Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS): An Imperative to Reach Net Zero Emission

The International Energy Agency (IEA) defines Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) as a group of technologies for capturing of CO2 from large and stationary CO2 emitting sources, such as fossil fuel based power plants and other industries.

CCUS’ Role in Decarbonisation

CCUS can contribute to decarbonization and transition to clean energy systems in following ways:

• Hard-to-abate Sectors: CCUS offers the only known technology for the decarbonization of hard-to-electrify CO2 intensive sectors such as steel, cement, oil & gas, petrochemicals & chemicals, and fertilizers.
• Low Carbon Hydrogen Economy: CCUS is expected to play a major role in enabling the hydrogen economy in India, through the production of blue hydrogen based on the utilization of our rich endowments of coal.
• Removal of CO2 Stock from the Atmosphere: The race towards net zero and containing global temperature within 1.5 degrees from pre-industrial levels is not possible without the removal of excess CO2 from the atmosphere through Direct Air Capture (DAC).
• Sustenance of Existing Emitters: Existing thermal power plants and industrial plants (such as steel and cement production facilities) can be retrofitted with CO2 capture infrastructure.

Challenges

Carbon Capture Costs

• Both capital cost and cash cost vary widely across industries and sectors.
• CO2 capture cost is the lowest for the gasification process, as carbon capture is already integrated within the process. The capture costs for other production processes like SMR-based H2 production, iron & steel, cement, etc. are hence higher.
• Carbon capture costs are amongst the highest for coal-based power plants, due to the low concentration of CO2 in the power plant flue gas stream.

Carbon Storage

• For effective CCUS adoption at scale, apart from the conversion of CO2 to useful value-added products, there needs to be a clear strategy and pathway for the disposition of the captured CO2 through permanent geological storage.
• Save any miraculous technological innovation at the commercial scale for carbon abatement technologies, the only commercial large-scale (giga tonne scale) CO2 disposition option is geological sequestration.

Financing CCUS Projects

• Financing can be quite challenging in a developing country like India, even with incentive and credits-based policy support.

Government Initiatives

To promote CCUS technologies in India, government of India has recently established two National Centres of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization with support from the Department of Science & Technology. These two Centres are:

1. National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilization (NCoE-CCU) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai
2. The National Centre in Carbon Capture and Utilization (NCCCU) at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru.