Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU)

What is it?
In recent times, especially since 2018, carbon capture and utilization has been a key aspect of guarding the environment. CCU(S) refers to CO2 capture, mostly from large point sources such as power plants or industrial facilities that use either fossil fuels or biomass as fuel. The captured CO2 can be used either as it is or after chemical modification, such as formation of various fuels like methane, methanol, ethanol, aviation fuel, gasoline or construction materials, chemicals, plastics, fertilizers, animal feed. When not being used on-site, the captured CO2 can be compressed and transported by pipeline, ship, rail or truck for various applications, or introduced into deep geological formations like depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers. Some of the advantages include decarbonisation, low – cost low – carbon hydrogen production, retrofitting into existing facilities.

How does it work?
While most common capture technologies are chemical absorption and physical separation, other separation technologies under development include membranes and looping cycles (like chemical looping, calcium looping). Though CCU equipped facilities today can capture around 90% CO2 from flue gas, higher rates are possible and will be required for net zero systems.

It also includes…
Two important subsets of CCU(S) include i. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) – harnessing CO2 from biomass directly used as such or converted into fuel, ii. Direct Air Capture – extracting CO2 directly from air at any location

Government’s role:
While developing policies for such CCU(S), governments majorly work for public funding, strategic signaling and cross – border collaboration.

The Indian status quo:
Several public sector oil and gas companies in India are adopting the CCUS approach, e.g. ONGC’s MoU with Equinor (Norway) dealing with CCU(S), ONGC and IOCL partnership for carbon capture at Koyali refinery and storage at Gandhar oil field. BPCL and HPCL also aim to incorporate CCU(S) technology. GAIL started a pilot project for CO2 fixing using microalgae at Uttar Pradesh.

IOCL has also started the first of its kind & Asia’s first 2G ethanol bio-Refinery at Panipat, Haryana using Praj’s proprietary Enfinity technology with rice straw as feedstock for the ethanol production.

GAIL and USA based LanzaTech have a strategic partnership to set up a CO2 capture and conversion project.

LanzaTech also secured a contract with Jakson Green to supply it’s advanced 4G ethanol technology to NTPC Ltd. at its Central India facility using second generation bioreactor to convert CO2 emissions and green hydrogen into ethanol

In February 2022, India announced two national centers of excellence in CCUS- i. at IIT Bombay and ii. at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR).

What more is needed?
In India, most initiatives are at nascent level. To this end, having a clear regulatory framework may be helpful. Also continuous technical improvement, active collaboration between stakeholders and optimal and transparent funding would be needed.

References:
1.https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage
2.https://www.eco-business.com/news/carbon-capture-technology-on-the-rise-in-indias-energy-transition/
3.https://youtu.be/vagL-x9a9yU?si=va2ZXl_mss9mTWJ4
4.https://www.gailonline.com/PressRelease18072023.html
5.https://www.knowesg.com/tech/lanzatech-turns-co2-into-ethanol-with-ntpc-in-india-13082024#:~:text=LanzaTech%20will%20supply%20technology%20to,tonnes%20of%20CO2%20each%20year

Sulagna Roy

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