SATAT

SATAT or Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation scheme is a dream project of Union Government of India where the Oil Manufacturing Companies will buy Compressed Biogas from the CBG Manufacturers at a fixed rate. This scheme not only gives opportunity to Biogas plant owners but also to the Indian govt who needs to depend on fossil fuel imports. Once SATAT takes off, which it is currently in some cities, the dependence on petroleum products will largely come down. This in turn helps India in culling down the global pressures from the oil rich countries.

As mentioned in the above video, CBG can be injected into the gas pipeline network which connects filling stations and even common households. This allows Indian citizens to use CBG instead of LPG at a lower price. CBG has more energy than LPG per kilogram and using CBG/CNG burners will give the user a whopping 30 - 40% savings per kilogram.

One of the drawback for CBG was the transportation and storage as this gas needs to be stored at a very high pressure which is not suitable for common households. But with CGD, PNG will become common and people will get the benefits of CBG as it will be injected into the pipeline. So one of the biggest drawback is eliminated by City Gas Distribution network,

One of the biggest myths of the modern era is that Compressed Biogas doesn't have enough energy to power a vehicle. People keep comparing the energy of petrol and diesel with CBG/CNG to show that it just cannot be enough!

Most of the websites give energy densities that is energy stored in a unit volume (for example MJ/m³ or k.cal/m³). Volume is the correct unit to calculate when we are dealing with a gas. Remember gas is compressible and to get the right idea we have to tell the density, pressure and temperature at that volume as well. Since people are paying as per the mass they should also know the energy per unit mass. This energy per unit mass is called the Specific Energy (MJ/kg or k.cal/kg).

So, for a fare comparison we only need to know the Specific Energy of the current fuels and CBG. The following table gives just that.

As we can see its a no brainer to go for CBG/CNG car when we consider the running costs and not to mention that CBG/CNG cars have lower maintenance cost as well! Also, the Specific Energy is higher in CBG than other 2 fuels, so why do people think that there is a loss of power?

If you are buying a factory fitted car, then one will not feel any difference while driving. Infact when the car runs out of CBG/CNG and switches to Petrol, the driver wont notice the difference in performance. But when you are converting the existing vehicle to CBG/CNG, then it might depend on the workmanship of that mechanic and the parts he is using.

This is the major reason why one should always go with reputed workshops for converting and also make sure that the Registration Certificate is updated. In any case you might feel some lack of performance in a converted car and that is because the engine (and its timings) was designed for a specific fuel. But the running cost and maintenance cost should be enough for one to consider in converting.