Barriers to biogas dissemination in India: A review

Highlights: • Barriers hindering biogas dissemination in urban and rural biogas systems are identified. • Decomposition and logical problem analysis tools are used for assessment. • Key areas of improvements in existing policies are identified. - Abstract: Biogas has emerged as a promising renewable technology to convert agricultural, animal, industrial and municipal wastes into energy. Biogas development can be integrated with strategies to improve sanitation as well as reduce indoor air pollution and greenhouse gases. Currently, the total biogas production in India is 2.07 billion m³/year. This is quite low compared to its potential, which is estimated to be in the range of 29–48 billion m³/year. Hence, this study aims to identify both technical and non-technological barriers impending biogas dissemination in India. Biogas dissemination is affected by various waste, renewable energy, and urban policies. Barriers were therefore identified individually for rural and urban biogas systems existing in India using decomposition analysis. The results show that type and importance of barriers vary strongly between biogas systems due to the difference in technology maturity, feedstock availability and quality, supply chain, awareness level and policy support.