CCS TECHNIQUE POSES THE CHALLENGE OF ESTABLISHING ECONOMIC VALUE

CCS TECHNIQUE POSES THE CHALLENGE OF ESTABLISHING ECONOMIC VALUE

Subject: Environment

Context: Researchers from Universities of Sydney and Toronto have designed advanced electrolysers to convert captured carbon into building blocks of everyday materials. Some of it is used to produce ethylene.

Concept:

• CCS technology is designed to capture CO2 emissions from combustion of fossil fuels. It can absorb 85-95% of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere.

What is the process?

• The process starts with the capture of generated CO2 which undergoes a compression process to form a dense fluid. This eases the transport and storage of the captured CO2.
• The dense fluid is transported via pipelines and then injected into an underground storage facility.Captured CO2 can also be used as a raw material in other industrial processes such as bicarbonates.

Global progress on CCS

• Absent from INDCs: CCS is absent from intended nationally determined contributions(INDCs) of most countries.Thus, it is clear that national policies have not accepted CCS as a promising technology.
• Less CCUS Facilities: As of 2020, there were only 26 operational CCS facilities capturing around 36-40 million tonnes of carbon per year as cost on storage and transportation is one of the major bottlenecks for implementation of CCS.

Indian Government Initiative:

• National Programme on CO2 Research:India’s Department of Science and Technology has established a national programme on CO2 storage research.
• ACT Initiative: In August 2020, India made a call for proposals to support CCS research, development, pilot and demonstration projects.This is part of the accelerating CCS technologies (ACT) initiative.
• ACT is an international initiative of 16 countries to facilitate the emergence of CCUS via transnational funding of projects aimed at accelerating and maturing CCUS technology through targeted innovation and research activities.
• Industry Charter: In September 2020, an ‘Industry Charter’ for near zero emissions by 2050 was agreed to by six Indian companies that will explore different decarbonisation measures including carbon sequestration.