanizing Organic Bio Agro Resources Dhan, began in 2018 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen), to turn cattle dung and farm waste into biogas and manure.
SATAT, Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation, is the 2018 scheme under which oil companies buy CBG from private plants; more than 200 plants run under it.

What the scheme does

It places all CBG programmes under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
City gas distributors must blend CBG into compressed natural gas for vehicles and piped gas for homes, starting at 3 per cent and rising to 5 per cent from 2028 to 2029.
An administered price is fixed for at least ten years, so that a plant is sure of its buyer and its revenue.

It adds capital subsidies and pipeline support, and aims at an almost tenfold rise in CBG output.

Why it matters

Energy security: every unit of CBG blended is natural gas that India does not import.
Waste: the feedstocks are crop residue, cattle dung, press mud from sugar mills and municipal organic waste.

Air: crop residue sold to a plant is residue that is not burnt in the field.
Soil: the slurry left after digestion is an organic manure.

The hard part

A gas made from waste is worth making only if somebody must buy it at a price that covers the plant; the blending mandate and the administered price answer that.

The next constraint is feedstock: residue is available in a short window after harvest, and must be collected, stored and carried to the plant.

The way forward

Build feedstock supply chains with farmer groups, with storage near the plants.
Develop a market for the manure, which decides whether a plant earns enough.
Link plants to city gas pipelines, so that the gas does not have to travel by road.

Prelims facts

GOBARdhan began in 2018 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen).
The scheme is now run by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
The blending duty falls on city gas distributors, 3 per cent rising to 5 per cent.
SATAT concerns compressed biogas, not ethanol.

Open the lead on its own page

GOBARdhan, Galvanizing Organic Bio Agro Resources Dhan, began in 2018 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) as a programme for turning cattle dung and farm waste into biogas and manure, and supply was first sought through SATAT, Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation, the 2018 scheme under which oil companies buy compressed biogas from private plants, which left more than 200 plants running. A gas made from waste is only worth making if somebody is obliged to buy it at a price that covers the plant, and the 2026 scheme arranges both: a blending mandate on city gas distributors and an administered price for at least ten years, under one ministry. Every unit blended is natural gas India does not import, which is the energy security argument.

What changed

7 Aug 2026LeadGOBARdhan becomes the National Circular Bioenergy Scheme

E20: Petrol blended with 20 per cent anhydrous ethanol by volume. The number is the ethanol share, so E20 (20 per cent) is a stronger blend than E10 (10 per cent).

Anaerobic digestion: The breakdown of organic matter by bacteria in the absence of oxygen, which gives off biogas.

Press mud: The solid residue left behind when sugarcane juice is filtered in a sugar mill.

second generation ethanol: Ethanol made from non-food biomass such as crop stubble or bagasse, by breaking down cellulose, so it does not compete with the food plate.

carburettor: An older fuel mixing device that cannot sense the extra oxygen ethanol brings and adjust for it, so the engine runs lean, with too little fuel for the air it draws in.

Green hydrogen: Hydrogen made by splitting water with electricity from renewable sources, so the making of it releases no carbon dioxide, unlike hydrogen reformed from natural gas.

Flex fuel vehicle: A vehicle that runs on any ethanol petrol blend from E20 to E100.