NITI Aayog releases study report on ‘Carbon Capture to achieve net zero emission target by 2070

Tags: Reports Environment

National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has released a report titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’ on 29 November 2022. 

The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to meet the Net Zero target of India by 2070. The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.

India’s  has committed  through its updated nationally determined contributions (NDC)  to achieve 50% of its total installed capacity from non-fossil-based energy sources, 45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and taking steps towards achieving Net Zero by 2070,

It means India has to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. However the recent study suggests that India’s reliance on fossil fuel especially coal for power generation is likely to increase rather than reduce. 

According to the Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery, the Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) can enable the production of clean products while still utilizing our rich endowments of coal.

Possible benefits of the CCUS

The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials (concrete and aggregates), chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics).

CCUS projects will also lead to a significant employment generation. It estimates that about 750 Million tonnes per annum of carbon capture by 2050 can create employment opportunities of about 8-10 million on full time equivalent (FTE) basis in a phased manner

Carbon Capture and Storage and Utilisation 

Carbon Capture and Storage is the process of capturing the carbon dioxide which is released due to industrial activities/power generation using fossil fuels, before it is released in the atmosphere. 

• The captured carbon- dioxide can be used to make commercially marketable products. This is called Capture Storage and Utilisation (CCSU). Normally it is used in enhanced oil extraction where carbon dioxide is injected in oil fields to increase their extraction efficiency.
• The first large-scale CCSU project began operating at Sleipnerin Norway in 1996.

Other Initiatives of the government in the field of CCSU

The Government of India is setting up two National Centres of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilisation for long-term research, design development, collaborative and capacity-building hubs for state-of-the-art research and application-oriented initiatives in the field of Carbon capture.

The two centres are: 

• National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilisation (NCoE-CCU) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay,
• ational Centre in Carbon Capture and Utilisation (NCCCU) at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru .