Talks on CCUS policy in advanced stages: Dastur Energy CEO Atanu Mukherjee

IOCL working on capturing carbon dioxide, ONGC identifying storage locations

The government is in advanced stages of formulating a policy framework for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), Atanu Mukherjee, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of US-based Dastur Energy told Business Standard.

“There are all indications that it is moving forward, in terms of some kind of a policy instrument to support CCUS,” Mukherjee said.

The policy may be structured like a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, similar to the ones announced by the Centre for green hydrogen in June 2023, and coal gasification last month.

CCUS involves the capture of CO2 from large point sources, including power generation or industrial facilities that use either fossil fuels or biomass for fuel, and its processing into value-added products. These include green urea, building materials such as concrete, and chemicals like ethanol and methanol.
 

An energy technology company, Dastur Energy's intellectual assets and expertise span clean energy systems, industrial decarbonisation, carbon dioxide conversion technologies, gas conditioning & waste gas processing, hydrogen and clean fuels as well as gasification technologies, among others.

In November, 2023, the company presented a detailed study on CCUS, which was commissioned by the Niti Aayog.

A national policy will help companies in the steel, cement and power sectors, Mukherjee said.

Increasing global scrutiny on the country's emission reduction policy and a need to effectively remove carbon have all coalesced to make CCUS an attractive solution for Indian policymakers. 

Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry officials said CCUS will be crucial for meeting key targets, including reduction in projected carbon emission by one billion tonnes by 2030. It will also be important to cut down the carbon intensity of the economy by 45 per cent by 2030 and remove half of all carbon emissions by 2050. The country is the third largest emitter of CO2 after China and the US.

According to government figures, it emits close to 2.65 GT of CO2 annually, which is approximately 7 per cent of the world’s total CO2 emissions in 2019.

India has always been cautious to point out this is very minimal as compared to China and the United States, which are responsible for 28 per cent and 15 per cent of all emissions, respectively.

According to the oil ministry, the energy sector contributes to 68.7 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, followed by agriculture (19.6 per cent), industrial processes (6 per cent), land-use change (3.8 per cent) and forestry (1.9 per cent).

A task force under the ministry brought out the draft ‘2030 Roadmap for CCUS’ in 2022. It aims to develop and scale up CCUS techniques.

While there are a large number of working models for CCUS, it primarily involves the capture of CO2 from large point sources, including power generation or industrial facilities that use either fossil fuels or biomass for fuel.

As a result, the government has identified oilfields belonging to Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) for prospective CCUS projects, sources said.

It plans to transport — through pipeline — the CO2 captured from IOCL's refineries in Koyali, Gujarat and Digboi (Assam) to ONGC's Gandhar oilfield and Oil India's (OIL) Naharkatiya oilfield for enhanced oil recovery and sequestration.

With regards to carbon storage, state run-ONGC is analysing the vast amount of sub-surface data available with it, Mukherjee said.

“For storage, we need to understand the geological formations where CO2 can be injected. There is a wealth of information available from ONGC's basin maps. But these need to be detailed further to better understand where the injection points will be,” he said.