Does the path to net-zero carbon emissions in India by 2070 run through cow dung?

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:19]Hey, I'm Kushal Mittal, and there's a load of quite literally, behind me. Well, it's cow It's cow dung, and I am at the poop club plant run by Banas Dairy, where this cow dung is being made into gas that's going to go into CNG auto-rickshaws. This cow dung is being made into compressed biomethane gas or compressed biogas, and this is done on an industrialized scale.

[00:00:51]In India, we have always used cow dung to power, you know, our chulhas at home in villages. And right now, we're doing this in an industrialized scale here in a collaborative project between Banas Dairy, which is the largest dairy union in Gujarat, uh the NDDB, the National Dairy Development Board, and Suzuki R&D India, Suzuki uh R- RDI, SRDI. And I'll be going around this plant to see how this process works. It's a very fascinating place. And I Maybe I should not have worn white today, but let's go around the plant, and I'll show you how this plant is actually um you know, making waste into energy and also fertilizer.

[00:01:56]From the digester, the raw gas is stored in that balloon behind me. And there are two balloons, there's one inside that as well. But the raw gas is only about 45% methane. You cannot run a vehicle on raw gas. You might be able to use raw biogas for cooking and other applications, but not to run a vehicle.

[00:02:21]To run a vehicle, you need to have methane at at least 95% purity. And these yellow lines you see behind me, they take the gas to the purification plant behind me, where impurities such as moisture, carbon dioxide, and crucially hydrogen sulfide, H2S, if you remember your chemistry from high school, that is the stuff that smells like raw eggs.

[00:02:47]That has to be removed because hydrogen sulfide is a corrosive gas. It can damage car engines, and it's also very very very smelly, as I just said. So, the hydrogen sulfide has to be removed.

[00:03:00]And one reason many smaller biogas haven't worked biogas plants haven't worked is because of hydrogen sulfide.

[00:03:07]So, there's a proper hydrogen sulfide waste removal. In fact, I was told earlier that the hydrogen sulfide can also be separated. So, the hydrogen from the hydrogen sulfide can be separated and sold as green hydrogen. Uh the sulfur can be sold for other industrial processes like vulcanizing rubber. And this balloon behind me, that is where the purified gas after the purification is kept before it is sold at the CBG dispensing station right outside this plant.

[00:04:03]>> The production of biogas goes a long way in helping India achieve her target of net zero carbon emissions by [music] 2070.

[00:04:15]But a majority of the revenues of this plant come from the sale of organic fertilizer.

[00:04:24]The remaining solid residue is mixed with phosphate and sold as high carbon organic fertilizer that helps in restoring soil health across the country.

[00:04:37]Some of the slurry water is also sold to the farmers as organic water. In fact, the rest of the slurry water is recycled in the plant itself. So, the plant doesn't actually draw water in this very dry region of the country.

[00:04:59]So, this is Ijjubhai. He runs this cowshed near Gokul plant of bio-CNG that we just saw.

[00:05:30]Okay.

[00:05:32]I've been sitting here for a day.

[00:05:35]Okay.

[00:05:49]Uh-huh. So do we start the video?

[00:05:53]What do we do?

[00:05:56]What do we What do we What do we What do we What do we >> [music] >> What do we What do we