The Department of Science and Technology (DST) unveiled five Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) testbeds in the cement sector, forming a first-of-its-kind research and innovation cluster to combat industrial carbon emissions.

Significance of the testbeds

• This is a significant step towards India’s Climate Action for fostering National Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets and to achieve net zero decarbonisation pathways for industry transition.

• Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) holds significant importance in hard-to-abate sectors like cement, steel, power, oil & natural gas, chemicals & fertilizers in reducing emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from industrial processes and converting it to value add products such as synthetic fuels, urea, soda, ash, chemicals or concrete aggregates. 

• CCU provides a feasible pathway for these tough to decarbonise industries to lower their carbon footprint and move towards achieving Net Zero goals while continuing their operations efficiently. 

• New technologies to decarbonise emission intensity of the cement sector would play a key role in achieving national Net Zero targets.

Implementation

• DST has approved setting up of five CCU testbeds for translational R&D, to be set up in academia-industry collaboration under this significant initiative in public-private partnership (PPP) mode, engaging with premier research laboratories as knowledge partners and top cement companies as the industry partner.

• The five testbeds are not just academic experiments. They are collaborative industrial pilot projects bringing together India’s top research institutions and leading cement manufacturers under a unique PPP model. Each testbed addresses a different facet of CCU, from cutting-edge catalysis to vacuum-based gas separation.

The five testbeds:

i) The National Council for Cement and Building Materials in Ballabhgarh, Haryana, in partnership with JK Cement, is developing a system to capture two tonnes of CO₂ daily through oxygen-enhanced calcination, converting it into lightweight concrete blocks and olefins. 

ii) IIT Kanpur and JSW Cement are pioneering carbon-negative mineralisation technology that essentially transforms CO₂ into stable mineral forms, offering potential for permanent carbon storage.

iii) IIT Bombay collaborates with Dalmia Cement for developing a catalyst-driven CO₂ capture process. This project will be installed at an actual cement plant.

iv) CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, along with IIT Tirupati, IISc Bangalore and JSW Cement, is working on vacuum swing adsorption technology to separate CO₂ from kiln emissions for reuse in building materials. 

v) The fifth testbed, led by IIT Madras, BITS Pilani Goa and Ultratech Cement, focuses on developing comprehensive carbon reduction strategies that integrate multiple innovative approaches.

• The outcomes of this innovative initiative will not only showcase the pathways of decarbonisation towards Net Zero goals through the CCU route in cement sector, but should also be a critical confidence building measure for potential stakeholders to uptake the deployed CCU technology for further scale up and commercialisation.

Decarbonisation challenge for India

• India’s per capita CO₂ emissions are about 1.9 tonnes per annum, which is less than 40 per cent of the global average and about one-fourth of that of China. However, with rapid economic growth, infrastructure and industrial development, as well as a growing population, the total CO₂ emissions is expected to cross 4 gigatonne per annum (gtpa) by the year 2030.

• The sectoral break-up of the CO₂ emissions reveals that while renewable energy is making great strides in India, it can theoretically contribute at most 30 per cent of the desired decarbonisation by replacing fossil fuel-based power generation.

• The decarbonisation challenge for India is to identify scalable and economically sustainable solutions for the decarbonisation of sectors that contribute to 70 per cent of emissions. 

• India’s power and industrial sectors contributed around 1,600 mtpa of CO₂ emissions (around 60 per cent) out of the total emissions of 2,600 mtpa in 2020.

• The remaining 40 per cent of emissions come from distributed point emissions sources like agriculture, transport, and buildings which are not amenable for CCUS.

• Fuelled by economic growth across sectors as well as rapid urbanisation, emissions from these sectors are expected to increase to nearly 2,300 mtpa by the year 2030, thus making their capture and abatement critical.

• CCUS has an important and critical role to play, especially for India to accomplish Net Zero by 2070.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)