CCUS Policy Framework and its Deployment

• 30 Nov 2022

For Prelims: CCUS Technologies, Paris Agreement.

For Mains: CCUS Technologies, Applications, Net Zero emissions by 2050, Environment Degradation, Conservation.

Why in News?

Recently, NITI Aayog has released a study report, titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’.

• The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors.

What are the Key Highlights of the Report?

• About:
  • 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, chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.
  • CCUS projects will also lead to a significant employment generation. It estimates that about 750 mtpa of carbon capture by 2050 can create employment opportunities of about 8-10 million on full time equivalent (FTE) basis in a phased manner.
• Suggestions:
  • Broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.
  • As, India has updated its NDC targets for achieving 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, the role of CCUS becomes important as reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to abate sectors.
  • India’s dependency on fossil-based Energy Resources is likely to continue in future, hence CCUS policy in Indian Context is needed.

What is Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage?

• CCUS encompasses methods and technologies to remove CO₂ from the flue gas and from the atmosphere, followed by recycling the CO₂ for utilization and determining safe and permanent storage options.
• CO₂ captured using CCUS technologies is converted into fuel (methane and methanol), refrigerants and building materials.
• CCUS is considered an important tool to help countries halve their emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.
  • These goals are crucial to meet the Paris Agreement targets for restricting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (°C), and preferable to 1.5°C, over pre-industrial levels.

What are Applications of CCUS?

• Mitigating Climate Change: Despite the adoption of alternative energy sources and energy efficient systems to reduce the rate of CO2 emissions, the cumulative amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere needs to be reduced to limit the detrimental impacts of climate change.
• Agriculture: Capturing CO₂ from biogenic sources such as plants and soil to boost crop growth in a greenhouse could work.
• Industrial Use: Combining CO₂ with steel slag - an industrial byproduct of the steel manufacturing process — to make construction materials compatible with the Paris Agreement goals.
• Enhanced Oil Recovery: CCU is already making inroads into India. For instance, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation signed a MoU with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) by injecting CO₂.

What are the Challenges associated with CCUS?

• Expensive: Carbon capture involves the development of sorbents that can effectively bind to the CO2 present in flue gas or the atmosphere, which is expensive.
• Lesser Demand for Recycled CO₂: Converting CO₂ into useful chemicals of commercial importance, or utilizing CO₂ for oil extraction or remediation of alkaline industrial wastes, would add economic value to this greenhouse gas.
  • However, the demand for CO₂ is limited compared to the vast amount of CO₂ that needs to be removed from the atmosphere, to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of climate change.

Way Forward

• Any viable system for storing carbon must be effective and cost competitive, stable as long-term storage, and environmentally benign.
• Countries should narrow down on the handful of technologies that show more promise and channel investment in them.
• Replacing a conventional fuel with a synthetic fuel like methanol produced via CCU is likely to be a successful mitigation strategy only if clean energy is used to capture CO₂ and convert it into synthetic fuel.

Source: TH