India to Set Up Two Carbon Capture and Utilisation Centres

India will set up two national centres of excellence (CoEs) in ‘carbon capture and utilization’ (CCU) which will help the country reach its emission mitigation goal under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

These two centres will come up at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru. The CCU along with India’s forest carbon sequestration plan will accelerate achieving the country’s long-term climate goal of reaching ‘net zero’ emission by 2070.

“These multi-disciplinary centres will facilitate capturing and mapping of current R&D and innovation activities in the domain and also develop networks of researchers, industries and stakeholders with coordination and synergy between partnering groups and organizations,” said an official of the science & technology ministry which has been helping IIT Bombay and JNCASR for setting up CoEs.

He said these centres along with India’s ‘Mission Innovation’ plan on clean energy would be two key scientific interventions to take India on road to decarbonisation of its economy for sustainable development.

The CCU centre at IIT Bombay will work on the conversion of captured carbon dioxide to chemicals, CO2 transport, compression and utilization, as well as on enhanced hydrocarbon recovery as co-benefit pathways. It will also develop and demonstrate efficient CO2 capture from representative flue gas from the effluents of power plant and biogas plant.

The National Centre in Carbon Capture and Utilization (NCCCU) at JNCASR, Bengaluru will aim to develop and demonstrate carbon capture and conversion by developing relevant materials and methodologies. These processes will be scaled up to pilot scale mode to produce hydrocarbons, olefins and other value-added chemicals and fuels.

“It will also work on reaching technology readiness level on par with the commercial requirement at the industry level. The centre will promote the CCU research, provide training and consultancy and translate its research excellence into solutions with global economic and social impact,” said the ministry in a statement.

It said, “The Centres will help bring together the country’s collective strength and assist in the development of an appropriate and feasible R&D and innovation roadmap. The Centres will also keep watch on international trends and suggest possible collaborative endeavours.”