India, March 20 -- Less than 1% coal replaced by biomass co-firing in Delhi-NCR, intense demand and supply gap, finds study by CSE

A February 2023 notification by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has given coal-based thermal power plants (TPP) more wriggle room to delay meeting directives on burning agro-residue for co-firing.

The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Captal Region and Adjoining Areas and the Union Ministry of Power (MoP) mandated the use of agriculture residues along with coal in these plants in September and October 2021, repectively.

Biomass pellets are a densified form of farm stubble that are processed for combustion in the TPP boilers along with coal for power gen...