SATAT
Also called: Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation · Topic: Energy Resources of India: Conventional and Non-conventional · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, launched in October 2018. It promotes compressed biogas (CBG), which is biogas cleaned and packed under pressure so it can be sold as fuel for vehicles and industries. Under SATAT, oil companies give developers Letters of Intent. A Letter of Intent is a promise to buy the gas that a new plant will produce, and it gives the developer a sure buyer before the plant is built. The target was 5,000 CBG plants producing 15 million tonnes a year by 2023-24. These plants would make fuel from farm waste, cattle dung and city garbage. This cuts fuel imports and keeps waste out of landfills and fields.
Example
GAIL's CBG plant at Haralakunte in Bengaluru, Karnataka, turns municipal solid waste (city garbage) into compressed biogas. Delivery has lagged far behind the deals. By 31 October 2022, oil companies had signed 3,694 Letters of Intent, but only 38 plants had been commissioned (finished and started up).
Don't confuse with
- GOBARdhan (2018): this scheme supports biogas from cattle dung and farm waste at the village level, mainly for local use and cleaner villages. SATAT is about selling CBG as a fuel on the market.
- Ethanol blending: this mixes ethanol, a liquid fuel made from sugarcane or grains, into petrol under the National Policy on Biofuels (2018). SATAT deals with a gas, not a liquid.