Report: Is CCS an option for India?

A new report from researchers at the Universities of Surrey and Edinburgh looks at whether carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies could help India cut down its carbon dioxide emissions, and how they could be developed and deployed.

Despite the potential for CCS technologies, coal is expected to remain the dominant energy source in India through at least 2050, the report said, although India is increasing energy contributions from renewables such as solar and wind (see India connects first solar power plant).

CCS technologies could still play a role, starting with India’s power plants. For example, the report suggests a typical CCS project at a coal-burning power could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 90 percent.

But CCS technologies currently aren’t a priority for the Indian government, according to the study’s lead author Rudra Kapila, with the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage.

Industry stakeholders that were surveyed indicated that the governments of developed countries should contribute initial financing to CCS projects in India through international finance institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank.

"Our research suggests that developed countries will need to take the lead on demonstrating CCS at commercial scale before any commercial-scale CCS projects can be considered in India,” said Kapila, in a news release, adding that an appropriate international framework for CCS development and deployment is also needed.

The report indicates India is currently building a fleet of coal-powered ultra mega power plants. Plants that aren’t built with CCS-ready technology could be retrofitted with it to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The World Bank has said about 80 percent of the electricity supplied to homes, farms and factories in India comes from coal-fired generation plants, one-third of which are old, inefficient, and emit harmful gases into the atmosphere. The bank said if all of these were to be modernized it would reduce emissions by 10 million to 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year (see Inside cleantech India: Kal, Aaj aur Kal!).

In April, the UK government unveiled new regulations that ban the commissioning of coal-fired plants unless they incorporate CCS technologies (see UK: No new coal without CCS).

Canada has passed a similar measure that takes effect in 2012 (see Canada to require carbon capture and storage by 2012).

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Metabolix, ADM to open new bioplastics factory
• Rockwool nears construction on Indian insulation factory
• Two Israeli wastewater firms to locate in Michigan
• Al Gore: Super grid is critical to combating the climate crisis
• A quest for CO2 and O2 optimal management with biofuel from algae

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed